The unpaid professional.

Steven Pressfield talks about turning pro in his books The War of Art, Turning Pro and others. And Seth Godin teaches us how to become a professional in The Practice. But, what does it mean to be a professional?

Does it mean sitting at your desk from 9 to 5 even if you aren't able to get much done? Does it mean spending hours editing a podcast episode even if no one notices the silence and the noise you're removing? Does it mean hiring yourself as free labour for these tasks even though you need to focus on generating more income? Does it mean letting your critical voice become your boss and keep you running in circles?

Or, instead, could it means that we learn to change and become kinder to ourselves, that we become strategic about our income and make space for relaxation, fun and adventure while also doing the work that matters.

The idea of becoming a professional is an ideal but it can also become a slippery slope into misery. A true professional is pragmatic and removes the sources of misery so she can show up as her best self when doing the work that matters.

Here's Steven Pressfield chiming in from The War of Art:

When I lived in the back of my Chevy van, I had to dig my typewriter out from beneath layers of tire tools, dirty laundry, and moldering paperbacks. My truck was a nest, a hive, a hellhole on wheels whose sleeping surface I had to clear each night just to carve out a foxhole to snooze in.

The professional cannot live like that. He is on a mission. He will not tolerate disorder. He eliminates chaos from his world in order to banish it from his mind. He wants the carpet vacuumed and the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter and not soil her gown.