Do Not Turn Every Passion Into Work

Barbara Sher makes a point of telling people that you should do what you love even if you cannot make a living doing it. You just have to do something else that earns a paycheck. You do not need to turn your hobby into a job. Some hobbies cannot be turned into jobs, yet you can still pursue and enjoy them while working a job that is simply good enough.

I think that this is great advice, because it is practical. To many people are being told not to do a job unless they absolutely love it, and that is foolish advice. You should pursue that which you love, but sometimes that which you love is not a viable method for making a living. There is no shame in working a job that is okay so that you can do what you really love on your own time.

Something that I love is gaming. You cannot make a living gaming, or at least I cannot earn the level of income that I want and do the kind of work that I want to do to make a living through gaming. I would either need to take a huge pay cut, or I would have to work a lot more hours. Not to mention that I would be risking turning that which I love into a career choice that I would regret.

This is why I keep telling myself to focus on creating something unique and true to the concept within my mind. I am no longer concerned with how this GMing workbook is going to make money. I am not even concerned with how it will make back the money that I put into it (one of the benefits of my job that pays much better than gaming does is that I can afford to lose money on this project). I am just going to keep working at getting this one concept out into the world in a form which does it justice.

Since making that slight mental adjustment I have found even more joy in what I am doing. I highly recommend it to everyone.