1. Is your passion project worth a day of your vacation time?

I have been working on getting this channel and website up for a while, but a few months after the initial announcement, I had not started posting content. I tried to pack in an hour of creative thinking and work in the evenings after dinner but it was not enough.

This projects was simply not happening. I produced some notes and ideas, but nothing finished. No written blogs and No video.

It takes a significant chunk of time and set up my studio, do the writing, and do all the little tasks required to move things forward. I finally realized that I was going to have to take a whole day off from my normal work commitments to devote un-distracted time to Feel The Boot.

In effect, I realized that I needed to give myself a boot in the ass.

Feel the boot is a passion project for me. It is not my full time occupation, and between work, volunteer activities, advising, and angel investing, I have very little time left over.

Once I realized that things were not moving forward, I knew I needed to make some kind of change. As they say, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

I have seen the same thing with entrepreneurs, and other people with passion projects that are not yet a full time job. They will get some work done but a some point, things just stall.

Many times they then start beating themselves up for lack of motivation, character, energy, or whatever. However, it is not appropriate or helpful in this situation.

Instead, this is a time for reflection. Why are things not progressing? What needs to happen to get things moving forward again.

Then make that change. It could be a one time thing or some ongoing change of schedule or habits. About twenty years ago I realized that my good intentions were not getting me to exercise and it showed. I started getting up 90 minutes earlier every week day to get in a workout before any distractions could hit, and that pattern has worked ever since.

For Feel The Boot, I simply needed to take a whole day from my vacation pool to create the uninterrupted time required.

And it is worth it to me. I am passionate about this.

You might need the same, or you might need something else. You could commit to get up early for quiet time, or agree to trade off child duty a few days a week to get away to a co-working space. Every roadblock is unique and may require a creative solution.

Just stop the self flagellation and thing. The fact that you are down on yourself about this makes it clear that you are passionate and motivated, so that is not the problem. Take a step back and take the time to work out what the real problem is.

Then do that thing.

Let me know how it works for you in the comments.

Till next time … Ciao