Over the last few years I have come in contact with a handful of innovators looking to start (or recently started) their own businesses in various ways. Some people were following their creative hearts, while others were simply looking for a way to be their own boss and spend more time with their families, but regardless of what these people were doing, one thing was common amongst them, the midnight hustle.
If you don’t know what that is let me explain. The midnight hustle is the way many new business owners, creators, and innovators make their business dreams a reality. Let’s face it, not many of us have the riches to simply quit our day jobs to follow our dreams without cultivating and growing our business on the side and by “on the side”, it likely means during the midnight hours when other people are sleeping, hence the name midnight hustle. And with that midnight hustling often comes late nights, less sleep, hard work, and hopefully amazing inspiration to keep you moving toward your dreams so you can one day quit your day job and enjoy the fruits of your labor doing something that you truly enjoy. And while I am far from quitting my day job, I am experiencing a bit of my own hustle as I reach beyond my comfort zone into new opportunities and new territory. It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time.
I have talked a little bit about my dream of starting my own life coaching business, but the truth is my dream isn’t to start the business per se, it is really to help people through my business. I thought the path would be fairly straight forward, but I am finding that I may be taking a bit more of the scenic route as opposed to the straight shot as I go with the flow of life. The programs I have found in the last year haven’t really touched me in the way that makes me think, “Yes this is the ONE!”, so I have been researching various programs in hopes to find the one that best fits my purpose and calling. I think I have finally found it. (YAY!) But, with it comes a pretty hefty price tag, one that is about double the price of the last program I was going to settle on. So, it looks like the actual training may be put off longer than expected, but as you well know I am not one to sit around and do nothing and being the jack of many trades that I am, I am following an equally creative and exciting interest, writing.
The truth is I have always enjoyed writing but I have just recently begun to make some money from it and it is becoming a bit of a midnight hustle for me. While I only have one regular gig right now, I am learning that the key to having one or many midnight hustles is balance and knowing your limit, both things I am working on right now. I am very aware of the amount of time I have in my days (and nights) to complete writing projects and am working on a bit of a writing schedule that will allow me to continue to share my journey here on my blog (because I love it so much), and to still complete writing projects in a timely manner. My hope is that my current midnight hustle will help support the training I need for life coaching and things will seamlessly flow with one another leading to (one day) quitting my day job to do something I love. But, until that day comes I am going to consciously balance my time to include self-care, meditation, and family because life shouldn’t be all about work, it should be fun too.
Do you have a midnight hustle? If so what is it?
I’m definitely doing some of this midnight hustle. The trick, for me, is that I want to have it clearly planned out, but my energy levels do run on a constant level, so I am having to learn to be more flexible. There are some things that I do on a regularly planned schedule (blogging – daily, coaching – weekly, yoga teaching – soon to be twice weekly, morning pages – daily), but my Etsy store stuff and other writing ebbs and flows depending on other commitments, energy levels, etc. I have some weeks that I get so much done that it’s quite remarkable and other weeks that almost nothing gets done. I’m learning to be okay with that and to minimize the absolute-scheduled items and emphasize the flexible schedule stuff because that works best for me while I’m still working full-time.
Wow KJ, you are doing a lot! I am beginning to realize that in order to fit it all in, I may need to make a loose schedule. I will have to have specific writing times so I am not stressed and I am not missing deadlines. I just picked up an additional gig today that has added a bit to my plate, so making the time for it is key. I like your thought of flexibility too. Some of the gigs are outside of my own scheduling so as they come up I will have to maybe move some things around. It seems like a lot sometimes, but it sure is fun!
Congrats on the new gig! It sounds like things are really taking off for you! It is indeed challenging when other people are dictating the schedule, but the more things you can have that are flexible to allow you move them around as needed helps a bit with that. Good luck!