Losing Interest When a Hobby Becomes a Job

Talking about losing interest in a hobby when it becomes a job.

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#freelance #hobby #discussion

[hardroosterlabs]

I can identify with this 110%

I grew up a car guy, from my childhood and through my early adult hood, all I wanted to do was work on cars, fix up cars, make hot rods, etc. I always enjoyed working on my own cars over the years, and in my early 20's I got an opportunity to get paid for a job in the industry. Over the course of a decade I worked my way up to being a journeyman auto body man and painter. But in that same time, I went from enjoying the learning process, to being absolutely miserable doing work for other peoples cars, for an employer and ultimately for insurance companies who dictated the quality of the work, which I was never satisfied with. I mad a lot of money, six figure income kind of money, but I was so miserable I gave it all up and went self employed. I stuck in the industry so long, that cars are totally ruined for me, I hate working on my own cars, I don't want to deal with cars anymore. Now I make video game art, and I get paid peanuts compared to what I used to make painting cars, but I'm so much happier. I do work on someone else's game, but I have almost full artistic control over my own work, so I don't feel like I have to compromise on what I'm trying to make. I'll take making less money and being happy, over making bank and being miserable every time. Stuff is just stuff, you can't buy your own well being, that you have to manage.

In conclusion, whoever said "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" needs to be drawn and quartered because I followed that advice early in my life, and it cost me a decade of misery and a lost hobby that I used to be passionate about.

[mmarinham]

stand-up advice ;))

I actually think this is an underrated or often overlooked subject. So many creative people dream of turning their hobby into a career but it’s devastating to see your interests, that you used to pour your soul into, fade into something unfulfilling.

Personally, I believe that it’s incredibly important to make sure that your career aligns with your core values and that the work you do is congruent with who you are.

[deva_]

You don't know how much this helped me.

[MrMcSnuffyFluffy]

I feel like your channel is made for my life.

[gurratell]

I started playing around with 3D when I was maybe 13, learned a lot by myself mostly using an old program called Truespace. When I was 18 I went to school and learned Maya and all that comes with it and I continued do lots of personal projects all the time. Then I got a job when I was maybe 20 and worked with it for about ten years and during that time I rarely did anything by myself. Didn't really have neither the energy, interest or inspiration to open Maya when I came home after being at work for eight hours. But then I moved country because I needed a big change in my life. I tried and failed to find a job in the 3D business so I got myself a completely different job. This is what made me slowly start doing my own things again.
I had been curious about Houdini for a long time and now I had the energy to try it. Made a project in it and it was quite fun again, but after that there was some big talk about this Blender program that apparently had a big new release. So with 2.8 I started learning that instead and now I've been hooked every since, doing my own personal projects almost every day and I LOVE it :)

[DMXR]

Great topic, it took me 15 years of trying to earn enough money to support a family, doing what I thought I loved, to make peace with accepting creative work as a hobby and keeping the office job. Freelancing works great for some people but I found the more projects I took on, the more uninspired I felt about what I was doing creatively even though I was earning more money. For so long my aim was to give up the day job and turn my hobby into a career, but the closer I got to it the more I realised the pressure of trying to earn a living and having to sometimes take on bad projects for people who bleed you dry was killing it for me and I wasn't even making my own stuff anymore. With art as a hobby I am free to try anything, take risks, experiment, learn new stuff, meet really interesting people who share my passion. I realised for me art is actually about freedom in so many ways and it is very hard to find total freedom when you are tied to making an income.

[Rachel-xmes]

I've been doing corporate work with blender for the last several years and it's taught me how to disengage emotionally with client work and still keep a passion for personal artwork. I think it's possible to do, now I enjoy my professional work and my hobby work but I treat them as two completely different separate things.

[ciarmensira]

I have a similar situation right now. I am playing the piano for 3 years now und next week is my senior prom. I applied half a year ago that I want to play “waltz of the flowers” from Tchaikovsky to perform for the first time in front of a huge amount of people. However now I really have to force myself to practice every day even tho I don’t want to, this incredible passion I once hade completely disappears and now the only thing I can think about is how I want to drop playing the piano. In addition to that since my performance is next week I have to practice even more but one hour practice feels like 5 hours and my concentration is not even in the same room as me. But hopefully it turns out well and I get this over with.

[Erindale]

This is such an important conversation for people to be having with themselves! I'm facing this kind of question at the moment. I chose my job based on it being close to, but not quite, my hobbies so I don't ruin them but still supplement my skills. It is still hard to find balance between working, freelancing, personal projects, and down time. Thanks for the video!

[littleRebell]

I thought i could bypass this problem by earning money with something completely different but i had to realize then there was no time, energy and motivation for the things i'd like to do *sigh*
Thanks for all the great Videos, helping me alot.

[Rhodenspire]

It's funny, I'm in that same position where trying to take on a hobby as a job has ruined one's interest, and I didn't even know that was happening until I watched this video. Knowing its a thing that can happen is a relief though, now I can start working to rekindle the interest. Thank you for talking about this ^^

[CBSuper]

Great advice Curtis! I thought i wanted to be a 3d animator, so I went to college for Computer Animation and Visual Effects, but realised in my final year that I really didn't like the whole VFX industry life and work process. Creating visuals was awesome! But the VFX industry is too transient, chaotic and uncertain for my liking. I graduated and tooled around for a couple years doing freelance client work, but that was pretty bad too. You start a project thinking you'll get to be creative and it gets crushed pretty quickly and you end up doing iterations on things you hate. Personal projects fall to the wayside. I also think this has to do a lot with a persons personality. Some folks may really thrive in the team environment of VFX work and introverts like me just want to be left alone. Youtube is a great place to showcase your work and once you get monetized, you can even make a little money from it. Maybe it can become a fulltime job at some point and seems like the perfect balance of being creative and free. Love these discussions. Thanks.

[GaryParris]

Nice exploration of this. the great thing about now more than ever in the past is the ability to not just have one career or one arrow for your bow! I know that this is true, having changed a few times over my life so far.

Know thy self and use that to do what you feel is right for you.

learn your tools, blender, or otherwise. don't be afraid to jump outside of your comfort zone for what you believe in.

Learn to believe in yourself and take what is useful on board from whatever the source; especially if it helps you towards where you want to be.

Freelance is a good way to maintain what you want to work on; while having more freedom of choice but be prepared to do things you dislike as well as the things you like.

[markE]

This has happened to me with the piano, I began last April 2020 learning music theory, 3-4 hrs every night for 10 months and double that amount of study on the weekend, It all just had to sink in.
On January 2021, I bought a Yamaha digital piano, I was play up to 30 hrs per week, by day 15 I foolishly tried to learn a grade 10 piece (Tchaikovsky piano concerto in Bb minor) I spent 50 hrs just on that alone, I'm still only 10% of my way through it. Amongst 100 other songs and my own compositions.
At the 15th week I've completely stopped playing all together, I no longer have any interest.
The lesson I've learnt is don't try and compress a life time journey (which music is) and think you can just fastrack it, cause now the enjoyment has been destroyed

[im.rohiit]

Its like you read my mind. Something that i really needed ..thanks Curtis ❤️

[EritoKaio]

I used to love programing, doing game servers and stuff, then I went to study it, and by the end of the 3 year course I just couldn't look at code anymore. I've recently gone back to coding but only for personal use. I'm afraid I will ruin my love for art if I make it a job. Creativity is pretty much the strongest trait I have and don't want to lose.

[mszczesnik]

I don't play a lot of games nowadays... I'm making them since 2004...

[umangrohit]

For a long time I thought if I am getting frustrated while doing the thing I like, I must have made the wrong choice.But with time I realised it's a part of the process.And in a real world you won't always get all the things the way you want.

[ArturoJReal]

Absolutely no harm in experimenting agreed! This is a much-needed video, thanks for putting this out!

[cryptomanual]

Hi @Curtis its not a first world problem I will argue. I was born, bread, and writing from the 3rd world country of my birth. And yes, I am having this problem right now. I am having problem paying bills cos i cant even work anymore. I started a business but its still cashflow lean and cant pay me just enough.