What Happens When You Turn Your Hobby into a Job?

Posted: 5/28/2020 | May 28th, 2020

There’s a big industry on the web that will show you how you can turn your passion into something that pays your bills. I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook ads:

“Follow your passion! Make money doing what you love!”

In just a few easy steps, you’ll be able to solve all your life’s problems, find your dream job, and make bazillions!

All that stuff is bullshit.

You don’t find your passion the way you find change underneath your couch pillow.

No. Instead, you stumble around blindly in the dark, stubbing your toe on a bunch of different things, until you find the light switch you’re looking for. One day, you wake up, turn the right light on, and realize that this is what makes you happy — and you can’t imagine doing anything else.

You find the work you are passionate about through trial and error.

I started this website on a whim. I was 27 years old, and I just needed a way to fund my travels. Being a travel writer seemed like a way to do that. This website was to be my online résumé from which editors would (maybe) hire me for assignments. There were no grand plans to turn my love of travel into a career. No thoughts of the future. I just wanted to do something that would keep me on the road one day longer.

During those first years, to keep the money coming in, I also taught English in Asia, tried to run online marketing websites, and even played semiprofessional poker (emphasis on the word “semi” right there).

Yet, as time passed, I found myself devoting more and more time to this website. I loved learning how to make it better, finding new ways to help people travel, writing content, figuring out social media and SEO algorithms, and meeting people through it. Many of the bloggers I met in those first days are now some of my closest friends.

I still wake up every day loving what I do and the people I meet.

But I was asked recently what happens when you turn your passion into a profession? How does that change your relationship with the thing you love so much?

Well, it changes the relationship a lot.

As the years have passed, travel went from something I wanted to do to something I had to do. The content beast had to be fed. I always had to go out and do stuff to make sure the articles were as updated and accurate as possible. I was no longer just casually blogging about my experiences but creating detailed guides.

Time moved quickly until, one day, suddenly, there were also five employees to worry about, health care plans to consider, accountants and taxes to pay, meetings and conventions to attend, ad revenue to secure, conference calls to make, and contracts to read.

There was to be very little traveling on a whim and going with the flow anymore.

This had become a business.

And sometimes it fucking sucks.

Sometimes I wake up and just don’t give a shit.

Sometimes I don’t want to go on a trip just because we need content. Sometimes I’m tired of taking pictures of menus, going to grocery stores to look at prices, and collecting brochures for our guides. Sometimes I don’t want to write another goddamn article or could care less about a brand deal coming through.

Sometimes I want to burn the whole thing down and walk away.

On those days, I think fondly about the simpler times of yesteryear, when every day was Saturday and my biggest worry was tomorrow’s hangover. Those days when I just enjoyed travel without the pressure of bills and salaries and traffic.

But no job is perfect. There are going to be times when the stress makes you want to scream.

If you’re going to do anything for the long term, you have to be willing to deal with those kinds of days.

Because, when you love what you do, you are willing to gleefully eat that shit sandwich.

I’ve been open about how, over the last few years, balancing it all has led to a lot of anxiety and stress, which is part of the reason I’ve slowed down and stopped traveling so much.

And it’s why I believe that when your passion becomes your profession, it is important to take some time for yourself.

You need to release the pressure and stress and enjoy your passion just because you like it and it makes you happy.

That’s why I take some trips I don’t write about.

It’s why I try to get offline and use social media less frequently these days.

It’s why I don’t do big projects (e.g., changing our email funnel) when I’m on the road anymore.

Life is a battery that needs to be recharged — and doing something for no other reason than that it makes you happy recharges that battery.

I think this is something a lot of people who “turn their passion into a profession” lose sight of in the beginning. They throw themselves right into the work, because their passion is their driving force, without realizing or acknowledging the pressures and stress doing something for money creates.

The days and weeks pile up, and they go so far into the weeds that they lose some of that spark that drove them in the beginning. They lose balance, burn out, and become depressed. They see the endless work in front of them and wonder, “When did it become like this?”

I always tell my students that the work never ends. You’ll never be done. There always will be something more to do, no matter how many “passive revenue” streams you set up.

So it’s not about being done; it’s about finding a balance.

Balance is the key to “turning your passion into a profession” without burning out. Most people I know who end up doing something long enough learn this lesson after too many hours of stress and anxiety (though some never do).

It took me my first eight years to learn that lesson.

There’s nothing I’d rather do in the world than work in travel. I still love waking up and working and helping others change how they see the world.

But I’m also a lot better at creating balance in my life than I was in the past, which is why I don’t get burned out as much (or think about burning it all down as often anymore).

To sustain your passion as a profession, you have to find balance so you can feed the fire inside you that made you leap into this in the first place.