Don’t Make Your Passion Pay The Bills

October 26, 2018

Should I quit my day job?

It’s the question that haunts.

I’m supposed to follow my passion. But I have an all-consuming job that takes all my time.

Working on my passion makes me happy. But I have bills due in thirty days.

Focusing only on my passion full-time could make it work. But what if it fails miserably?

And if it fails, what do I do about my bills then?

Let’s play out those scenarios.

Let’s say I quit my day job and go for it. That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? Nothing risked, nothing gained.

But now my passion becomes a totally different thing.

I used to work on my passion because I loved it. I could work on it all night or just for a few minutes. Either way was joyous because it was always my choice.

Now, however, I have to work on it. I have to make it work. I don’t get to choose. I’m not only doing it for fun.

Now pure joy has become pure work. And if money doesn’t start coming in, it could become pure stress.

All the reasons I loved my passion have now been changed. It’s not what it used to be. And now I have no money.

Or, scenario two, maybe I don’t go for it.

Maybe I stay in my horrible job because it gives me the money to live.

I hated it before, but after flirting with the idea of pursuing my passion, I hate it even more.

I either become miserable (“my life sucks”), or self-hating (“I’m too gutless to follow my passion”), or hopeless (“I’ll never be able to quit this job”).

It seems like a no-win scenario.

But there’s a third choice.

What if I never make my passion pay the bills?

What if I just leave it alone?

What if I let it be exactly what it is with no strings attached?

I can work on it as much as I want to and never subject it to life’s pressures.

I can let the creativity flow without worrying about where this is all going.

If my passion has possibilities, then working on it pressure-free is what’s going to make it make money. All I have to do is go slowly and let it build.

If I do it calmly, eventually my passion might start making more money than my day job. If it does, then quitting my day job becomes a fun, no-risk decision.

And if my passion never makes money?

Then I’ll always keep it in the form that made me love it while I’m paying the bills with my other job. I’m still working a job I don’t love, but I also still have my passion intact.

And then, in time, I might even pick another passion, and this one might make enough money.

Deciding whether to follow my passion doesn’t have to be a tense, no-win conundrum.

If I don’t make my passion pay the bills, there doesn’t have to be any stress at all.

My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.