What Would YOU Do?

Sometimes it's fun to just let the mind wander and dream for a moment about life being a little different from the way it actually is.

Granted, there are some people who are already living their lives and things are unfolding precisely as they had hoped for. So I'm not claiming this is for everybody!

The one I have often enjoyed speculating on — sometimes alone, and sometimes in a group of friends — is that famous question "If you didn't have to worry about money to pay for your life, and could do whatever you wanted to... what would you do?"

Maybe it sounds like too much of a fantasy for some people's liking, but here's the thing: Answering such a question sincerely actually tells you a lot about yourself and whether or not you're doing the right thing with your life!

Last time I contemplated this — maybe a couple of years ago — I came to the somewhat surprising realization that I actually am doing pretty much precisely what I'd want to be doing.

The only significant difference is that doing these things have proven relatively unable to actually generate a sustainable income. Well, maybe not entirely. But it really requires being willing to scrimp and save in order to just scrape by.

So really what I would do would not be substantially different; the difference would come in terms of those things being significantly more financially viable.

Interestingly enough, quite a few people envy me for choosing the life I want rather than the more practical life that's more centered around being income producing.

So What IS it I Do?

Well, I write. But it doesn't pay all that well. It did, once upon a time, but so much of what used to pay now gets outsourced to SE Asia, or to AI, or to services like Grammarly.

I'm a book and article editor. Whereas I do still get some work, the same applies here... people rely more and more on technology to do an "adequate" editing job for a fraction of what I get paid.

I sell paper collectibles online. That, too, is not what it once was. Most of my customer base is aging, and for every three older people pass away, only one new younger person enters these hobbies.

I'm an artist. And whereas I love it, art is a very difficult field to make substantially income producing. Particularly when your art doesn't lend itself to be printed on T-shirts and coffee mugs...

I sell art supplies — in the form of "found objects" from nature — to jewelers, artists and craftspeople all around the world. It's not a bad niche business, but it tends to ebb and flow with the general strength of the economy. At the moment, we're scraping bottom.

But to get back to the "what would you do?" question... I would still do precisely that. But I would hopefully make about three times the income from it, that I do now.

Above all, this little brain exercise tells me that I am on the right path... because I get to do what I want, and that's cool! How about you?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your weekend!

How about you? Are you doing what you want to do? If finances were not part of the equations, what WOULD you want to be doing? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

A Quick Request: Please Support @the-gorilla's DAO proposal to modernize the Steemit interface!

If you have not been here for a long time, you might not be aware that Steemit is largely community driven. That means many changes and updates aren't created by "some company or management," but by individual community members.

The "look and feel" of the Steemit interface has not changed significantly in the seven years I have been here, and it is terribly outdated. @the-gorilla is a professional developer who has proposed to create a "modernization." And for that to happen, he needs your vote, much in the same way we vote for Witnesses.

I encourage you to read the proposal and vote in support of it — it's the 2nd one down from the top! Every vote counts, little and large!

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Created at 2024.02.11 00:10PST
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