Find a Job You Love and You’ll Never Have a Day Off in Your Life
Have you ever heard the saying, “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”? Its origins are a little foggy but the point is easy to interpret: If you love doing it, it doesn’t count as work. This sounds like a lovely goal to aim for but there’s an equally accurate saying that should go along with it, “Find a job you love and you’ll never have a day off in your life.”
Now, before we get too far into this, I should be clear that this falls into the same category as having two or three attractive women/men asking you out on a date; it comes with some stress but it’s a good problem to have. This also mostly applies to jobs that fall outside the typical 9-5 realm. If you find a dream job that comes with a specified quitting time, good on ya. If you dive head-first into the deep end of entrepreneurship, though, you’ll almost certainly end up working more than a 40 hour week.
If an opportunity presented itself to do what you’ve always wanted to do and actually get paid for it, it would be foolish to pass it up. Sometimes opportunities like this come up suddenly though and it’s easy to jump into them without fully anticipating the repercussions.
If you find a way to turn your hobby into a career, the line between work and play becomes blurred. This will seem really fun for a while but you know what they say about too much of a good thing. Everyone’s dreams are unique and everyone’s life circumstances are different. These are a few tips to keep in mind though to help avoid stress once the “dream job honeymoon” ends:
- Don’t forget to turn off.
- Set aside time to put your work stuff down and focus on something else. This applies to setting your own hours as well as taking days off. It’s hard and you won’t always do it, but it’s important.
- Don’t make your whole home an office.
- If you have a family and you end up working from home, be respectful of their needs to continue life as usual. Dedicate a space to work in and leave everything else alone.
- Be prepared to reevaluate your budget.
- Quitting your office job to pursue a career in jewelry making is easy. Selling jewelry is hard. If you plan on striking out on your own, try cutting back on your expenses ahead of time so when it becomes a necessity, it won’t come as a shock.
- Keep organized
- When you’re making your own way in a career, it can be hard to hit pause and come up with a good strategy. Make time to do it early on though. It’s important to use all the resources you have available to mark out daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.
- Don’t stop putting pants on.
- For real. When you don’t have a boss to impress or a uniform to wear, it’s easy to just walk around in your underwear all day. Getting dressed for work makes you more productive though and it helps keep work life and home life separate.
Like I said before, if you find yourself facing these issues, count yourself lucky. Most people never get the chance to pursue their dreams in a real way. Take them seriously though and it’ll help keep your dream alive.