I have a full-time job at Walmart, usually from 2 pm to 11 pm.
I also have a remote part-time job working for a digital marketing agency, where I work around 10 hours a week, on average.
With the project’s start, the untracked hours have made me feel like it has become a third job.
In other words, it feels like I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to do.
I enjoy doing all three jobs, but there’s not enough time to do all three to the best of my ability.
Even now, I have moved the deadline for my part-time job’s blog post because I couldn’t work on it as much as I needed to last week.
And the first written story for my personal project is set to be published this Friday, but I’ve only conducted two interviews so far and need to schedule time to sit and write it.
So what should I do?
As I meet more people for my personal project and hear the excitement and curiosity in their voices, I’m drawn to focusing on it a bit more than my other two jobs, at least for the next three weeks, to build the foundation.
My mind has been gravitating towards the idea of asking for time off from my part-time job and reducing my hours for my full-time job, again, at least for the next three weeks.
But how do I even approach that topic? And it’s not even guaranteed that they would accept my request.
Then again, if this project is important to me and will help me closer to my dream, then what is there to be concerned about?
Perhaps that is how I should stress the importance of this project: that the work is necessary for not just my career, but for my future, and for my soul.
Having written that, the words of Seth Godin came to mind:
What would you do if you knew you would fail?
If I knew I would fail, I would ask anyway.
If I knew I would fail, I would continue working on the project, even at the risk of losing my other two jobs.
This work means more to me than my finances.
Even if this project fails, I will live confidently knowing I tried to do something meaningful.
And no one can take that away from me.
This project is just a microcosm of what my future holds.
You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically—to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.
Stephen R. Covey