turning your hobby into a job.

i know i've said this in so many words before, but it has to be said again.

if you want to make your passion/gift/talent/hobby into a job, make money for what you like to do most, make a living out of it...you need to ask yourself a couple questions: (and answer honestly)

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1. do you believe that your gift will be competitive enough in the market? (think hard on this and be brutally honest with yourself).  this entails not only listening to your heart but also doing your research on what is out there/or who.

disclaimer: you might be naturally gifted, but not trained well enough yet, which can totally be fixed. know the difference, and decide whether or not you want to do the work to get where you need to be to compete.

2. would you still do this if you never got paid for it? yes, duh, you're thinking. i haven't gotten paid for it yet and i'm still doing it right? not exactly. there's a difference between moving forward because in the back of your mind you still think you're headed in the "getting paid for it" direction and knowing that just the pursuit of amazingness is and would be enough.

of course, if you're not getting paid for it, you will have to shift it from priority no. 1 down in your list, but there can be some good aspects of that, which i will explain below.

3. are you working harder than when it was just a hobby? if you think you want to make it a living, you're going to have to work...work more than usual. work longer hours, and actually be told things like "this isn't good enough yet" or "i don't like it all, start over"--things you probably will never hear from someone else if it's just a hobby.

disclaimer: the word "hobby" does not belittle how good you are at something/how much you love it/how worth it it is. "hobby" just means you don't make money off from it to support yourself.

4. if you are already in the process of making your passion into a living,  how does it feel now (assuming you haven't made it yet)? i am not published yet, so i am totally in this category. i'm in the process of working towards being published, but i am not at the point where it isn't a hobby anymore (technically). but my answer to the question lies here: i have discovered that i love writing just as much now as i did before. if not more. i have enjoyed every single aspect of it from getting really big critiques (and having to rewrite 150 pages of a book) to having a deadline i'm behind on to having to take my work with me on vacation). i have loved every minute. and when i'm not writing a draft, i find something else to write. or i start on a new idea for another book.

that's my answer, but the point is...if you don't like it now, when it's hard and there's no guarantee you'll ever get "great" or be famous or  get rich or whatever your goal is...you might want to stop it now. because once your hobby becomes your job and you become someone of stature in that field, you'll have pressures, politics, way more on the line, even more sacrifices to make (if you can believe it).

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5. this goes with no. 4: might you being doing yourself a favor by keeping it a hobby? no one wants to say yes to this because it feels like you're giving up. it sounds like you don't believe in yourself. it sounds lazy. it sounds...anything but good or fun. when we're kids, we think we should be a basketball player, a model, a rockstar, a dancer (that's what i wanted)....big dreams. and those are good to have, but that's not all that's out there. you might find that you have two sides of your brain...one that you like to shut off after 5pm, and then go headfirst into the other side: your hobby of choice. when your job is your hobby, a lot of times, you lose that hobby aspect. you no longer want to have anything to do with it when you get home. (for example,  my dad produces country music, and as kids, he rarely turned on the radio when we were int he car with him. i didn't get. i thought it was the coolest thing that he got to be a part of what was playing on the radio....fast forward to when i was an artist, i totalllllly understood. i never wanted to listen to it. i just now listen to anything, 2 years after i stopped touring. but still, it's not radio--it's something like hans zimmer, soundtracks to movies.) when you do something for a job, you learn every bit of that industry, good or bad. and sometimes it's hard to turn off that knowledge and enjoy it like you used to.  sometimes it's literally impossible.

so think about it...and don't choose one or the other because of what someone else might think or how he/she might judge you. who cares? make your decision based on what you will be happy about in one year, five years...not just today.

let me reiterate this: choosing to keep it a hobby is noble. it is not a cop out. it isn't sad or any kind of failure. i think it's actually a harder choice to make than going for it because it means you chose to make yourself happier without letting outside influences decide for you. 

i am going for this writing thing--and i have asked myself these questions the entire time i've been writing these first two novels. my personal answer for WRITING (not music/not dance/not anything else): yes i want to pursue this as a job. but i made the other choice for everything else. and i am happy to say that i've been able to preserve my joy in it. i've been able to dabble in those things that i used to go for because "i had talent". i am even making music now, music i like to go along with the books i'm writing. i love that--because it's stemming from the LOVE, not the must. and i'm ok with that.

ask anyone...i'm more adjusted now than i ever have been. i was just chasing the wrong dream.



one more disclaimer: i am not quitting any kind of music for those of you who are like "wait what?". i am just not touring like "Ashlyne Huff" used to. that's the beauty of hobbies, or even glorified hobbies: you don't have to quit at all. you just don't have deadlines and contracts dictating what you do.