Any job you take should at the very least cover your basic necessities.
While I would’ve loved to make a living out of doing things I enjoyed—traveling, playing music, and writing—it wouldn’t have kept a roof over my head. Instead, I found a job I could tolerate so that it can grant me the financial means to pursue my creative outlets.
It’s true: sometimes we must do what we have to in order to do the things we want to.
I don’t know about you but for me, having grown up poor and being broke sucked. I got my first job at 16 and have been on my own financially since then, and made it through college thanks to funding from Uncle Sam. Free time hardly feels like leisure when wondering where your next paycheck is coming in from. Financial instability leads to a life of stress and worry as it strips away the feeling of security.
If you’re questioning what you should aim for, I recommend finding a role that you don’t mind expending your time and energy on. There will always be aspects of a job that you don’t like—figure out what you’re willing to accept on a consistent basis.
Money isn’t everything, but when its absence causes your bills to stack up, it becomes the only thing you wish you had. Throughout my professional life, the allure of financial stability trumped any desire to be a starving musician/artist 100% of the time, every time.
Life’s short, but the days are long—and gets more expensive as we age.
Adopting a low time preference helped me to delay gratification and achieve my financial goals. I always hated that my time was tied up at your typical 9–5 job, but I loved the freedom it gave me outside of work. There’s beauty in the security that comes from not having worries about paying for my living expenses and leisure activities.
You can eventually buy back your time after trading it at a day job. That’s what I did, and now I own every second of my time. I focused on fulfilling my goal of having financial freedom, and now my days are spent traveling, playing music, and writing any time I want to.
There’s no pressure to perform or deadlines to meet when I’m engaging in my hobbies for fun.
Since my livelihood isn’t dependent on these activities, I get to truly enjoy my passions—which now includes raising a pup! I have the luxury to do what I want whenever I want to, and no one else gets to have a say in that.
Knowing that I was able to not only overcome financial problems but also become financially independent, I firmly believe that anyone else can do it too. It requires patience and discipline, both of which can be practiced and developed over time.
So, I encourage you to pause that burning desire to pursue your passions to keep a roof over your head. Find a job you can tolerate, and do that—it’ll help you to free up your mental and financial capacities to then do what you love.