I’m going to get fired. Why that’s a good thing.
I’ve been kinda busy lately. And it hasn’t been with my day job. That’s a good sign.
I’m ridiculously conscientious. I’m honest, I follow the rules, I’m a hard worker, I won’t let my day job flounder, I care about what other people feel. I’m a nice guy. That’s probably at least partly why my day job has been so successful. Trouble is, I’ve recently refound (repossibled if you will) a passion I had let rest some time back (9 years to be exact). Nothing wrong with that except day jobs tend to pay the bills and passions tend to be hobbies. My case is no different. Hmm, so how is that going to work? Let me break the bad news now: It’s not.
Gotta pay the bills, right? Gotta live the dream, right?
Can’t they co-exist? Can’t we all just get along? Sure they can, if I just keep them in their corners, keep them doing what they’re supposed to doing. But I’m envisioning this line chart: one line is my day job over time on the X axis and interest and energy on the Y axis. The other line is my passion (let’s call it writing and get that out of the way). The day job line has been slowly descending over the past years and it’s taken a bit of a deeper plunge in these past few months as my writing line has gained momentum. Why has the writing line been on such a steep ascent? Because I, gasp, started writing again.
Going to get Fired from My Day Job
As my tax attorney often says, “So what’s the problem?” He tends to get right to the heart of the matter. But he’s right, what is the problem? Day job is day job and hobby is hobby.
It’s just the way it is. Welcome to reality, pal. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t quit your day job. “Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg!” (wha?)
The logical answer would be, for example, from my tax attorney, “Well, if you get the revenue stream increasing for the hobby to the point where it’s covering operating expenses, you could slowly decrease the emphasis on the day job.”
OK, so have the hobby earn some revenue. Great idea, I’ll get right on that. Reality check: it’s going to take time. And effort. And patience. Good, I have all of those. But what about in the meantime? I knock my day job, but I actually have a dream day job: I work for myself, I’m location independent, I set my own hours, you know the drill. But how can I make more time for my hobby and keep my successful day job, well, successful? It’s quite simple: I need to work smarter.
I need to work more effectively, efficiently, and I need help doing it. I also need to admit that openly. Oh, I just did. I can provide another excellent chart of how my “successful” business has just been cruising. Many might say that Cruising is Great! Just moving along, doing my thing, paying the bills. But cruising isn’t good enough. Something has to give. I’m going to run out of gas, make an unexpected detour or … get pulled over for working under the influence of passion.
How’s that going to happen? Balance. Priorities. Perseverance. How do you make it happen? How do you balance your passions and your obligations?
