Hi everybody, I hope you’ve had a great weekend!
If you don’t know, I’ve been participating in Camp NaNoWrimo! For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s basically a month long online “camp” where you have a goal for yourself to complete by the end of the month. For example, the typical goal that campers set is writing 50,000 words during the month. I set that as my goal, seeing as this is my first time participating and I think 50,000 words is a good start for the project I’m currently working on.
Anyways, if you want to see more daily updates about my progress during Camp NaNoWrimo, check out my Instagram @eclectic_erin87. I’m doing a daily photo challenge for Camp NaNoWrimo, which has been fun!
Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get to the actual topic of this post.
A while back, I was wasting some time, browsing on Twitter (what a surprise), and came across this Tweet:
It led me to the ultimate question: Should we monetize our passions?
On one hand, there is a reason why the saying “Do what you love” exists. When you work in a career that you love and you’re passionate about, it can feel as if you’re not slaving away at a job. It’ll make you want to work hard, because you care about what it is you are doing, and as someone who has worked many jobs which I have hated, it can be good for your mental health. On the other hand, there’s always the concern that by turning your passion into an income source, you will lose the love for it, and it becomes another chore, another thing to check off of the “To-do” list. It might stress you out, instead of bringing the happiness and satisfaction it used to, to the point it might start to affect your mental health negatively instead of in a positive manner.
In this day and age though, side hustles have become more common, or at least are talked about more so than before. By having your passion as a side hustle instead of your main source of income, it can keep you from experiencing that burnout… right?
Or is tying any monetary value to that passion going to corrupt it instantly? Instead of doing something with the mindset of “I do this because I love this” it can just as easily change to the mindset of “If I don’t do this, I won’t make any money, and then what’s the point of doing it?”
That last question is the scariest part. For me personally, I’ve noticed lately that I’ve been having a harder time relaxing and doing things to unwind and enjoy them, because in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “Well, if you don’t keep being productive, how are you ever going to make more money, and do better for yourself?” Especially with the rise of social media and the ability to so easily see what everyone is doing and up to, it’s more likely you’ll hear about all the different things people are doing, whether it’s a side hustle, or volunteering, or traveling.
Another point I want to address with this post is that sometimes, the best way to handle a feeling of burnout with your career is to make a change. This can be as simple as learning a new skill to work in a different field of your current career, or as drastic as changing careers completely. One statement that any lecturer or guest speaker for my college classes always repeated was how rare it is to stick with the same company, or in the same job field, or even in the same career in comparison to before. As they say, the spice of life is spontaneity, and what’s more spontaneous that making changes in your career?
In other words, don’t let fear rule your choices in life. If you are feeling stuck in your career, make changes as big or as small as you like. If you want to pursue one of your passions as a side hustle or even your main source of income, then go for it! As long as you have a solid plan, and are able to financially support yourself, then why not? Because you might fail? Failure is a part of life, and if you don’t try in the first place, then you definitely won’t succeed.
That’s my mini ramble for today, NaNoWrimo is taking a lot of my writing focus, so my blog posts this month might be a little shorter. I hope you still enjoy them though!
Thank you for reading, and I will see you in the next post!
-Erin 🙂
Twitter: @ENordhof
Prose: https://theprose.com/ennord
Instagram: @eclectic_erin87
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/eclecticerin87/
Eclectic Erin 