I started this blog in August 2018. No one was paying me to write and barely anyone was reading. Nonetheless, I was writing every day for hours at a time, despite a full-time job.
My first few articles were only read by my family and friends. Convincing even them to read it was difficult at times. I remained steadfast. I became a better writer each week. My vocabulary grew; my language became more precise. I was honing my craft and growing more and more passionate about it.
My ‘passion project’ became a piece of my livelihood. I was staying up late and waking up early to write. Overtime on top of overtime, and still no paycheck to show for it.
Eight months later and my modest travel blog had a steady, growing audience — a couple of thousand readers per month — and I had built an online portfolio of writing of almost 30,000 words. Long story short, it gave me credibility as a writer and a creative which helped land me a full-time position as a writer and editor. My ‘passion project’ allowed me to land a job that I was (and still am) passionate about.
Nobody has time for passion projects
According to this article,
“A passion project is an activity or enterprise that you decide to take on — usually in your spare time–in order to gain some benefit for yourself. That is, it’s a challenge that you willingly embrace because you hope to gain something from it.“
The first assumption here is that we have spare time.
When are we not studying, working, or with friends and family, or otherwise preoccupied with this thing called life? Spare time is elusive, a rare commodity in 2019 when many people are already waist-deep in overtime and scrapping for fair compensation.
How is someone with a full-time job, family, and Netflix account supposed to find time to work on something they are passionate about?
In reality, most of us do not have time to spare. Our days are inundated with conflicting priorities and responsibilities. But it isn’t a question of finding the time. The time will never be found. Waiting for the time to find itself or waiting for your schedule to open up is nothing less than procrastination. Approaching it with this mindset means your passion project will continue to remain days or weeks ahead on your to-do list. “Today” will never arrive.
The question then becomes not how to find time but rather what to sacrifice in order to make time.
It’s not a project, it’s an obligation
Have you ever given yourself a list of things you wanted to do and then you ended up doing none of them?
That list was likely comprised of things you didn’t consider essential. Things that were not obligatory. We get distracted easily and, oftentimes, barely even finish our responsibilities, let alone additional projects. Things distract us from responsibilities, but even more, things distract us from non-responsibilities.
What makes you think that you have the will power to consistently take action with a task that you consider a hobby? How we frame things holds gravity over our willingness to take action. A passion project is a project that one is passionate about; that much is agreed upon. But to take action and create momentum, we cannot frame it as a ‘project’ or even ‘side-hustle.’
These words are implicitly clumped into a category that holds less priority than outright responsibility.
Genuine progress becomes difficult if our focus and effort isn’t 100%. Giving 100% to a ‘side-hustle’ or ‘just a little something I’m working on’ is almost necessarily impossible. If it hasn’t been prioritized with even the language we use, why would it become a priority in the actions we take?
Re-framing passion project from a hobby into an obligation that you cannot miss is the first step towards manifesting it into the world.
The Takeaway
A passion project is a worthwhile pursuit, though the payoff depends on the effort put forth. Even with great exertion, a monetary payoff is never guaranteed. But the result can bring other riches; happiness, fulfillment, giving our passions attention — these are no small achievements.
Make the time. Don’t look for gaps in your already-busy schedule. The time isn’t available as things stand. Rearrange your life and block out specific, intentional time to focus.
Prioritize and take responsibility. To make headway, it cannot be framed as something cursory or ‘on the side.’ Shift the phrase ‘passion project’ into something of imperative, something vital to your life that you cannot ignore.
Don’t let your passions take the backseat. Embrace them and give them the attention that they deserve.
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