This thread has been somewhat of an eyeopener for me - as I quite like flying and have been drawn to the rotary side of things simply because of the "land anywhere" capabilities ( don't jump on me for that one as I'm well aware of the rules against). The trouble with me is - that I "like" quite a lot of things and I feel what we are dealing with here is PASSION!
As others have said - if you find yourself NOT doing all the #hi##y stuff, hangar cleaning, long hours,low or no pay for years just for the chance to feel the disc lift off with YOU in control...... then it's not for you. I reckon the same could be said for other callings too for I never have understood folk who say they hate the job they do or just tolerate it for the sake of the money.
Suffice it to say that despite seeing normal retirement age fly passed a few years back I never did continue with my 2 hours tuition on the R22 but have accumulated 25,000 sitting on various horses and at least 17,000 of them on one particularly amazing beast - and I can honestly say that even though some of jobs around horses are deep in do-do - I used to go to my mare like a kid let out of school. And whereas most folk will let you get away with talking to a horse ( mine understood every word, of course!) a helicopter will only ever be a machine - even if a rather capricous one.