Monetize Your Passion? Spoonie Theory, Productivity, and Work Life Balance
Hi Muses! Welcome back to my channel. This is the second in a four-part video series I'm doing this month to help set you up for success in 2021.
Last week, I shared with you two mindset shifts to help you start being consistent and productive when going after your goals. This week, I'm going to help you think about work-life balance and productivity in a way you probably haven't considered before. And the Avenue through which we are going to do that is to help those who have a passion decide whether or not it's right for them to monetize that passion going forward.
Watch the video below, or read on for the full transcript.
I'm going to guide you through six questions that you can journal on to help you come to this decision. These questions are great for everybody, but they're especially important for those with chronic illness, mental illness, disability, or any form of neurodivergence. So go ahead and grab a pen and paper or open up a blank word document and lets get started!
And don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don't miss the rest of the videos in this series.
Okay, so the first question I want you to journal on is: how many usable hours do you have each day? You want to think about this in terms of on an average day, on a really good day, and also on a really bad day, so you can average out how many usable hours you have every day.
And if you're unfamiliar with the concept of usable hours, it's very similar to the spoon theory for chronic illness and invisible disability. The idea being that those who are not perfectly healthy and neurotypical often have less usable hours each day than a healthy and neuro-typical person.
It's really important that as you're reflecting on this question, and you're deciding on a number, that you are truly honest with yourself. Don't inflate the number at all. Make sure it is no more than your literal available usable hours every day.
Now let's move on to question two. What percentage of your usable hours each day are taken up by non-negotiable tasks that you always have to spend energy on because they're just a part of being human?
So for instance, making sure to prepare and eat food several times a day; maintaining basic hygiene. I know a shower costs me a lot of spoons every day. So that's something to take into account: how often you need to bathe and how many of your usable hours that takes up. Other non-negotiables might include an existing job, taking care of your family, maintaining relationships with your friends and family, schoolwork. And If you're someone with an invisible disability, there's likely a fair amount of medical stuff you have to do on a regular basis. Be that extra stuff you have to spend energy on at home to take care of yourself, or energy that you need to expend in order to go see your medical providers.
Ultimately with this question, we're trying to determine what percentage of our usable hours each day are already taken up by other stuff that we can't get rid of.
And question three: do you feel like you're living your life or merely surviving it?
Now this one in particular is a great question to do a full 20 minute Anytime Pages journaling session on. If you're unfamiliar with that technique of mine you can check it out later in this video. But it's a really important question to sit and reflect on for a longer period of time to get to the bottom of what your answer is.
Before I move on to the next three questions, comment below and tell me how many usable hours you have on average each day. Personally, I tend to have only four to six usable hours each day. And up to 30% of that always gets taken up by non-negotiable tasks, leaving me with only three to five hours for me to use each day towards things that are meaningful, important, and fulfilling to me. Which makes it all the more crucial that I choose what I spend my energy on wisely.
Question four: if the percentage of usable hours that gets taken up by non-negotiable tasks is 25% or more on average for you, are you okay with that? Really? Are what you've been calling non-negotiable tasks really that non-negotiable, or is this an opportunity for you to truly examine those tasks and let go of those which no longer serve you? So you can have more time to devote to things that truly do serve you?
This is another doozy of a question. So again, I recommend taking at least 20 minutes to journal on it using the Anytime Pages method.
Now it's time to do some math for question five. When you subtract the number of hours on average every day you need to spend towards non-negotiable tasks from your total average usable hours, how many usable hours are you left with on average every day to actually live your life?
Deep breath. Some of you may have just discovered that you only have two to four or even less usable hours each day to actually live your life. And that information can be deeply depressing and even triggering. So if you're struggling right now, please know that you're not alone and your feelings are valid. You are safe here. And if it helps, feel free to share how you're feeling in the comments below.
And if you're a problem solver, you might already be trying to figure out how you can hack your productivity so you can have it all: both earn a living and do all the things you love within your finite usable hours each day. Because that's what we've been taught is work-life balance, right? The entire concept of work-life balance depends on work and life being two separate things on opposite ends of a scale that we need to manipulate in order for them to balance out with each other. But if you ask me, that's the wrong question to be asking.
Yes, I'm a huge productivity nerd - always have been, and helping people increase their productivity is a huge part of what I do in my coaching business. That being said, if you are someone like me, who has a very finite number of usable hours or spoons at their disposal each day, we need to ask a different question than simply how to balance out work and life within that context.
This brings us to the sixth and final question for reflection I'm going to share with you today. And that is if you are someone like me, who has a very finite number of usable hours at their disposal each day, can you afford not to monetize your passion?
Because under these circumstances, when you have a finite number of usable hours and spoons at your disposal, it is perfectly normal as someone with chronic illness, mental illness, any other form of disability, or a form of neurodivergence; it is perfectly normal for those people to want to monetize their passions.
In fact, I would go a step further to say that it is expected under those circumstances to want to monetize your passion. Because when you have very limited usable hours and spoons every day, the idea of work and life being two separate things means you don't have enough time for either of them, which means work-life balance as a construct where work and life are separate, tends not to work for us spoonies.
So if you think back to your answer to question three, do you feel like you're living or merely surviving? You deserve a quality of life. Just surviving, just getting by is not good enough for you. You deserve to live your life and to feel alive. This means you have a right to earn a living from your passion to gain both an income and fulfillment from work that is meaningful to you all at the same time. Because as someone with limited usable hours, spending all of those hours just to earn a living, and then spending the rest of your time just recovering from the work of earning a living, that's not living. And you deserve better.
And if this helps: I, Cassie Winter, give you full unconditional permission to prioritize monetizing your passions, so you can both earn a living and live your life at the same time.
So there you have it, a discussion of work-life balance that may have blown your head wide open for a second, and six questions to help you get to the bottom of whether or not it's worth it for you to try to monetize your passions. And like I said, if you're like me and you have limited usable hours, monetizing your passions could be one of the greatest gifts you ever give yourself.
I really hope this video helped you gain the clarity to move forward. And if you have any questions about anything I talked about, don't hesitate to leave them in the comments below.
And if you're also someone who struggles with procrastination and resistance on a regular basis, I highly recommend checking out my free Masterclass, where I'll share with you three mindset shifts and a simple three-step process that is guaranteed to help you overcome procrastination and resistance. To gain access all you have to do is go to this link and sign up.
Lastly, at the end of this month I'm going to be opening the doors to my coaching membership Accountability Muse. This is something that only happens three times a year, so if you want to make sure you don't miss it, subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell and/or sign up for my mailing list. And hint, if you sign up for the free Masterclass, you're automatically on my mailing list.
If you liked this video, please hit that like button and be sure to share it with your friends. I'll be back sometime next week with the third video in this series. See you then. Bye.
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