How The Work You Love Becomes the Work You Leave Behind

While turning a passion into profit is a common path for entrepreneurs, even creatives who pursue their passion alongside a 9-5 feel the pain of losing touch with the work they love. Some people don’t paint as much as they wish, others can never quite finish that manuscript, and some solo entrepreneurs find themselves neck deep in work they never wanted to do in the first place. 

You thought you were signing up for 24/7 passion projects, but life and business have a knack for getting in the way. You have to set yourself up to prioritize passion in a way that works for you, not against you.

The Shared Struggle

As someone who loves writing, I’ll admit, I even put off this blog. But that’s the heart of the message—it’s tough, and I’m sure many business owners can understand the pain of the paradox. 

You break off to start a law firm because you’re passionate about marital law, and the next thing you know, you have to worry about marketing, retention, and bad reviews. Maybe the guilt loop gets you. You don’t work on the passion→ you feel bad→ you avoid thinking about the passion→ repeat. It’s like the world’s worst washing machine, and you can’t find a way out. 

Why It Happens 

The reasoning behind the guilt and avoidance is different for every person, but there are a few common reasons. 

Sometimes the urgent tasks drown out the ones that feel important, or you promise yourself you’ll do all the things you want to do once things slow down, but the slow times never come. The lack of external accountability in most situations means that you can always negotiate the meaningful work away, or until next week, or never. 

The little parts of running a business or writing a book while also trying to live your life are all important, but sometimes losing sight of the passion can hurt more than putting in the work to prioritize it. 

Recognize and Reframe

Every person will have a different solution that works best for them; you might already have yours, but there’s a lot that creatives and entrepreneurs can learn from each other (and sometimes they’re one and the same). 

The key to doing the work you love is to stop treating that work like a reward you can only enjoy if you finish everything else first. Creatives can treat their time to pursue their passion like a business owner treats a meeting—schedule it and protect it. Entrepreneurs can borrow a creative’s view on the importance of meaningful work—revere it, don’t leave it behind.

You could even try implementing some of the below into your everyday life:

• A time block for passion project work

• A submission tracker

• A weekly creative sprint

The busy entrepreneur, who feels caught up in the task machine of admin, logistics, and obligation, could also consider hiring a virtual assistant to take on the day-to-day tasks that crowd a calendar and bleed you into burnout. 

The Moment Has Always Been Here

There will never be a right time to reprioritize your passion because the moment has always been there. There’s nothing easy about putting yourself first. Chasing a passion isn’t selfish; it’s self-preservation, because the only thing worse than giving up on a passion is turning that passion into a paycheck and still losing sight of it in the end.