No, I'm not 'blasting' Mister Clemens (to be exact)—nor am I blasting anybody or anything. If you can holster that six-shooter there Annie, let me explain. All I'm saying is that such vague advice can sound really great, but you'll often find in practice something that sounds like a fantasy job actually isn't. It's easy enough to think "Oh, I like to write! I'll take a job doing that and it'll be like a playground every day!" But it might turn out there are certain restrictions on how you're allowed to write, and certain requirements that mean you can't express your creativity much if at all. And maybe what you enjoy about writing is specifically the creative aspects of it. So yeah, technically, before anybody comes in and says it, this wouldn't be a job you enjoy doing. But my point is that it's easy to jump at a job we think we'd enjoy, only to discover it isn't really the job we thought it was. I learned that when I tried to earn some money making airbrushed t-shirts. Yes, I did earn some money, No, I did not enjoy the work at all. When I made up some sample shirts to hang in stores around town I worked from pictures that were really awesome—album covers and the like, which resulted in some really spectacular looking shirts, But inevitably every time somebody called me for a job they didn't have a picture, nor did they want to choose one from the portfolio I had on hand of images I'd love to paint on shirts. They just told me what they wanted and expected me to design the image as well as paint it on a shirt for them. And they wanted it for the same price and in the same time it would take to just work from an existing image. Of course ultimately this was my own stupidity. This is how people perceive the t-shirt airbrushing industry, because it's how the guys at the mall or in Florida during tourist season do it. The difference is those guys have a bunch of stock images already memorized that they know how to paint effortlessly in ten minutes. I don't. So yeah, I fully admit, it was my own misconception that was the problem, but this is actually what I'm saying. We often have misconceptions about a job going in—expecting it to allow us to do what we really want to, only to find out that it isn't the case. I just want to inject a dose of realism into a shiny happy phrase that can be very misleading. When I tried to make a job out of something I loved doing, it turned into a nightmare and made me actually hate doing it. So first make sure you know what the job really entails before you discover it the hard way.
(Looks around for Annie, doesn't see her, shrugs, and keeps the verbal pistol drawn and ready to blast doses of reality egregiously tossed into happy thoughts.) My husband, son, and I all run our own businesses, and all involve hobbies that turned into professions. There are positives and negatives involved, but we are fortunate that none of us has ended up hating what we do. I have found that with creative professions, people expect to get products made to their specifications for a bargain price since creating art should be its own reward. I'm a retired dancer, and I'd hate to tell you the number of times someone wanted me to perform in return for "all the great publicity" a free gig would net me. My apologies to the OP for swinging so far off topic. I do love sidetracks.
No apologies needed This whole thread was basically me venting about the frustrations of trying to squeeze in the time to tackle personal projects with the time and energy they deserve...and that I don't have right now. Just struggling to find balance I guess. I'll figure it out
If not able to make a decision for yourself, life will do for you . . . it’s called time. TIME doesn’t wait for anybody
