D&D Delima
So I feel like a lot of my content will be going into the table top hobby and correlate things in game to real life. Seems to be what I'm best at that has enough interest to grow a channel with along with keeping me going in the hobby. With that said, I thought I'd share a problem I'm having lately with regards to time.
Work-Life Balance:
We've all heard this stupid buzz "phrase" right? What else could we call it? It's that teeter-totter between making money and spending money the way you want. This is fairly similar for me to that of any other table-top RPG fan. Not enough time in the day to do everything I want and get enough sleep. I'll give this a low priority order in this list since it's something most of my friends share in much the same way. It would, however, be nice to have more time and have to work less and make the same amount of money. Hence the cryptocurrency investment plan I've got going. Maybe one day this will balance more on the side of "life" instead of "work. This is obviously a sacrifice of weekday vs weekend time.
Family Time vs. Personal time:
Some of my friends don't have this issue. It's not really an issue, but a diminished resource if I plan to continue being a good boyfriend and a good father. I intend to, so therefore this isn't going to change much. Though, I do on occasion, get that regretful feeling of not being a responsible person with regards to others in my life I have chosen to share it with. This creates a bit of a depressive loop for me. Guilt for feeling that way and the reasons behind it. "Why don't you just give up your childish hobby and it won't be a problem." Is what the voice in my head tells me. Then "What is childish anyway? You're an adult and are able to make decisions and many other adults play this with ease, so it's not just you and it's not just for kids." Usually wins out and calms me down to Earth. This is usually a sacrifice of weekends vs weekday time.
Other hobbies get in the way.
I love games in all it's forms, social games, video games, drinking games, political......wait, no, not that one. Anyway, they get in the way especially when a new video game drops that I'm interested in and my group of "bros" won't shut up about it. It can take hours upon hours to get good at a game and play at the level where others who you play with will at the very least say "Yeah, Lunchbauks is online! Get him in the squad, he'll do.". This time commit can suck the allotment pool dry in a matter of days. It's usually a sacrifice of sleep vs. weekday time.
Aspirations/Future Dreams can't be fulfilled.
There are so many other things I want to do with my time that slice into the pie. The newest book out I want to read is 500+pages and I'm a slow reader. The journey of my life through depression and cancer is partially chronicled and I want to really finish that as a book and get it published. I want to brew my own craft beer at home. I want to get back to painting and drawing. I have commissions at the ready to do design work and digital paintings that I just never seem to have the time for. These are all things that would suck time from wherever I can manage.
At the end of the month I find myself balancing all of these items and it's a task to try to be an adult, keep my inner child alive and find the time to do something productive that may turn into a career or just allow a hobby to fully form into the masterwork I have it dream up in my head to be.
I guess I really just wrote this to put pen to paper on my thoughts on time commitment issues I've been having, but also to reach out and see if you out there have the same struggle and if you struggle with the same things I am or if it is a different struggle. Either way I want to hear about it in the comments.
Till next time - Lunchbauks
Just watched your intro, video, and thought this was a good place to say hi. So Hello!
As far as what you should do, I think leaning into what you already love makes a lot of sense. For tabletop role-playing games, I would either look into Livestreaming (DLive), Edited Videos (DTube), or even a Podcast (DSound). My initial reco given you time constraints mentioned above would be pick one format that both interests you and that you think you could do well enough. And there will definitely be people that will be interested. You could even find ways to bring the community into it as NPCs, or something else (similar to The Adventure Zone Podcast if you're familiar).
Anyway, good luck! My biggest piece of advice though, get a profile pic. :) Tons of bots and spammers on steemit/busy/dtube/etc. and profile pictures are a quick way to sort through them.
These are all great ideas. I actually didn't know about Dsound and have a group ready to podcast getting together soon! It's so funny you mention The Adventure Zone! I'm on episode 53 right now and love every minute of it! Thanks for the advice and for dropping by!
You are not alone. I've been coming around to making some hard decisions in terms of prioritization. In some cases I'm able to allocate time for certain pursuits on a 'seasonal' or rotational basis. Keeping a schedule can be beneficial too, though I understand it's not always so simple!
Hmm, seasonal...I've never thought about that. I like that there could be a "gaming" season. I'm going to see what my groups think about that sort of gameplay mentality. Thanks for the idea!