Is it possible? When a hobby, interest or ability is taken from amateur to professional status our ego gets a good massage. We feel we’ve achieved Nirvana. We’ve worked, strived, yearned for this day. Dream  of ‘making it’, legitimising our abilities, feeling lucky.  Someone is prepared to pay for this thing we have been equally prepared to do for free.

Students constantly reinforce this with their envious looks at your ‘lifestyle’ as they furtively grab a weeks sailing imbetween the weekly grind in front of a screen. The highlight of their day being a Pret a Manger baguette and a busy train. So why do we lucky few lifestyle job exponents become so down hearted on occasion?  Well for me it’s three main factors and one slightly more esoteric factor; the financial rewards and job security can be a bit sketchy if you accept the ‘going rate’/conditions,  clients can be tiring if they have a different dream of sailing to yours and anything gets boring if you do it 40 hours a week. The solution? It’s essential to not be greedy, but don’t sell yourself short on pay or conditions, don’t take work from people you don’t chime with and don’t work too hard. 20-25 weeks / year is realistic. If you aren’t lucky enough to be able to do this there’s a good chance you are going to get very tired of it at some point. The esoteric factor is that we’ve found the dream life and the thought of going back to that safe desk and baguette goads us when we’re feeling a bit down about the inevitable strains of any job. But we’ve got more to lose than a job, it’s everything we stand to lose…

And lastly if you love sailing keep some of it back just for yourself to have fun! The picture above is Nevermore my tatty Nicholson 32 – my magic carpet.