A lot of people are so convinced that boring jobs are more likely to pay their bills than their happy hobbies. What do you think?

It might be hard to see the possibilities. Discovering yourself might be a flash project for others; it might come easy. For a lot, It might take a lifetime but make sure you don’t ignore the signs. Your distinct wiring never lies. You have a unique coding and it’s your treasure map.

There’s nothing more harrowing than your dreams standing in competition with your bills. You want to make a living but you cannot afford to live. The world around you is shrinking into a minuscule sized reality. The larger part of your day is time spent in a cubicle and the rest is a few stolen hours of sleep. You wake up tired and exhausted, yet you must show up at the job. It’s not even giving you a chance to smile, to be happy, to crack jokes. All you do is to meet deadlines. Wait, you are not alone.

Read Mike’s story first.

“Hey…I just got fired,” Mike’s voice trembled like a pivoted plank,
“Yea, and?”
“Did, you hear me Dare, I said I just got fired!!”
“But you hate your job.”
“What? I mean, what are you saying? I told you I just lost my job. It’s mid month, I won’t get paid even for this week.”
“Yea, we both knew it would happen. After your last episode with Justin…”
“Stop this! I called you cause I didn’t know who to talk to. You are not even trying to advice me.”
“Okay, what really happened?”
“I drew a face on the annual report. We were in the board room when the chairman flipped. He flung the report at Justina. She had to let me go.”
“Well, would you blame her?”
“What do I do now? Say something, make me feel different. I feel wretched right now. I could do something crazy.”
“Listen Mike. It’s not your fault. You had a lot of creative cravings. You had to let that out somehow.”
“I know right? right?” he breathed into the phone speaker. I dropped the call after assuring him we would be talking at length soon.

You think this is unreal?

How many times have you caught yourself daydreaming instead of typing that report? Your boss says “I’ll sack you!!” and you in your mind are like “yes, please sack me! Put me out of my misery.”

How about the days you watch board members do their boring presentations and you can’t help but pity them. You are busy imagining how boring their lives could be, and out of mercy adding them to your next story. Yet you find yourself imagining your promotion to that same office. Such a confused life right? Yea, life could be like that some times.

You know a promotion won’t happen soon and you know you’d also have missed out on anything in your life that’s not boring. This will be your reality till you grow old. Yet you stick devotedly to your desk.

Ever heard of JK Rowling?

The author of one of the greatest book series of all times. Her book, Harry Potter, once ranked second best seller after the Bible!!

A lot of readers I have spoken to always assume she’s a man. I don’t know if this has something to do with the mix-up of her name and that of General J.K. Rawlings of Ghana or the fact that she broke out suddenly. From being an inconsequential secretary to being world-famous.

She had several day jobs. Once, she was a researcher for Amnesty International. She has been a school teacher and I’m sure she never had it easy.

She secretly wrote stories on her work computer and daydreamed about a teenage wizard named Harry Potter. Her employers finally got fed up and and fired her.

You can read more about J.K Rowlings if you don’t know much about this awesome storyteller. I just admire her life as much as I admire her book “Harry Potter.” 

You wouldn’t know what you are missing out on if you abandon that hobby you love for a job that leaves you miserable. J.K. Rowlings wrote a lot of Harry Potter manuscript on scraps of paper, on the bus, in the office, in transit. She probably didn’t know she was investing in her own future while paying the bills with another person’s future.

Now, we must not all leave our day jobs to make careers out of our hobbies. However, wouldn’t it be awesome to get paid to be happy? If your hobby makes you happy, why are you not making time for it? Your hobby could also guide your choice of a job. You must not be “dying” before it feels like a job.

What if My Hobby is Playing Football Manager?

A good friend, Olumide, made an hilarious comment on a Facebook post. I asked if anyone would like to be paid 1 Million for their present job or 300,000 for their hobby. The thread was such an interesting session, the responses would amaze you.

It took consistent work but I can assure you I finally transitioned from writing as a hobby into doing a job I never want to leave.

A Personal Story I like to Share with People

My mom used to own a shop in Ashi, Ibadan, Nigeria. She would leave me in charge and go to teach in the government school where she was employed. Other times she would go off to deliver clothes she sewed. She was a tailor.

I would then gather the children who used to run around our shop and teach them Math and English. Note that I was not considered too bright myself at that time. For some reason, I derived pleasure from helping those children find some kind of purpose and rewarding them for it.

One of those months, I gave out my mom’s wares to students I was teaching. I had decided to organize a prize giving day. Mom was pissed! Yet, I can remember how satisfying it felt. I knew next to nothing but these kids were illiterate and I felt like I had something they didn’t have even if it was a little.

Pursuing Your Happiness makes you a Blessing to Others

I have helped a number of people discover themselves through direct and indirect coaching. One of the few friends I have made in South Africa is a Voice Artist. He is also a Law Student. He went from being without a job and recording audio stories for Youtube to earning from his skill.

I showed him the possibilities of freelancing and with a little guidance he moved really fast. A few days ago, he told me how he had taken my advice to share his content on social media. This attracted a client who paid him a good amount to work on a movie production. He could suddenly afford a laptop and other things he needed to grow his platforms. He has not even attended my 21 Day writing course neither had  he gotten Write Heart or Discover Storytelling. Some people need just a little shove in the right direction, like this post. My friend was so excited at the results he could achieve from just following his hobby.

Writing brought me this far, to a point where I could help someone else. It showed me how to be an entrepreneur, a freelancer, to be creative and create solutions from my happy place.

Consider Your Happy Place

Most of my friends talk to me about their dreams and my mind simply starts running around all the possibilities. Most times, we all ignore our hobbies or things we love doing. In fact, when we struggle, we hardly consider the things that make us happy as an option. We would rather think about applying for a collar job or something boring enough to make us miserable for life.

I am currently pursuing a lecturing career in real estate. It’s not because I like selling or renting houses that much. I know as a lecturer, I would have access to transform the lives of a lot of young people who are struggling with learning. I struggled once. This is why doing a Masters Research has been both tasking but exciting for me.

Also as a writer, I wake up everyday thankful for every new story or project I get to work with. The stories fill me with vigour and when I get paid to do that, I feel like a Hero. I don’t think anything trumps doing a job that makes you happy. If for some reasons you can’t do that full-time, have you considered doing it on your spare time, on the way to work, late at night?