These days, everybody has a side hustle. Between Beach Body, Rodan and Fields, Lula Roe, the endless boutiques, consultants for everything you can think of - it's impossible to avoid seeing the impact of the side hustle in todays world.
The goal of the side hustle is to make it your main hustle. It's what you do to get yourself ahead build your income, and to eventually allow yourself to be your own boss.
As long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a writer. It took me a really long time to realize how much of a role writing has played in my life, but now that I know it's my passion, it's all I can think about. This blog, and now the work I do consulting, guest blogging, and ghost writing - these things are my side hustle so that one day I can confidently say that I am a writer, and my own boss.
I think a lot of people out there have passions that aren't in line with what they're currently doing in their career. They want to make a change but starting can be overwhelming. They vow to do something and might start the journey, but excuses come up and the dream is put on hold. I've been there. I did that for years. I talked and talked about how I wanted to start a blog, write a book - and I started those things, and then I stopped. But having been consistent for a year and a half of this website has instilled in me a fire to never stop. And if I can do it, you can too.
Create Clarity
Figure out what your goals are and write them down. Be concise, be specific, and be extremely detailed. Post these goals somewhere you will see them every single day. Keep a notebook with you at all times where these goals are also written down and where you can jot down your ideas and tasks towards developing the goals. The point is to have no confusion or room for uncertainty - if you write these goals down - they're real and they're in front of you every single day. It's a lot harder to walk away from a dream when you're constantly faced with the realization that its just a dream.
Stop Making Excuses
I work a lot. I travel a lot. I'm a social person. I like to workout. I have a dog. I'm tired. I am the queen of excuses. I'll give you excuses you've never even heard before and the little dream crusher inside of me she backs up these excuses. In order to make anything happen - you've got to give up those excuses. And you've got to hold yourself accountable. Your excuses are BS, and you've got to remind yourself if it's important to you, you'll make it happen. Sacrifices will have to be made. You will give up time where you would rather be with friends, family, partying, sleeping, whatever - but you have to carve out time to work on your dreams or they're again, just dreams.
Have a Plan
People who don't have concrete plans make me insane. I plan for a living and I understand the detail and precision that must go into plans in order to achieve goals. I want to be a writer but simply having a plan to write isn't a plan that's going to succeed. I need a strategy for content, a brand, and a means of pushing my brand out to the world. And I've got to double check each of these steps with ROI so that I know what works and what doesn't. I don't want to be another one of those bloggers who thinks success comes from just writing when I can, putting content out when I have it and hoping my cute face will get me followers. Without a plan, the dream is still - just. a. dream.
Accountability
Speak your plans into the world. Tell your squad about your goals and plans. There's something real about putting your dreams into the world where others know about them. You're kind of a loser if you're the friend who talks about doing all the time and never follows through. I don't like being around those people, I don't trust those people to follow through for me if they can't even follow through for themselves. Hold yourself accountable by being open about the dream, the plan, and the steps you're taking to make the dream more than just a dream.
Dreams are so freaking cool. People with big dream and passions are my favorite people to surround myself with. And seeing people achieve their dreams after all the hard work they put in to make it happen - that's magic. Respect the magic of a side hustle and if you do it right, your dreams will be anything but just dreams - they'll become your reality.