I'm Scared to Get Paid to Do What I Love

 I know you probably read that title and thought "girl, what is wrong with you?" I thought that too when I first said it out loud, but it's true.

    In the past few years, and increasingly so during this pandemic where a lot of us are at home, there has been this push to monetize our hobbies and turn things we love and enjoy into something profitable. Initially, I was hooked on the idea. I started doing a little digging into getting paid to blog or write pieces for others' publications, and it quickly started to feel like a lot of work. It was like in an instant, the thing that I do to express myself and connect with others turned into a job that I would be obligated to "show up" to, and it didn't seem like it would be much fun anymore. I actually avoided blogging for a little bit because I was like "I don't have any post ideas that are good enough for this to make sense right now," and that is when I realized that monetizing my hobbies is not for me- at least not right now.

If blogging, writing, or content creating became my job, I honestly think that I would start to hate it. That's why I'm scared to get paid to do what I love.

The push to monetize our hobbies and make everything we do profitable has some negative implications, for sure. If everything we do becomes a business or a job, where is there room for us to do what we love for the enjoyment of it? What is there left for us to do in our down time or on days when we just need a break from work? Do we get to do anything just for fun? I am in no way condemning those who have turned their hobbies into businesses because I know for sure that it takes a lot of work and dedication to turn your interests into money, but in the same turn, I know that I myself couldn't do it. 

I think that it's worth saying that everything we do doesn't have to be profitable or productive by society's standards. We don't constantly have to be working or grinding. We don't constantly have to be churning out ways to make money just because someone said so. Hobbies that aren't profitable monetarily are looked at so weird these days because we have been conditioned to think that if we aren't working or making money, we are wasting time not being productive. Creating just because you feel like creating is 100% productive. Doing something to help you unwind or decompress from your job or just daily life is 100% productive. We have to define what productivity means for us and not pressure ourselves to measure up to having our every waking moment be productive by society's standards. 

This isn't to say that I would never monetize my blog or create content for money, but it's definitely not in the cards for me right now. I've spent years being all about work and all about making money, and right now it just feels good to have something to myself that I do just because I want to. At this point in time, turning my hobbies into a job wouldn't be as beneficial as a lot of people frame it to be. I wouldn't have my outlet. It would still be here, but it would be here because it had to be for work. That's not something I'm ready for right now. 

I definitely commend everyone who has turned what they love into a business and still has their heart in it. Y'all are real ones!