Should I Turn My Passions into Projects?

Are you thinking about turning a passion into a project? Something that you can actually earn a living from and do as a full-time career? If you are…stop! I’m not saying, don’t do it but I am saying to proceed with caution.

This is not going to be an article where I share my own failed experience with turning my passions into projects as a fable. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. However, I do want to offer some advice and tips for anyone considering it for the first time.

What’s the difference between a passion and a hobby?

This might be one of the most important questions you ask yourself before you start on any self-made journey. Some people might argue that the two are synonymous and this is exactly where they are going wrong. A hobby is something that you do for fun, something that brings you joy after a hard day or gives you something to do during your downtime. A passion is quite similar except it is something that you eventually want to turn into a career. 

So, before anything else, you need to ask yourself: do I have a hobby or a passion? There is nothing wrong with keeping things as hobbies such as your art, writing or photography etc. Passions are passions for a reason. They need to be something that you never tire of doing. There will be stress, there will be days when you want to give up but if what you are doing is truly a passion then there will always be that drive to keep pushing on.

‘Follow Your Passion’ is the worse career advice

Has anyone ever said this to you? Maybe it’s the reason you are reading this article right now. The sentiment is sweet and usually, people use it as a way to encourage those already on the precipice of turning their passions into projects. However, it runs the risk of actually increasing narrowmindedness. If you are an impulsive person anyway, you could be tempted to just drop everything to begin this new path.

Simply ‘following your passion’ does not take into account some vital factors:

• You could have multiple passions at once.
• It’s a throwaway statement that makes the process sound easy.
• It’s a privileged statement that not many can afford.

So, you need to consider…

Will your passion provide for you?

Even if you know without any doubt that you want to turn this particular passion into your dream job, you have to consider the most important part of any journey…

Will pursuing this passion provide you with food, shelter, clothes and any other necessity you need to live? At the beginning of your journey, the answer is probably going to be ‘no.’ That is another reason why ‘follow your passion’ is a dangerous piece of advice. When people hear that kind of encouragement, many might spontaneously quit their current job without any planning or safety net. There are self-made people out there who got really, really lucky and have the kind of incredible stories of dropping everything else in pursuit of their dream. However, even those people will have edited out or altered the harder parts of that journey in their retelling.

Deciding to turn a passion into a project and eventual career does not have to mean that everything else disappears. Working a job that funds your life alongside building your passion is an important part of the journey. While this job might take some time away from building your passion, it is giving you the financial freedom to work on it when you can.

You’re going to fail and that’s okay

Unlike ‘follow your passion’, this is a piece of advice that people need to give more. Chances are, somewhere down the line, you are going to fail and while it might still hurt that is okay. Every time you fail does not mean you have made the wrong choice. If you are truly committed to your passion and the life you envision with it then every failure will just be a sign to try it a different way.

There is a reason I am describing this journey as turning a passion into a project instead of just a career. It’s because your dream career will not just magically appear overnight, but you can start your project of working towards one right now.