For some reason or the other I thought that Quit Your Day Job had been running for four years but apparently it is three. Which is still awesome and a decent chunk of my life that I’ve been chronicling here.
I also think this is the first time I’ve managed to hit on the actual anniversary day (I set it in Outlook to remind me this year, all month it has been blinking blog anniversary). Although like every other year so far I don’t have anything big or appropriate prepared!
The last twelve months haven’t always been so easy, we lost a lot of the posts in the grand move over to a new host and I’ve found my attention wavering on more than one occasion. But as I said last year:
This site has honestly been an absolute delight to write and made more so by you guys, especially those who leave comments (come on you lurkers – why not say hi!).
Thanks a lot everyone!
I thought it might also be appropriate to repost, at least partially a post I did talking about Quit Your Day Job back in November 2008:
People are often confused about this blog’s title, I know I get a few hits off people looking for get rich quick on the internet schemes or magical work from home ideas so they can avoid the daily grind of going in to a job they hate.
This isn’t that kind of site.
Not that I don’t encourage the idea of leaving your day job to pursue your craft but the sad reality is that not everyone can do it and still survive. I love illustration but there is no way that I could support my lifestyle on it alone. Not that I don’t want to but I’m a realist.
This site is not about literally quitting your day job, it’s about setting the artist free. It’s about not letting your entire life being engulfed into your day job no matter how much you love that job (or hate it).
Say you work in a call centre doing customer support. It’s a drag, I’ve been there and I know. However the company you work for are buying your time not your soul. So do the absolute best job you can at that day job but then when it comes to quitting time leave the work stuff at the door and focus on your craft.
Your life and your craft are like a coat that when you come into work in the morning you remove and replace with your work coat. At the end of the day you need to remove the work coat and put your life coat back on. All too often we forget to get that life coat back and wander out the door still wearing that work coat.
How can you tell? There’s lot’s of ways like you spend time thinking about work, you go through the motions in a bit of a daze, you eat dinner just to eat something, you spend half the night getting ready for work tomorrow and you do this every night. Obviously most of this stuff is necessary, you should be ready for work and you definitely need to eat and sleep! But it shouldn’t be your focus (unless of course your passion is cooking) and you certainly shouldn’t spend your time thinking (worrying) about work. You’re wearing the wrong coat.
Thanks again guys!!!
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40 Responses to “So it has now been three years – blog anniversary”
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Happy three year anniversary!
Using your analogy, I leave the work coat on all the time. I think this is the nature of the work I do (medical research) – some of it is mundane (meetings, training, endless assays, data entry), other parts are intense (data calculations, statistics, writing manuscripts, presentations).
However, over and above that, there is the need to know the literature and make connections to your own research. This can be the immediate topic of study (for me, tendon degeneration), the broader subject (bone and joint research), the whole area (Pubmed) or science and beyond (Google scholar and, for me, Twitter). This part does not turn off – items of information are constantly flowing into the “big picture”, mostly transitory, sometimes semi-permanent, other times a golden”Eureka!” moments.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't see my life and work as separate coats. My work is more like a constantly accessible pantry, to which I constant add new foods, throw out expired or unused goods and raid to make new culinary delights (and occasionally disasters) which are then published and shared with the world.
Like anyone hungry, no matter whether I'm working or not, I usually have the doors open.
You know, I've come here a few times and every time that spelling of “practise” was driving me insane. But now I realized it's the way they spell the word outside of this great nation of mine. Who would have thought? It still bothers me, though. You SHOULD program it to show “practise” for Australians and English, and “practice” for Americans.
Happy blog anniversary. Apparently I've started about a month before you did. INTERESTING.
Congratulations! It took me three years to do any anniversary post, so you've done well to at least have it mind. It's a shame you lost those posts in the Great Purge – there were some really good ones – but you've carried on and still managed your fair share of excellent posts. Even the ones I don't comment on, I generally find interesting.
Keep it up!
Congratulations! Wow, only three years? I can't imagine the internet without you here!
I didn't know my blog was older that yours. That sort of freaks me out. Congrats on the milestone though.
Has it been three years already? Where does the time go?
Congratulations on the milestone – don't stop now…
And onwards to a 4th year
Your blog has been one of the main blogs I've followed for the last couple of years and with good reason.
Always a pleasure to read.
Congratulations on your third.
Well done and congrats on giving us 3 years of your brain
Looking forward to many more
I think the key here is to love what you do, unfortunately it's not so easy for everyone!
But it is awesome that you get to!!
LOL actually I had to look it up several times to confirm I was using it correctly.
Happy anniversary for your site too!
I was really late on the first birthday, only a little late for last year's and dead on time this year… ummm next year I assume I'll be early…
Always appreciate your thoughts and opinions sir!
Likewise – I don't think I remember an internet without you and Becca!
LOL yeah you were around before me, I almost think that Tracey might have put me onto your site actually… her or I found your site via Becca.
I know! I can't imagine QYDJ not being here to be honest even though I've toyed with dropping it several times.
Everytime I remember to check out that Aquaman song too I'm at work where we can't see streaming video – I will check it out and comment… soon I'm sure
I don't know what QYDJ would be like without you on here Arjan, I worry about the day you finally mature and put aside such childish things… pfft I know that won't happen
Thanks for sticking around!
Cheers man – I know we never see each other irl but it's comforting to see your name crop up every once in a while – makes me happy knowing that you're still out there doing your thing!
Oh and we will catch up before year end!!
I think Stan Lee said that he'd keep writing them if you keep reading them
It's easy:
'Practise' with an 's' is the verb: “I shall practise my ukulele skills until I'm good enough to play in public”
'Practice' with a 'c' is the noun: “My usual practice is to play the ukulele at midday”.
Happy blog-birthday, Lee! Have an (imaginary) Iron Man cake on me.
Thanks man! Very much appreciated!!
Happy Blog Birthday Lee. Here's to many more years of Quit Your Day Job.
(I must find out when my blog birthday is!)
Congrats! Is it officially QYDG v 3.0?
' pfft I know that won't happen
' I was going to say this but you already know 
I am trying to remember if I met Tracey because of BlogMad/Explosion or through a blog rental.
Becoming acquainted with Becca is a longer story. I was working on a Transmundanity Award (the winning entry was going to be a blog that recounted things that a particular cat had killed), and I thought that everyone who was reading my blog at the time would have been rather unnerved by that one (because there were pictures of the half-eaten prey), and I was talking to someone (who no longer blogs unfortunately) about the matter, and they asked if I had seen a particular entry at No Smoking in the Skull Cave… the rest is history really.
You could always quit your day job…
You should! I think it's nice to celebrate the milestones for your blog!
LOL I think it is still in beta
I looked and my 3rd birthday was the 27th of September! I would have said it was only 2 years. Wow!
oh dear
I think you met Tracey through BlogMad/Explosion which feels like an absolute lifetime ago! They are right, internet time really does move faster than in the real world!!
I don't even remember how I first met Becca to be honest, it may have even been through your blogroll, I don't think she was on BlogMad??
It's interesting because I assumed it was the fourth birthday for some reason, LOL just feels like it!
Congratulations Lee.
Gr8 milestone.
So what has changed over the course of 3 years?
You should! I think it's nice to celebrate the milestones for your blog!
LOL I think it is still in beta
I looked and my 3rd birthday was the 27th of September! I would have said it was only 2 years. Wow!
oh dear
I think you met Tracey through BlogMad/Explosion which feels like an absolute lifetime ago! They are right, internet time really does move faster than in the real world!!
I don't even remember how I first met Becca to be honest, it may have even been through your blogroll, I don't think she was on BlogMad??
It's interesting because I assumed it was the fourth birthday for some reason, LOL just feels like it!
Congratulations Lee.
Gr8 milestone.
So what has changed over the course of 3 years?