Passion Projects

(mouse clicking) (soft music) Headspace Studios. (gentle music) Hey, it's Dora and welcome back to the Sunday Scaries. For today's episode, I want to get into the ups and downs of juggling your nine to five and your five to nine. This will hopefully help those of you who have your weekday jobs, but are also working on and pursuing a passion project. And I'm talking about juggling anything you're passionate about outside of your regular workday, from writing a novel to launching a course. Having a passion outside of my regular job is how I ended up here at Headspace. While attending nursing school full-time, I also had two part-time jobs because I needed the income, and I was also cultivating community spaces, training and working as a mindfulness teacher. I look back now amazed at how I was able to do all of those things at once, but I also realize that my passion project was what was fueling me. Saturday and Sunday were the days I lived for. I had structured my time, so I only worked during the weekdays and the weekends were when I could have uninterrupted time to create, network, and rest. My weekends were a reminder that I was creating space for something more in my life, and for a while, they even helped quell my Sunday Scaries. Although the weekend felt short and I only got to commit to my true passion during this small sliver of time, it gave me the courage to get through the rest of the week. I'd wake up Monday morning ready to take on the world, and during the week when I was working all day and staying up late and studying for my nursing exams, I could turn to my passion as a source of comfort. I looked forward to my future weekend filled with connecting with my community, crafting new meditations, and attending events. This hope helped me overcome the drudgery of the week, not just overcome, but conquer. Feeling that hunger and knowing I had something I loved during my free time was good for me. I had something to strive for. But after three years when I had become a full-time nurse working 40 hours a week, my feelings about it all started to change. I had fixated so much on the weekends being my happy place that I started to completely dread going to my job during the week. The Sunday Scaries would arrive in full force. Why couldn't I do what I wanted to do all the time? Why did I relegate such a big part of myself to such a small part of the week? When would my passion for mindfulness and community organizing finally take off? And why did I have to work a job I wasn't fully passionate about in the meantime? The best word to describe how I felt during this time was resentful. The reality of having a nine to five that I needed to pay...