Turning a Hobby Into a Job

Many times we say that we should do what we want and try to not be concerned about money but no matter how hard we try, money always winds up being a factor. Money is why many of us stay in jobs we have rather than search for something more satisfying or fulfilling. Some of us are able to pursue a passion while not having to worry about money or do mindless jobs to make ends meet but such people are in the minority. In theory, having a job where you essentially do what you love most should be the most ideal situation.

A lot times I hear that having a job you like is the most important thing in the world. It is what you spend most of your waking hours doing and theoretically should take priority over finding something enjoyable for your free time - maybe a hobby or girlfriend or family. If you enjoy playing sports, playing professionally would surely take some fun out of it but would becoming sports writer take the fun out of playing sports or would it just drive you crazy for being on the “wrong side” of things? Or would you be able to view the writing aspect as a job but still enjoy playing as much as when you had a job that had nothing to do with the sport and sort of get the best of both worlds? I don’t know. Everyone reacts differently and it is probably hard to predict how you’d react until you try.

But perhaps taking or keeping a less interesting but higher-paying job that allows you time and money to enjoy your hobbies is worth the sacrifice. Some of us try to turn our hobbies into work, thinking that it might help us to be happy all the time rather than just the time off from work. But what frequently happens is that when a hobby turns into a job, it no longer is fun and often results in a pay cut. Take a baseball player or actor or musician – they can make more money at the start doing other things and keeping sports or the arts as a weekend or night-time hobby and starting to work as an athlete or artist might make it be less enjoyable, so you lose out on income and on the hobby. Of course, there are people who make it big and get lots of money but such people are in the minority.

On another note, are journalists typically people who have a love for something but are not talented enough to be one of the participants or people that get written about but have a passion for that activity or are they people who are over the hill or are they more often people who have the passion and may have the talent but just prefer a more normal life to the touring or nomadic lifestyle that frequently is common among athletes, celebrities and artists? Can a person write a popular article about someone else’s accomplishments while also being the subject of another similar piece at the same time? I generally think of journalists as being experts in a certain field, and therefore people who actively engage in that activity. For sports journalism, that’s less frequently the case because the careers of athletes are much shorter than in other games or industries. But, most popular sports journalists are former athletes, right?