How to Start a Strike Against Survival Jobs

I don’t have a “survival job.”

I know.  Hate me.

I actually … really like what I do!

My brother said it best: “Just do what you like.” It’s so simple yet so true. I know it’s sometimes impossible to stick to this at all times especially when desperate times call for desperate measures (in which case, I suggest becoming a stripper ….. kidding! … Well, unless that’s what you’re into). But, if you’re at work and you feel like Alexander from the children’s story, Alexander and The Terrible Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day, I hope you’re looking for new options!

(Photo Cred: Alexander and The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. Illustrations by Ray Cruz.)

Make a job out of your hobby – whether you find it or create it yourself.  I loved dancing off my lil’ tush, so I got certified in Zumba.  Hello job options!  My brother loves fishing.  Now he writes Ebooks filled with his overload of fisherman knowledge, charters fishing trips, and fishes commercially during striper season.  I once met an actor who was into concerts/music and working from home.  He’s now raking in tons of money buying and selling concert tix from his living room a couple of mornings a week.

How you spend your time is so vital to your basic overall mental health! If you are over stressed or unhappy in an environment you frequent for several hours per day, it will take a terrible horrible no good very bad toll on your artist self/career! (**material for angry monologues and bashing-filled poetry slams aren’t worth the misery!)

“And then, then … *sniffle* my boss made me cry!”

So find what you like, (may I call it your “hobby niche?) and do it.  Something really truly might come from it!  For example, I love the gym; I love fitness, healthy bodies, working out, and flying endorphins, so I … *drum roll*… work at a gym! And if it’s not so easy (and it won’t be), try your best to find the positive in your survival job, while still following what you like outside of work. And imagine how great it would be to have a job that supplements your artistic career?

“Sometimes these weights are heavy and my arms are tired, but I’m still a happy lady!”

No one deserves to be miserable (well, I guess I COULD name a few people), and just because we’ve followed our callings to be artists, things so horrible that they’ve been labeled “survival jobs” shouldn’t be a required trade-off.

Never settle; you deserve more than that, and I assure you, the universe will align and a better opportunity will arise. Follow what you like as though they’re bread crumbs on a trail. They’re there for a purpose – bait for life to lead you to what you are meant to be doing.

Onwards and Upwards,