employee Evaluation Of My DReam
We have to be all in on whatever we are doing. It's often relatively easy to answer when people ask us what our job is. We are quick to say doctor, stay-at-home parent, accountant, or whatever else. That should not be the only label we use to identify ourselves, but it is undoubtedly an important one that takes up a decent chunk of our time.
It gets trickier when our "job" is our dream. It took quite a long time for me to be able to share about this blog as my job. Part of that was not wanting to fall into the stereotype of a mommy blogger or whatever else people might think. But I also didn't think my dream was ready for me to draw that kind of attention to it or that I was anywhere close to giving it the job title in my life. I needed a certain level of success and income before I could consider this anything more than a hobby.
The problem with that is that I ended up treating this like a hobby. When we only give something a hobby level of time and energy, then we will only ever see hobby-level success. That's perfect for the hobby things we want. Most people only ever see reading novels, playing pickleball, or beating video games as a hobby. That means we can squeeze that activity in or dedicate a few minutes or hours to it every week. If we were trying to be professionals at any level, then we would have to put in significantly more work.
We go rock climbing every Monday when we are in town (already a qualifying statement). It's a fun activity that gives us some exercise and time with friends. But we never plan to take it out of the gym and onto a natural rock climbing trail. And we certainly never intend to compete with it. There's another girl at the gym who goes every day with her father for hours. She competes and is ranked relatively high, considering she just qualified for nationals next month. It is awe-inspiring to watch her climb, but there's no jealousy or self-defeating when looking at her skills because she has a much different goal than I do.
Frustration may be unavoidable, but we will see much more frustration with our progress toward our dreams when our activity does not match our expectations. I haven't fallen into this trap as much because I have a very long-term vision and expectations for this dream. The problem is that I failed to create urgency with my activity. If consistency is the only thing that matters, then making sure I check the boxes of writing and posting every week is enough. That's true regarding my basic understanding of SEO-type things, but I have bigger plans that can be expedited if I put more work into them.
If I've started labeling this dream as my job when people ask what I do, then I should be putting in job-level work, right? The reality is that I am the CEO of my dream, and I have one employee. But how long would I last before getting fired if I was this employee putting in this level of work at any other company? I am very confident I would not make it more than two weeks there.
I have to figure out what it looks like to put in job-level effort for job-level hours. There is certainly a way to do that while still accommodating flexibility in my life, but prioritizing flexibility over everything else has landed me where I am today. I have work to do. I have debts that need to be paid. I have goals that need to be achieved. Hobby level activity is not going to cut it anymore.
Growing up in the commission sales world, I have often heard the question, are you scared of the money or the work? There are people on both sides, but for me, I am definitely afraid of the work. I have been unwilling to sacrifice anything that would truly affect my life. And quite frankly, the sacrifices I need to make today would only improve my life. Cutting out TV or an hour or two of sleep and adding in positive disciplines would put me in a significantly stronger place six months from now.
It's almost the halfway mark of the year. There are dreams on my list that could be easily achieved by New Year's Eve if I put in the effort and hours today. Putting in more work and more focused work would actually alleviate some of the stress in my life. Knowing that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing will give me a sense of pride and confidence. Doing those activities will yield financial benefits that will alleviate some of those stressors. There's no real downside to putting in more work. In my case, I am certainly talking more about part-time level activity, at least for now. I just have to sacrifice some of my "nothing" time lying down with a TV show or phone, and as hard as that temptation is to resist, I think we can all agree that it isn't really a sacrifice. It's time for my one employee to step up and be someone worth hiring.