Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Figuring Out What You Want

When choosing what to do on Fiverr (or in life), it's a good idea to figure out what you want, and what it really means. Not what others think that you should want, not what is considered appropriate in your family/neighborhood/city, but what you want, and what it means for you.

Yes, of course, you want to make money. Maybe you just need pocket money, or you need money to pay bills and feed your family and avoid starving to death, or you're trying to supplement your income... Whatever your needs may be, the chances are, if you're on Fiverr, you're trying to earn money, unless you're one of the rare members who need something to do with their time (and even they don't work for free).

But, other than not starving to death, what do you want? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? Sure, you can do a lot of stuff you don't like if you have to, and not just for money; nobody enjoys washing dishes or scrubbing floors or cleaning the toilet, but people who don't want to live in filth do it anyway. However, what's the point of spending day after day, month after month, year after year doing something that you hate? You might manage to pay the bills that way, at least for a while, but your happiness and your health would suffer, and you'd end up hating your life, and possibly hating everyone you feel responsible for.

On the other hand, if you figure out what you want and manage to earn money doing that, there will be no burnout. You will enjoy it. You will work with joy. Not every project or every part of it will be enjoyable, but overall, you'll be happy. Your family will be happier that way, too.

But how do you figure out what it is?

There's no definite answer that I'm aware of, but if you don't have even the slightest idea what it is, it might help if you start thinking about the things you enjoy doing. They don't have to be related to any kind of work in the usual sense; list them anyway. Reading books, watching movies, watching sports, taking long walks, watching clouds, making stuff out of chestnuts... Whatever you like, there are other people who like it, too; and if you really know a lot about it, people will be willing to pay for your knowledge. Book recommendations, movie recommendations, tips and tricks on finding the best route for a walk and what to bring with you, pictures of the clouds changing throughout the day, how to make this or that with nothing but chestnuts and toothpicks... Use your imagination, and then find a place where you can sell it (say, Fiverr), or create one. Or create several.

A very important part of this process is, once you've gotten an idea about what it is that you want, figuring out what it actually means. Say, you want to design clothes. Is it high fashion, and do you want to be famous? Or do you absolutely love the look of joy on your friend's little daughter's face when you tweak a little something on her simple dress, so it looks special and different from anything else?

For me, the real meaning was the difficult part. I knew I wanted to write for a living, but it was only a few years ago that I realized that my name didn't have to be on it. It can be, no problem; I certainly don't mind if my story is published under my name. But it doesn't have to be. I've realized that I honestly don't care if nobody knows that I've written the script for that video, or that I'm the real author of this article or that story. And once I knew that, I could stop trying to do stuff I've read I should do as a writer, and start making money by writing instead.

Is it always perfect? No. Sometimes there are annoying people to deal with (but there's no avoiding them, no matter what you do), and sometimes there are dry spells (which I use to learn, improve, and try new stuff). However, I know why I'm doing what I'm doing, and it's not just because I'm desperate to avoid starvation. I've figured out what I want (write for a living) and what it really means (anonymous is fine, as long as I get paid for it), I have my long-term goals in mind, and it works.

It really works.