Sources of Stress in Betting, Part 2

If you are serious about betting on sports, and are thinking about turning it into a full-time job, you may think that you're getting away from the stress associated with a 9-to-5 job. While this may ultimately be true, it is not an easy or fast transition to make. In fact, in some ways it can be even more stressful, especially while you are still balancing betting with a day job. See Sources of Stress in Betting Part 1 for a brief introduction to this topic.

As promised, I now want to talk about some of the specific types of stress you will deal with as a punter, why they can cause you trouble, and what you should consider doing about them.

1. A surprising amount of work

If you have placed a few bets before and made money, you may think that wagering on sports is easy. Many punters are surprised to discover that making money consistently from betting is anything but easy, and actually requires a lot of ongoing work day after day. So if you actually think that you're getting out of working hard at trying to do for a living, the truth will come as a rude surprise.

What can you do about the stress? Really, you have to ask yourself whether you still enjoy betting on sports even knowing that it is actually quite difficult to make a living doing it. If this is something that you like more than your day job, then it may be worth it to pursue it even if it takes up a lot of your time and energy each day.

2. Balancing betting with your day job

This challenge follows off of the one above. Even if you were betting on sports full-time, you would have a time-consuming job. Odds are you are not rich, and you are still working either a full-time or part-time job in an office somewhere, or maybe a shop or another stressful environment. Trying to wager successfully at sports is like adding on a second part-time job on top of the full-time one that you are doing. You may feel like you literally do not have the time to juggle your responsibilities at your day job and around it.

Unfortunately, there is really no getting around this, and it can be incredibly exhausting. All you can do is accept that it is going to take longer than you might have initially planned in order to make enough money betting on sports that you can quit the day job and do this full-time. Why is that important? Because if you do not accept that, you will push yourself too hard and end up giving up the sleep and rest you need to live a balanced life. You may also be tempted to shirk your responsibilities at your day job. You cannot literally “make time.” All you can do is try to make the best use of the time that you do have. That is going to slow you down, so adjusting expectations early is the best thing that you can do to alleviate your stress.

These two sources of stress on their own are quite difficult to deal with, but they're not the only ones that you will face as you embark on your betting journey. Read on the Sources of Stress in Betting, Part 3 in my series for even more perspective on the challenges you will weather as you learn how to wager on sports for a living.