5 obstacles that prevent you from turning a hobby into a profession

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Do you have a favorite pastime, but for some reason it still remains a hobby for which you constantly do not have enough time?

Do what you love and earn money at the same time. It would seem, why does not everyone succeed? After all, if a person "burns" with deeds, he will certainly achieve success in this. However, even in this scenario, we are faced with obstacles that prevent us from making our dreams come true.

For a long time, my love for travel and blogging remained just a hobby, on which I spent crumbs of my free time. Initially, due to the fact that he had to study, and then - to earn his living by other work. But a few years ago I decided to change the state of affairs and turn my hobby into the main occupation with which I will earn money. After six months of my efforts, I received the first positive result - the work of an editor in an Internet project, a year later - I connected my activity with travel. Now I remember these events as something incredible, but for this I had to work hard, especially at the first stage. And now I can single out the main stumbling blocks that hindered me and, I think, separate many from making a truly favorite occupation into a profession.

5 obstacles that prevent you from turning a hobby into a profession

Pleasure from the process

A hobby is a hobby to get satisfaction from the activity itself. This approach is ideal for having a good time, cheering yourself up, and distracting yourself. But often we get too hung up on the process itself, believing that someday dreams will turn into reality by themselves. It is not enough just to love writing, photographing or traveling, it is important to define what exactly you would like to make a living in this area - to define your own goal.

How to solve: Formulate a measurable goal and outline how you can arrive at it. At this point, you should not limit yourself, write down all the possible and impossible solutions that come to mind. Do you like travel? Determine exactly what you want to do - provide travel services, blog and write about new places, or create a new service for travelers. Do you want to create a website "about something interesting"? Formulate what exactly your resource will broadcast about and for whom, what will be its peculiarity and value for readers.

Lack of self-discipline

A hobby is not an occupation where we are used to driving ourselves into frames. Therefore, so often we grab onto a new idea with fervor, and then quietly abandon it. There can be many reasons for this - tired, hard, there is no time or inspiration (more about inspiration later). In such cases, many of us again begin to be content with the process (see point 1) or push the goal into the distant future.

How to solve: you cannot control yourself - obligations will help you. Find a partner or client to whom you will need to provide a specific result, take some tasks for freelance or take part in another project, even on a free basis. A few years ago, this very approach helped me develop myself in a completely new field of journalism and content. I just started writing a certain amount of materials for the Internet portal.

From inspiration to inspiration

It’s inspiration that helps you come up with and do incredible things. But you can't build a workflow on inspiration, because today it can be, and tomorrow it won't. And what to do when "does not go"? Just wait? And if the muse returns in a week or a month? In this case, it is highly likely that all plans and goals will go down the drain.

How to solve: create conditions for your inspiration. Think about why you are doing this, how much effort you have already put in and what you will get as a result. Doesn't it go anyway? Remove any distractions, focus on what you love to do, create rewards for yourself, and use the things that inspire you the most: look at what has already been done or flip through your plan, watch some inspiring videos, or turn on some music. Dream, praise yourself, and start doing.

Nobody drives you in the neck

Where to rush if we set the deadlines ourselves. We want - we work, but we want - no. We ourselves have the right to change our schedule or take a time-out just to be lazy or to do something else. Perhaps everything needs to be done differently? Which option should you choose? Choice and the fear of making a mistake are the real villains. This has happened to me many times.

How to solve: do not hesitate, but act. In any business, there are several options, you just need to make a decision and choose one of them. If it doesn't work out, do it differently. Don't relax and come up with more excuses. Stick to a previously defined schedule, rush to make your dream come true.

Am I that good?

Putting our soul into any occupation, sometimes we are too afraid of criticism. What if my efforts are not appreciated or someone will do the same a hundred times better? Maybe I'm just not fit for this or I don't have the talent? I remember how similar questions arose in my head.

How to solve: instead of assessing yourself again, believe in yourself and take action. Don't try to please everyone, just do what you love as best you can. Not for someone else, but for yourself. Appreciate your work and results, listen only to constructive criticism of people whose opinion is important to you. If you don't like something, fix it.

If you want to change your life and do exactly what brings you pleasure, stop being realistic and start dreaming. Write down your ideas and fantasize about how you would like to implement them. Then feel free to get to work. And no excuses - just purpose, diligence, training of inspiration and a clear "plan to take over the world.":-)