I was not offended, and never would be, I’m just happy that someone responds to my posts at all. Have a great day!
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It’s possible, but it’s really, really hard to not hate the process when you make money at art.
It took me the better part of a decade to get it figured out and I burned out HARD along the way to the point I almost stopped entirely. I’m glad I persisted because I can’t imagine doing anything else, but it was a rough time for me.
One of the things that helped was monetizing part of what I did, while keeping a part for me. Now that I’ve got stability, I’m working on removing the creating part of it from the day-to-day, so that I can continue to make money, but keep the writing for personal projects or things I enjoy. I’m in a much better place now.
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To add a corollary to that, I’m someone who did finally accept that the entire rest of my life is much nicer if I do the thing I’m good at but don’t care for, BECAUSE it brings in enough money to afford a good life.
I don’t have an overlapping Venn diagram, but by not worrying about it, I have time and money. That’s been the right compromise for me. You don’t HAVE to love what you do. And if you used to love it, but don’t anymore because it’s ‘work’, well, how’s the rest of your life doing? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all.
And I agree with the others: @dnealy, this is a thoughtful topic that is encouraging discussion, and shows a bit of you and how you think, rather than just a link.
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Consider me ‘co-signed’ as well; this is a good one.
That’s good to hear, hopefully I can get to that point one of these days.
Right now, I’m in the ‘final stretch’ of raising my kid, one more year to go until college…
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I should point out that we were posting at the same time, so my response wasn’t meant to counter what you’ve found is starting to work for you!
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The deep dive for me is that we are seeing posts from multiple points in time, that is to say some of are in the middle, some like me are at the end or near it, and hopefully the ones just starting out can glean from this a more abundant & purposeful balance in life. It took me into my 60’s to realize this and make it a part of my daily life, that some are doing this well before is just a “making my day” feeling. This is obviously a very emotional and life changing topic, the evidence is right there to read.
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Papasan, you’re breaking my heart! 
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Definitely didn’t think that at all 
I almost edited my post to add that just because that worked for me, doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. Creative work is hard regardless of what it looks like and our brains aren’t shy about getting in the way of making that work happen. Honestly, if i hadn’t taken a long, thoughtful look at what I wanted my life to be and made some changes for the better, I probably would have stopped writing altogether and gotten the kind of job you described.
I was at the opposite end of that journey. My daughter had just been born, which is a big part of what fueled the change. I used her early years when i was primary caregiver to shift everything (which I largely did during nap times and very early in the morning).
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I was referring to our life as it pertains to exercising / hobby / money. I ain’t going anywheres any time soon. But I thank you for that dear sentiment, it was heard & felt.
what I see among retirees is that we fall into two groups [mostly]:
1] approaches retirement like a job
2] approaches retirement as a new phase in life
The two are wildly different frame of mind. I’m #2, I have great empathy for the #1’s I encounter.
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Better than never at all.
*hugz
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Now that that’s settled - Regarding the whole flow state/approach to hobby thing, there’s a really funny-to-me tendency here in New England where, anytime you show someone some cool thing you made, like a painting or a table or a cake or a shirt or whatever, one of the highest Yankee compliments is, “You could make money at that!”
I can tell I’ve had a decent job for a really long time because instead of thinking it’s a great compliment I’m always like, “But that would ruin it…”
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And to put a bit of a finer point to it, I think if I didn’t NEED that money to stay fed, clothed, sheltered, etc., it would be a whole different thing. So it’s not really the money, it’s having my safety and security tied up in the thing.
If I already knew I would be safe and have health care, I could see it being pretty fun to see if I could monetize a hobby, but just for fun.
Yet another example of how our current system here sucks rocks.
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I’m 65, and working an extra year to fund some expensive renovations and although I’ve been lucky enough to really enjoy my work (I wake up in the morning and think “I get to catalogue books today!”), and I know I will miss some aspects of the work, I am looking forward to digging in to doing different things. I have not been able to get into any “flow” for rather a long time, and I’m hoping I can get that back after retirement.
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My adjunct theory is that avoid “purpose” embrace “exploration”, when I feel my “purpose” mode kick in, I stop and redirect myself to “exploration” mode. The results are very satisfying, so far…
That is I feel a perfect example of “purpose” providing for future “exploration”, when “purpose” no longer is the point, what do we fill that with?
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That is good advice; I’ll keep it in mind!
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Out here, too. It always throws me for a loop. Whether it’s woodworking (which I’m definitely not good enough at to go pro), tying flies, or mead making, when someone says that it’s almost difficult to take it as a compliment because I know instinctively that The moment I tried to make money at it, I would start to hate the activity.
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