Success Advice
The Case For Being A Weekend Warrior
Working on your passion, side-hustle, hobby, etc has its limitations.
My passion is blogging and I’m a weekend warrior.
A weekend warrior is someone who has a normal job and then works on their passion over the weekend.
In this article, I’m going to change that meaning slightly and say that a weekend warrior is someone that has a normal job and works on their passion outside work hours. I thought about the advantages of being a weekend warrior.
Sometimes the restrictions you have are your greatest advantage.
For a lot us, we just want to get home from work to pursue our passion.
We tell ourselves the lie that if we could only find a way to do it full-time we’d be set.
Trialing a passion full-time
I tried it with my blogging. I did it full-time. I thought it was the answer to all my dreams.
You know what happened?
I sat at home and didn’t write. I watched movies, read books and told myself“You got all the time in the world pal to blog, so take it easy.”
I always had another thing to do before I could write.
Some days it was meditation, the gym and then helping my girlfriend with something because I love her very much. All that full-time blogging didn’t look so great.
The output was less.
Acting out of desperation kills the art
The reason most of us work a 9–5 is obvious: money.
When you are forced to monetize your passion the desperation to make a living often kills all your creativity, drive and passion.
You end up taking shortcuts because you have to make money from your passion. I found that working 4 days a week at a normal job I liked and doing three days of blogging as a weekend warrior was the right balance for me.
The balance for you will be different. The equation is made up of making money, passion, art and time.
Passion needs room to breathe and suffocating it with desperation will not work.I’ve tried many times.
A day job compounds your after-hours activity
The very fact I have to go to work is what helps my passion for blogging.
You might be thinking “How the heck can an office job possibly help me work on my one and only passion?”
I thought that way too. What I realized is that on the days I go to my 9–5, I come home with a sense of hunger.
I have all this energy built up inside of me that is just waiting to get out of me. It’s this energy that has helped me write many viral blog posts.
At work, I experience lots of things which I then blog about when I get home. My day job taught me leadership and I could never write about that topic if it wasn’t for my 9–5.
Life is very boring when all you have is never-ending space in front of you that you can piss up against the wall and take for granted.
If you do it full-time and you’re burning out, what’s the point
Speak to any musician who has played to thousands of people as their day job and they’ll tell you that doing their art full-time burns them out.
Even when you do what you love full-time, you will get bored and there’s a chance you will burn out. If all you do is burn out and end up hating your passion, what’s the point?
Weekend warriors get to take breaks from their passion and embrace a forced distraction called a career.
This career becomes an acceptable excuse for being distracted which then helps reduce the chance of burnout.
You can’t see your passion the same
When I started blogging, it changed me.
I can no longer read something without thinking about writing my own point of view. I find it hard to read because my busy mind starts thinking about what I can write myself.
Ask travel writers what it’s like to go on a holiday.
They’ll tell you that when they go on holiday, they are stuck in their critiquing mode and can’t actually be present and aware of the holiday they are supposed to be having.
You end up spending so much time living your passion that you can’t enjoy it or think with a clear head about how to create the work you’re so passionate about.
Removing the blocks is the key
Weekend warriors have the obstacles they encounter temporarily removed because of their day job.
By being away from your passion, you can think about the obstacles you encounter with an objective mind. The solutions to the obstacles you’ll encounter in your passion often stem from stuff you see at work.
I found this to be the case when I was trying to write better and heard a story at work from a customer about how they approach the creative side of their business. They described their flower shop Instagram page to me and how it’s supposed to make the person viewing their page feel a certain way.
I realized that this was the same thing I was trying to do with my blogging.
This customer, by the way, was someone that was swearing at me and wanting a refund.
I thought this situation would be the last place in the world that I would find the solution to an obstacle I was encountering with my blogging.
Don’t disregard how valuable unrelated work experiences are to pursuing your passion.
It’s scratching an itch
The weekend warrior like me has something that the full-time hobbyist doesn’t have; we’re scratching an itch and choosing to follow our curiosity.
The outcome we weekend warriors are looking for is not defined, has no boundaries, can take as long as it needs to and is not a primary source of income.
Curiosity is our north star.
Summary
Your passion is supposed to be fun. Don’t ruin it by trying to do it full-time unless you’ve tried it and found a way forward that works.
I’m yet to find a way to do my passion of blogging full-time and there’s something special about the way I currently do it that I don’t want to mess with.
It’s like when people ask Tim Ferriss why he won’t revise his book The 4-Hour Workweek because he doesn’t want to kill the magic it created for millions of people. Messing with your passion when it’s working can be dangerous.
There’s nothing wrong with being a weekend warrior and there are plenty of advantages to it.
For some, being a weekend warrior is a way of life that makes their passion work in relation to the rest of their life.
I’m proud to be a weekend warrior.
Try it.
If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
Success Advice
How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.
There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.
Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.
Embed the strength of AI and ML.
AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.
Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.
ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.
In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.
Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities
Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.
Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.
Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.
In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.
Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development
You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.
You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.
Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.
Developing key skills to achieve goals
Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.
Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.
Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.
Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.
Development/Coding Knowledge
Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.
Hacking proof framework
There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.
Communication Abilities/Soft Skills
Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:
Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.
Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.
Agile Implementations
It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.
- Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
- Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
- Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
- Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
- Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.
- Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
- Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
- Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.
Success Advice
Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success
These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds
The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)
Motivation
From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone
By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality
Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)
Success Advice
10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind
The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy
You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)
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