Growing up I never gave my future a second thought. Like all kids do I grew up just going with the flow essentially winging everything I did and I presumed that how it would be for the remainder of my life. It hit me when I was early 20’s that I would probably need to go and get a job so that I could fund my trips to the pub and move out of my family home. I had a Bacheler’s Degree in Graphic Art & Design and my none important GCSE’s but I literally had no idea what the hell I wanted to do. In the end I settled for a job in telemarketing for an insurance firm. As you can imagine this was just what I wanted to be doing or the rest of my life…
Fast forward a few years and I had somehow worked my way up in the company (slightly) but was still underpaid and overworked. That for me was the moment I realised that this working malarkey really was bullshit. It still rattles me now that most people like me come out of university or college etc and just settle for some job where you are literally just a number. Not only that but most people then stick with it for the entirety of their careers hoping that they might get promoted or have a slight pay rise once every 5 years. So what do you do if you have no idea what you are good at and feel like your going to just float through life feeling uninspired and unfulfilled?
One thing that has helped me to figure out what the bloody hell I wanted to do in life was to right everything down. This is going to sound like some bullshit workshop task a life coach asks you to do but hear me out. Start with anything that remotely makes you happy. This could be a hobby or a sport you are good at. Curate a list starting with your favourite thing at the top. Mine would look something like this:-
- Helping People
- Learning New Skills
- Making Money Online
- Pub Sports
- Creating A Business
As you can see by my shoddy list, I don’t have a lot of things that get my fire raging but I do have a small list of things that really interest me and that I find really interesting. So now you have got some idea of what you like to do you now need to figure out how you can get paid to do them.
Step 1. Monetise
Whether you want to start an online / offline business or whether you are simply happy working for someone else for the rest of your life, how you get paid to do what you love is extremely important. Money isn’t everything but unfortunately it does get you things that you need. Now if you have no ambition to own your own business or work for yourself then your journey to a fulfilled life doing what you enjoy will look differently to others. To monetise your passions you need to first of all figure out what work / life balance you enjoy the best. Most of us would rather work one hour a day and have the rest of the day off to spend with your friends and family but some people prefer to work more. Write down your ideal hours and how much money you expect to be paid for those hours.
There are thousands of new opportunities post pandemic that now offer flexible working whether you are a stay at home mum or whether you simply want to spend the day working with your dog lay underneath you. Applying for these flexible jobs has now become a lot easier using mainstream job sights like Indeed Flex and reed.co.uk. Both of these sites let you search for flexible working opportunities from part time hours to working from home or hybrid working. Remember your list when you are applying for jobs and don’t settle for anything that doesn’t tick those boxes. At the end of the day if you are going to spend the majority of your life at a job you’ve got to enjoy it.
But what if you hate your boss, hate everyone you have ever worked with and want to do something on your own?
I have said this before and I will say it again, there has never been an easier time to start your own business. Whether you want to start a full blown business or just a side hustle to earn some extra pennies, there is so many ways you can turn your passions into a money making machine. So I have a list of things that I know excite me and I know I want to start something on my own, but how the hell do I get paid for it?
Once you have figured out what you are most passionate about, you have got to find a way of getting paid to do it. I have below made a quick list of how you could turn your passion into something sellable. Your passion might not be listed here but you will get a general idea:-
Sellable Passions
- I like knitting, there isn’t any money in it though — Start making bespoke orders and sell them on Etsy
- Teaching people is my thing — Starting an online teaching business online
- I like eating different foods — Become a food blogger and get paid to eat out
- I love making art — Start creating NFT’s or start a POD business
- I just like finding holidays for people! — Start an online travel service for rich people
Believe me I could keep going with these examples all day long but you get the point. There is so many ways to monetise your passions and it’s easy when you know how. For most people it’s a fear of the unknown or it’s imposter syndrome thinking you aren’t the biggest authority in that niche. Let me tell you now, nobody is. Everyone start from point A and eventually arrive at point B. The only way to get better is to learn. Your first Etsy shop will look shit, your first paid teaching client might complain about the quality of the content and your first blog will almost definitely not make money for 6 months.
However you learn from it. You improve and you take the feedback and make changes. A year later you have a 100 Etsy sales, your teaching business has 5 happy paying customers and your blog might have started generating income. Don’t look so much at the long game. Start taking action and everything else will fall into place.
Still not convinced how to turn your passion into a full time business? Go check out my Top 8 best ways to make money online
If you get stuck and are not sure what to do, try something.
Anne Osterlund
