Breaking free
‘HAPPY TGIF!’ - by Friday 4 pm, everyone’s pretty much taking it easy. One by one, colleagues start to trickle away from their desks to grab drinks, unwind and welcome the weekend. Friday night is spent partying with friends. Saturdays are spent either attending a wedding, having a brunch with friends, and Sundays are left for Netflix and Chilling. And then Sunday night rolls around and low and behold… the arrival of the Sunday Blues. ‘UGH… I don’t want to go back to work!’ - sounds familiar? The cycle goes on every single weekend.
Most people live their lives for the weekend. It’s supposedly the time we get to rest and do whatever we want, and most importantly, we get to escape from work. But honestly, how much can you actually pack into a 2 day weekend where you have multiple commitments and chores to attend to? There never seems to be enough time to actually ‘take it slow’ unless you take a longer break or holiday. I have a friend who only ever reads when she travels because she never has the time or mind space to do so on a normal weekend.
Even after work, most people don’t even have the energy to want to mingle or socialise with their friends and family or even do the things they love - so what ends up happening? They go home, switch on the television and eat while binge watching Netflix so that they can just tune out and just ‘rest’. It’s easy, no effort needed after all.
Monday inevitably rolls around again - and yep its back to the same old routine. So why do people still stick around and put up with their current job?
The most common answers I get are: ‘It’s safe and I have a stable income’, ‘Oh, the perks are great’ & ‘I’m almost up for a promotion!’, ‘The people are great here, and I’m comfortable where I’m at’ - so there you go. The few main points of inertia for people not wanting to leave their jobs, despite being so disengaged and frustrated with it.
But wait, does this cycle ever end?
Let me guess. ‘I have a holiday planned soon, so I won’t have to think about work!’ Then what happens after? We come back, refreshed and rearing to go. Back to the same old work routine + a WHOOLE lot of emails to get through from our well-deserved break. Time passes, it’s 1 month later, we are right back where we were, bored and burnt out. And then… we look forward to that next weekend or holiday again.
When then, will we ever stop looking forward to escape from work? When will we be able to have the courage to take that leap of faith to leave to pursue the things we truly want to do in our life?
Breaking Free
You could definitely choose to leave your job this instant. If you are at the point where you are seriously dreading to even go to work - just do it. It’s just not worth wasting your time because you could be doing something that is more inline with your future. Those thoughts have definitely crossed my mind at some point of time, but I’m lucky to be working at a company where I have amazing colleagues and teammates who I love to hang around with - but being comfortable around people and your current surroundings should NOT be a reason to stop you from pursuing what you want to do.
I have, instead, chosen to use 2020 as a foundation year to build my brand, and upgrade my skills so that I can better prepare myself of what is to come. I chose this because I decided that this is a more strategic and methodical path that is personally more comfortable to me.
Here are some steps that I have taken note of and am working on, in hopes of making this leap of faith (soon). I’ve also linked 2 recommended resources at the end of this post - highly recommend you check them out if this is a topic of interest to you!
Building Up Passive Income
It’s important for us to build up a diverse portfolio of passive income. Make sure you are able to make your money work for you while you sleep! This could involve simple things like investments, or it could involve starting up a side business or hustle that can generate side income for you. This is kind of like insurance as well - in a sense where you don’t have to fully rely on the one pay check you receive every month from your day job.
Have A Meaningful Day Job
What are you willing to suffer for?’ Sounds sadistic? Well, welcome to the real world my friend. Any goal you truly want to attain requires you to put in real hard work, time and dedication. Let’s face it, no matter what you are doing, there will be always some parts of the grind where it will be monotonous and boring, but if this is a stepping stone in your path to your ultimate goal and vision for your life… Why not? The eventual Return on investment is completely worth it. I also ask myself every 6 months ‘Is my current job adding value to my future goals (the bigger picture) of where I want to be in 3 years time?’
Many successful millionaires or entrepreneurs have actually said that their jobs are so exciting that they don’t even view it as work! So much that they even forget to eat or go pee :P I’d personally love to feel that way about work!
So take a minute (okay, this will NOT take a minute, it’ll take much longer) to ask yourself:
What are your goals in life? What are you working towards, and how are you going about doing it?
How do you want to truly live your life?
Are you happy at where you currently are at, and are you using it as a stepping stone to get to where you want to go to - or are you just cruising by?
Conclusion
I hope this post helps the reader to have a little more courage and direction, especially if you are thinking of getting out of your current job. Some people are blessed with having an amazing job that is inline with their future goals, but most of us aren’t.
Ultimately, it’s up to us to take the time to explore and understand what we want for our future (only we know ourselves best). We then have to purposefully and intentionally utilise our time and efforts to ensure that whatever we do is inline with our life goals. It is important to remind ourselves to revisit this often, because what you want, need, and love will continue to evolve over time.
In the article linked below ‘Regrets Of The Dying’, people who are dying often share their regrets which include ‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me,” “I wish I didn’t work so hard” and “I wish I had let myself be happier.”A vast majority of them never accomplished at least half of their dreams, often because of their choice to keep working instead of following their dreams.
We only have limited time on this earth, so let’s not waste too much time feeling miserable about the situation we are in. Be brave, take action, and live purposefully (because honestly whats the worst that could happen?) - and most importantly, BE HAPPY!
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Recommended Resources
The 4 Hour Work Week (Book) - Tim Ferris
The 4-Hour Workweek is a blueprint to free the reader from the shackles of a corporate job, create a business to fund the lifestyle of your dreams, and live life like a millionaire, without actually having to be one. This was the first book I read which opened up my mind to concepts like the 80/20 rule and how to ‘hack your time’ to ensure you are getting the most value out of your time spent while working.'
Relates to Building Up Passive Income
Regrets Of The Dying (Article) - Bronnie Ware
Bronnie worked as a nurse with people in palliative care (basically people who were nearing death) - and she wrote an Internet blog about the most common regrets expressed to her by the people she had cared for. Have a read of the article, it really gives you perspective on what is truly important in your life - and if you are interested she has also written a book on how these insights have changed her life.
Relates to Have A Meaningful Day Job
