You Have to be Driven By More Than the Potential to Make Money.

The pursuit of building the life of your dreams ain’t easy.

I’ve been struggling lately, and this isn’t the first time I’ve spoken about it.

I have a new work schedule and started working on another side hustle (YouTube).

I’ve been struggling to create and stick to a new routine because I haven’t yet figured out what works best.

But I’m having grace with myself and recognizing there will always be an adjustment period when you change your routines.

Which brings me to the topic of this blog.

Amid my struggle to cement a solid routine, I’ve realized there has to be a deeper drive besides the potential to make money when working on a side hustle.

There has to be something more about what you’re doing that still drives you to get up or stay up to do more.

So here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in the pursuit of becoming a content creator.

Money isn’t enough of a motivator to get you to change.

I learned this way before considering content creation as a career path.

When I was twenty-two, recently out of college, I started my first ‘real’ job as a life insurance sales agent.

The whole reason I signed up for the job was the income potential.

I wanted and needed to make money, and the more, the better (I was about to start paying my student loans around that time and wanted to become independent as soon as possible).

But I learned the hard way that money isn’t enough of a motivator to get yourself up and going and changing for the better.

I lasted for about a year at that job before giving up and looking for something else.

This was back in 2018 and 2019.

Looking back and analyzing things further, I realized I didn’t have any real motivators to get myself up and going.

I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to stand for, so I didn’t know what path I wanted to pursue.

This leads to my next point.

You need to get to know yourself intimately to figure out what you want to pursue in the first place.

It wasn’t until I had an identity crisis around that same time that I decided to figure out once and for all who Angelica was and figure out the purpose of my existence.

For the first time in my life, I made an intentional effort to get to know myself, understand what my feelings were telling me, and figure out the things that were truly important to me.

A little after this journey began, I found Medium and started writing, and I’m incredibly grateful for this because I felt I had found a part of myself I had been missing.

If you told me in 2018 that I would end up writing online, amassing a small following (and growing), and working to become a content creator, I would not have believed it.

Back then, I didn’t have the confidence to believe in myself, nor did I have any idea where my life was headed.

Now, I have a much clearer vision.

I know what I care about, what I need to work on, the career path I want to pursue, etc.

I was able to embark on this journey thanks to seeking professional help.

It’s perhaps the best investment I’ve made thus far, and if you have the means to do it, I highly recommend it.

I faced a crossroads five years ago, and I cannot imagine where I would be now if I had made a different choice.

I don’t even want to think about it because the truth is, I was heading down a very dark path.

Fortunately, I found my way again.

Once you have a vision, the rest is relatively simple.

Once I felt closer to who I was meant to be, deciding what to do and not do became a lot easier.

Along this journey, I joined an MLM (Multilevel Marketing Company) and coasted for a while.

I rode on the waves of success of others, thinking I was doing something simply by associating myself with successful people, but the truth was, I was afraid of taking risks.

I was using those associates’ success like a crutch so I didn’t have to take risks and leaps of faith of my own.

But eventually, I grew tired of it because I wasn’t succeeding. My life wasn’t moving forward, and I needed to take responsibility for that.

Thankfully, I did. I was honest with myself, and a little over a year ago, I decided to part ways with that MLM organization and took a leap of faith in myself.

I didn’t know what I was going to do next, but I knew I needed to take the risk and go at it on my own.

Otherwise, I would have kept riding that wave of fake success, not moving forward or going anywhere.

Now, I have the confidence to say that although I don’t know what the future looks like, I’m willing to risk it.

I know I want to be my own boss; I know I want to have control of my time; I know I want to work on things that fuel my creativity; I know I want to show the world who I am and inspire others to do the same.

I want to make a difference in people’s lives, and thanks to the internet, I can do that on a grand scale.

I don’t need to meet you in person to leave a lasting impression.

All I need to do is help you, in some way or other, on the journey to figure out what drives you besides money.