I’ve written about how much I love podcasts on here before. Podcasts are one of the main forms of entertainment in my life along with tv shows and reading. And while many of the podcasts I listen to are educational, there are some that I listen to just for how fun they are. But the best ones seem to be the ones that mix fun and educational.
I was listening to a new episode of a newer podcast, Bossed Up, yesterday and the most recent episode really stuck with me. Bossed Up is all about empowering yourself in whatever you do for work. For many people that means branching out on your own and becoming your own boss. But you can still be a boss at work even if you aren’t a boss by title. And a lot of this most recent episode was about feeling unqualified in a position you may hold at work. But what really connected to me was a brief part of that interview that discussed doing what you love for work.
They were talking about how sometimes you have to take chances and go for a dream job and other times you need to take a day job while you figure out what your dream job is and how you can accomplish it. You may need time to figure out how to turn your passion into a paycheck and there is nothing wrong with that. While some people are ashamed about having a day job while they are pursuing their dreams, pretty much everyone has to have a day job at some point. It’s extremely rare to not need to have a way to make money between jobs at least for a little bit of time.
I’ve never been ashamed to have day jobs. I’ve talked about them on here before and I’m always happy to talk to other people about what I do for work to support myself while I’m pursuing acting. But at the same time, I do feel like I’ve been settling in my day jobs a bit. I’ve gotten into a relatively comfortable space where I know what I need to do each day and I’m good at doing them. But things aren’t in my control like how one of my day jobs had to cut back my hours significantly. And when that happens, I’m in a bit of a tailspin trying to get out of the situation and making sure that my budget isn’t totally screwed up or that I am struggling.
This podcast episode reinvigorated me and made me really think about what I want to do as day jobs while I pursue acting. I have no intention of leaving any of my day jobs soon. Even if I found another job to do, I’d try to find a way to keep my current jobs so I could have more money to put toward paying down my credit card debt. But I would love to transition my day jobs at some point in the future.
It would be nice to have a day job that I enjoy doing instead of just tolerating at times. While it’s nice to have a ton of downtime and I can goof off while I’m getting paid when there are no customers to help, it would feel amazing to feel productive and know that I’m working. But at the same time, I need a day job that is flexible and would allow me to continue auditioning and doing other actor related things. That is not an easy combination to find which is why I am so grateful in my current situation.
But maybe it’s time to think about what I could do on my own to support myself. I do have skills that I’m not using to their full potential that I know others would probably pay me to do. I need to be a bit more aggressive about those things and seeing who would hire me. And I probably do need to strengthen those skills a bit more as well so I could be at the top of my game. But with those skills, I’m still a bit unsure on how to combine them or how to market myself to try to find work doing that.
While creating my own day job right now probably isn’t going to happen, that doesn’t mean I should just sit back and keep doing what I’m doing. I should work on building those skills and seeing what jobs are out there that are similar to what I could do. I might need to start networking myself with those skills (instead of just marketing myself as an actor). And maybe there is something I haven’t thought about or considered that I will discover and it will take me down a path I never imagined.
I really have no clue what my future holds, but I do know that I want to be more proactive and try to make some more changes to my life and my work situation. And I’m so grateful that I was listening to a podcast episode that inspired me to get my butt in gear about this.
You Might Also Like
Live Podcast Episode (or Another Way You Can Support Me)
Continuing To Find Ways To Be Creative (or Podcasts and Online Shows)
Using Podcasts To Better Myself (or Continuing To Be A Podcast Addict)
Sharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved)
Turning Myself Into A Morning Person (or Continuing On My Productivity Kick)
Podcasts and Twitter (or An Evening Out With Some Actors)
