New year, new me ey? I want to give you another angle on ditch your job and follow your dreams idea. And this is coming from a guy who used to do my passion for a living and have reworked my idea about it.

If you need a soundtrack for this post, I really recommend Honne.

Keep Your Expectations In Check⌗

I’ll go right out of the gate and drop the truthbombs now - if your side-hussle is not a full time gig and/or you’re not 100% honest with yourself - the mean rate of return from your hobby might not be the greatest. You can get a lot from your after-work gig, but it requires time. The more you put in, the more you get out - it’s basically like investing in stock market, you can’t get a million from $1 investment.

Well, you can, but it requires a lot of time and even more luck.

Not Every Hobby Has To Be A Hussle⌗

And this is where we get into the actual topic of this post - not every hobby has to be a hussle. We’re living in a world, in which, everywhere you go, you see an influencer, telling you how well they’re doing living off their passion. Everything is covered in hyperachiever-sauce with a hint of desperation. You shouldn’t feel pushed to make your knitting hobby into a full-time Etsy shop, or your after-work small code sessions into a career. The reason is simple - when you do cross the line and turn your hobby into work, the things change - suddenly, you have to manage an inventory or deal with customers or have a Sprint retrospective every week - and then you end up hating the job you’ve thought you’ll love.

Love The Job You Hate⌗

Most of us used to be in a place, where you’ve stared a new interest in something and then thought about making it a full time thing. The problem with this is that when the adrenaline and the dopamine kicks in, you get a massive tunnel vision - only the way you think about the goal is right and there’s no other way of getting to the finish line. When all of that starts to pick up the slack, there’s an overwhelming feeling of dread and annoyance with your current job. You’re starting to feel like it’s restricting you and not allowing you to really fly and do what you love.

Although the title of this paragraph might be a tad misleading/triggering for some, what I want to convey is that you need to give yourself some time. If you’re in a dead-end/really bad job, most of the time, it’s actually better to quit right out of the gate (and welcome to this post’s multiverse!) and either grab another part-time gig or YOLO it and just go with the newfound passion. But if you’re in a somewhat stable, warm and cosy gig, embrace it for a while. Take it from me, before, I’ve used to live from my passion, used to work 18hrs a day, balancing finishing uni, teaching full time and working full time. Now, I’ve found the path for me and I know how to get where I want to get. But it took me, literally, years to get to this point.

It’s OK To Pivot⌗

Okay, let’s say, right now, you’re knee deep in your journey, you know the angles, but then, the inevitable comes and you’re starting to feel like that’s not the thing. Maybe you’ve spent a month or a year on this hobby, but the next thing feels like it might actually be the one. What you should do then?

Well, do the same thing as the one when you’ve started the previous thing - explore. Once you’ll get a little deeper into the rabbit hole, you shouldn’t be afraid to pivot and change direction - always remember, that the things you’ve learned so far, allows for a better foundation of the next thing.

Follow Your Gut⌗

All of that above can be dismissed with just a right feeling and the perfect combination of perseverance and luck. If you feel like you’re ready to follow your passion, that it’s the greatest thing in the world, it feels right AND you’ll be able to survive before you’ll get to the top - do it! The older I get, the more I go with not even doing things safe but doing things smart - I want the things that I do to bring some value, I want to be proud of them and I really don’t want to restrict my growth in other avenues of my life. I did both ways (doing the bare minimum and YOLO) and I’ve found doing things smart to have the golden ratio between these ways.

Now it’s your turn to figure it out!

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