I don't know who needs to hear this, but please don't feel pressured to monetize a hobby or skill you're passionate about. It's important that you always love it. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way.

@killyourfm Agree 100%. Your hobbies should *cost something (time, effort, money,) that's why they're "hobbies" and not "jobs."

@killyourfm This a thousand times over.

@killyourfm I am running a web magazine about arts and culture for 20 years now.

What's the catch? I never tried to monetize it.

@killyourfm And there is science behind that. When things run on intrinsic motivation, they usually run wonderfully. Once the external factor has been included in the formula (money or expectations), it usually blows to shit

@killyourfm THIS. My wife is an artist and everyone is always telling her 'you should sell this!' She's sold one or two. She makes things for friends. But making things on demand or in mass? Miserable. And I'm glad she doesn't much.

@killyourfm it killed my love for music

so ...

@killyourfm But my favourite hobby is forging banknotes.

@killyourfm deciding to stop at an Associate's in Art, dropping out of the university I had transferred to, and forfeiting a BFA was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made.

Four years later I'm still processing all of it and refamiliarizing myself with art again, now that I'm not motivated by academics, gallery shows, contests, etc.

However, I continue to grow more assured that it was the right choice for me. I've since returned to the same community college to study IT.

@killyourfm 👏 A very good lesson! I write full-time and also sell art. All I can say is that it's a balancing act to never lose your passion in such a profession *because* I do love it.
To make it work, I do imperfect things and nonsense texts/art in my private life, just for fun.
I like your idea of "things too sacred"! I, too, need these spaces that I don't share with the public.

@killyourfm @ChuckMcManis Amen bro, quickest way to kill your passion for the thing. Been there, done that and have t-shirts to prove it.

@killyourfm the funds go in, the fun goes out

@killyourfm THIS! I can't tell you the number of times people have told me "This is great; you could sell these." 😐

@killyourfm

No worries.

Nobody's paying me for sex anyway :)

@killyourfm @LibertyForward1 I painted for a few years, people said I should sell, but I didn’t want to. Then I stopped wanting to paint and started doing epoxy resin stuff. People asked if I have an Etsy. No. Now I’m making polymer clay stuff. Same story. NO!

If I’d made any of those into a business, I’d never have tried the others, and I’d be ass-deep in accounting, website updates, social media marketing, taxes, deadlines, shitty customers… no, just no.

@killyourfm
The problem comes when all you have are hobbies and you need money. I'm almost 72 and I have yet to fully monetize anything I can do and have barely stayed alive this long. In fact, for the last 3 years I wouldn't have managed if my mother hadn't died and left me some money.

@killyourfm you just can never you know give up control. Not that I've made it or anything but you know I've been at it.
I hate YouTube. I don't want to make a YouTube video 4 hours a day every day of my life or whatever crap it's going to be if I want to make it like that, and so I'm not trying to make it like that you know?
If you ever somehow by some miracle managed to take, you know ownership of yourself back as an entity from whoever else has tried to take it over the years, you should never give it back.

@killyourfm I've been lucky to be able to turn a hobby I loved into a job that paid well, because I got to do a job I love. However, turning my hobby into a job meant that I found myself without a hobby. For a while, I tried to make it work both ways .That was a big mistake. It took me a while to realize that, to find my passions again, to start new hobbies.

Now that my career has grown, my day-to-day job is far from what it was decades ago, and I got my original hobby back. I still love it.

Preach! This is how I feel about coding. I loved programming as a kid, then slowly grew to hate it when it became a job. It was only after leaving the tech world in my early 30's that I started enjoying it again.

@killyourfm started doing creative writing 3 years ago and lots of material about how to get published (not the same as monetizing of course) and I always ask myself but why? I’m not against it like oh my art is pure or some shit but also why add that pressure of “success” to something fun and creative (its helps that I’m professional published already I suppose)

@killyourfm Work has to be redefined possibly in terms of its contribution to the community. It does not need to be a means of producing consumables but of Wellbeing.

It has to be defined by #Partnership #equality monetary worth is not the only value.

Having a sense of direction, optimism and hope can all contribute to feeling happier.
An optimistic or hopeful outlook means we are more likely to experience positive emotions, feel more confident, have higher satisfaction with life & improved MH

@killyourfm I almost killed my interest in my pinball hobby by going to work for an operator early into my career. I loved fixing them, working for an operator would be a dream come true, yes?

Well no. All that fun tinkering and elegant solutions turned into quick hacks when the clock was ticking and the machines needed to go out to location. Didn't help that the operator sold some of them advertising that I had looked them through, making people think they were somehow in their prime.

@killyourfm Agree. I never monetized my furry videos in any way.

Sometimes people ask for my Patreon or KoFi, then I explain that it is not my job, and I don’t want the money to guide what I do for a hobby.

@JayLittle People keep telling me "you should make videos / write articles about your gardening and hiking adventures." NO. These things are too sacred to me!

@sharan *Claps meaningfully and un-sarcastically*

@sharan I appreciate that you mention expectations, because that can be equally as toxic. I feel like the moment you feel pressured to meet someone ELSE's expectation of your work (whether it's quality, schedule, whatever), things start declining.

Well said.

@jake4480 With anything creative, it's a whole different beast to do something because you love it and maybe sell some of the products, than find yourself in a situation that the rent doesn't get paid unless you make more whatever you're selling. At that point all the love for the hobby will be long gone.

@bamfic Damn. talk about distilling a concept into the brutal barebones truth. Well said.

@killyourfm I made my favorite hobby (coding) into a career. It's been a successful 25 years but I don't love it anymore. In fact I have virtually zero urge to do it on my own anymore.

Every so often when that realization hits me, it makes me sad. I used to love it.

So much.

@killyourfm Bowing the same way toward gentlemen with fabulous hair.

@killyourfm Turning programming into my job is exactly why I won’t even try to make money with my art now

@killyourfm Meanwhile me who does tax-stuff as a job... Looks to get more into technical side of it. Lets see if I regret that.