If you’re reading this, then you are probably someone who has a passion that you want to pursue. Most people including myself have a dream that they want to achieve. Maybe it’s to own your own business, sell products, have a restaurant, or even a photography studio. Although we have dreams we also have priorities. Unfortunately, we all can’t have the best opportunities from the beginning. You know the phrase “Don’t quit your day job”? Well, this is most of our lives. We all have a day job and a passion. Why should you have to choose between making money to survive and building a dream that can potentially feed you? Your dream already feeds your soul, but right now it doesn’t cut it with the bills. It’s time for a balancing act, don’t drop one for the other, make time for both. It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed and even frustrated by the thought of dedicating effort to a job that does not fulfill you, while simultaneously making your dream suffer. There are ways to juggle both!
First things first, you need to make some crucial decisions. How much time will you dedicate to your passion? If you truly want to achieve success with your dream, then you will have to dedicate more hours to it. Many successful people have claimed that once they put more effort into their passion, they had much more success. So think of it this way, you can sell hours of your life to someone else, or you can work towards being your own boss. This ultimately means you need to make a schedule. No, I’m not saying quit your nine to five. Many things go into planning this schedule such as budgeting. You need to see if you can live on less. Maybe you can cut back on hours at your job to make more time for your hobby.
Next, don’t put your true passion on the backburner. The more you put it aside, the less you will think about it. The less you think about it, the more time you’ve lost. Eventually, weeks, months, and years will pass and you are in the same position. Wishing you were doing what you love. Make a list of short term and long term goals. It may seem trivial but it will help. For example, “In the month of October I will…” This will keep you on track and also once you reach those goals it will have a domino effect and motivate you to keep going!
Lastly, although holding yourself accountable is very important, find someone who can help. A close friend or family member can be someone to lean on when you have those moments of distress. It can be a daunting task to make calls and send emails for one company, while trying to do the same thing for yours. You may think there are never enough hours in the day. Then you call someone to vent, and they give you that encouragement to keep going. Reminding you of why you started and why you should keep it up.
It’s not impossible to make money at a nine to five while you build on a dream. One thing that is impossible is to put in a small amount time and effort and believe that success will happen. Make money at your desk job, keep the checks coming. Also, invest in your dream, dedicate time and energy. The person who hired you for their company was in the same position, nothing is impossible.