Don’t Quit Your Job- Keep Your Side Hustle Right Where It Is

Be careful that you don’t ruin the romance with your passion project by turning it into just another job.

Photo by Joshua Olsen on Unsplash

Full-time jobs working for a company are really getting a bad rap these days.

There are a lot of people trashing the concept of a job where someone else owns the company and pays you to do work of their choice, not yours. This sad depiction of a job usually includes a cubicle office and a worker looking at a stack of papers like a pile of coal to be shoveled.

It is a dreadful and utterly 20th-century depiction of having a “paycheck job.”

Side hustles- if they are what you choose to do not what you are mandated to do- fill you with hope, creativity, passion, and ambition. You begin to dream of making work not a job, but a mission. You envision the day that you will work on your terms and with your choice of work

If you’ve been developing a side hustle with work you are passionate about, there comes a day when you ask yourself:

“When can I quit this job I hate and make my side hustle that I love my full-time job?”

Here’s another question I think is more appropriate to ask yourself before going full-time on a side gig:

“Do I HAVE to choose right now between a job with a paycheck and my side hustle passion?”

There’s never been a better time to have the best of both worlds- paycheck security and creative fulfillment.

With the job market favoring candidates and teeming with work-from-home positions, consider continuing to work in a more compatible paycheck job while having a ton of fun with your passion side gig.

You can learn to at least like a job that brings you a steady paycheck and allows you the room to love your side hustle.

Can You Be Friends With Your Job?

I’ll bet you’ve heard of quotes like this one. You may even have this posted on your computer screen:

“Do what you love and success will follow.” — Meg Whitman

I suggest you tack this quote up somewhere also:

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. We don’t all love our jobs every day. And doing something you have passion for doesn’t make the work part of it any easier…It just makes you less likely to quit.” — Kate Jacobs

When you think your side gig will be nothing but joy on your own terms when you launch into it full-time, take a moment to consider that it will now become your job, your work, and your all-consuming need to succeed.

I understand the dream of spending your days doing what you love vs. the feeling of selling yourself out for a paycheck. I’ve left the unfulfilling full-time job to work on my side gig full-time. More than once.

There’s an undeniable reward and a badge of self-esteem that comes along with breaking from a paycheck job and going solo.

But don’t overlook that working for yourself is the most demanding job you’ll ever have. It often means doing boring tasks, riding the roller-coaster of revenue and expenses, and compromising time spent with the people you care about to work at your business.

If you’re now on the fence considering whether to jump from job security into full-time entrepreneurship, you’re really lucky. We are well into the 21st century and there are now unprecedented opportunities to work at a job that’s flexible enough to support our passion and for a company that is compatible with our values.

Granted, your job supplying a paycheck isn’t sexy and isn’t dream-worthy. It doesn’t have to be. You’ve already found your true love in your passion project.

A measured approach to the decision of staying with a paycheck job or going into your side hustle full-time is one that allows you to have it all. You can find pleasant work with a reliable paycheck that doesn’t steal your soul and provides the time to pursue your side gig passions.

Defining What Your Passion Really Is

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou

Is your passion the work you do in your side gig? Or is it the vision of a self-chosen pace of life that your side gig work will create?

Does working full-time in your side gig create the type of image you want to portray to the world? Or does the side gig work allow you to align more fully with the values you have now?

We have many motivations for wanting to work full-time in our passion-focused side gig. It’s important to take time to make sure you know what’s really driving you- your ultimate “why.”

This type of self-examination will help you get really clear on all you are taking on and what you are giving up with a move to an entrepreneurial venture.

Whatever choice you make, do it for the passion you have for living. We need to work and it’s important to like the work you do. But it’s far more important to like the life you live.

What This Means To You

Your next best step to your dream of working for yourself can be finding a paycheck job that offers a safety net while you spread your wings into a passion.

Life is full of opportunities and options to design the balance of security and creativity that’s right for you.

Would you like to receive a weekly dose of positive mindset-building exercises and inspiration? Click on this link to sign up for my free newsletter from LifeUpcycles. https://bit.ly/3ynCNPt