85 % of people HATE their jobs. Don't be one of them
85 % of people hate their jobs, poll says: https://returntonow.net/2017/09/22/85-people-hate-jobs-gallup-poll-says/
Is your job making you happy?
If not, it is simple. Face your fear and quit it. Do something else. Something, that you really love.
Life is too short, to spend a big chunk of it, doing what you don’t like, so that you can buy things that you don’t need, in order to impress the people you don’t like. (someone famous once said that, don’t remember who, but it is so true).
Spending 160 hours monthly doing something that is just a source of income for you is a suicide. If that is what you are doing right now, I totally feel you, because I am in a similar situation. And I realized that I don’t wanna live like this anymore. It is time to make a shift. To be precise, right now, I am making money with something I don’t love. I just like it. That is not enough for me.
You ALWAYS have a choice
It is really easy to blame society, school system or even politicians for your current situation. And let’s not forget about taxes, minorities and corruption.
Now, try to approach this from a different point of view. What if you are fully responsible for your own life? What if you can’t really blame anybody. What if you are doing a shitty job, because you chose it?
Again, I totally understand. I used to be the same. I was doing a shitty job, which I hated so much. In fact, I was doing many shitty jobs, because I didn’t see the opportunities, which were just in front of my eyes. Got lost in the darkness. And couldn’t see the light all around me.
Making a shift took me a bunch of time. And when you do the shift, suddenly you realize, how hillarious was all that you came through. Because, you can look at the situation from the third person view (imagine playing World of Warcraft).
Finally, I realized, that I was not living a happy life. Actually, I was making too many compromises to satisfy people I love. Even though, I knew that it was not the best thing to do. You have to accept the fact, that you can’t make everybody around you happy. It is impossible. There is always going to be someone, who will disagree with your life choices. And that is just fine.
Bring awareness to your decisions
This is the first step and also the crucial one. You can’t really solve the problem, unless you are aware of it. So, first of all, you have to realize that you don’t like your job and you want to do something else. Something fullfilling. Like you always wanted to do.
Remember when you were a kid and somebody asked you: “what you want to do, when you grow up?” I bet you do. Back in those days, we used to be so innocent and pure. We thought that world is a magical place (actually it is haha) and sky is the limit.
Have a plan
Unless you have reasonable amount of money saved, you have to keep doing what you are doing for some time. That is ok.
But have a plan, what are you going to do next. Are you going to sing? make cakes? write poems? You can do whatever you like. Just think like a child. Most of the limits are created in our minds. We create them unconsciously.
My plan is to make money with this blog. And I am sure, that I can do it. I just have to put more time into it. I have been doing a lot of work back “backstage”, so you can’t really see the process. But it is getting big. Get ready.
Or you can even create a vision and go from there. Let me give you an example: I want to make people’s lives better. You see, it is not said, how are you going to achieve it. And it is more abstract, which may be a better approach for some of you.
Few months ago, I decided that I need to do something else. So I moved to Vietnam with a purpose, which is: changing myself and thus changing the world. Frankly, I am still making money the same way, that I used to, but it is just 15 hours/week. Rest of the time, I am working on myself in many different areas. But that is another story.
Keep trying new things
How do you know, what is your passion, if you don’t try out enough options? You should try as many things as possible. Besides, you should already have some sort of a feeling, which can guide you. For instance, if you can’t count 5+5 without using a calculator, then you probably shouldn’t become a coder. (I was talking about myself, my math skill sucks big time)
Sure, sometimes you will get frustrated, because it just didn’t work out. But isn’t it what’s life about? Trial and error. Sometimes, we keep repeating the same mistakes, until we come to a realization. I call this a beauty of life. It is an ongoing process, which will never be finished. (because I don’t think, that death is a final destination)
There could be a time, when you realize - god! This is what I wanna do. I love doing it. It makes me feel so alive. This is why I was born for. And I am gonna do anything it takes in order to do this activity for as long as I want. That is actually how I feel right now, as I am writing down these lines.
Same story here. It took me many years to realize, that I should put more energy into writing. It makes me feel alive and energetic. And if you already found 25 errors in this article, that’s good. Because it means, that I can improve a lot. And I can bring you even better value as I keep improving.
Keep learning
The worst thing, that can happen to you is that you come to a conclusion, that - you don’t need to learn anymore, because you know it all. And trust me, if the life is going your way, it will happen. Sooner or later.
It happened to me so many times. I could probably write a book on this subject. In fact, this is not about ignorance. The illusion you create is your obstacle. You may feel like you know it all. And that’s the problem. In reality, you will never know it all. The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
As you start doing something new, you learn pretty quickly. But as you keep doing this activity for a longer period of time, you will realize, that you aren’t learning as fast as before. That is the way it goes. At this point, you have two options - repeat the process with something new, or keep going.
I would suggest to keep going. Because this pattern is gonna repeat itself no matter what you do. And you suddenly realize, that you quit too many activities, because they weren’t as enjoyable as in the beginning. Been there, done that.
Thing is, that it is hard to realize when it’s better to quit something or just keep going. Intuition will guide you. Then again, it is difficult to differentiate between your ego and intuition. I guess, that it just needs some practice. I am with you.
Stop being a slave
It is funny, that nowadays you should live like this (according to general opinion): get a school, get a job, get a mortgage, get a family, retire and die.
Somewhere in between, you will have a little bit of time for yourself. But not too much, you know, so you can’t really see how matrix works.
It all makes perfect sense. We are socially conditioned to behave this way. It all starts when we are kids. And we start to attend kindergarten or whatever it is called :D Suddenly, there is some sort of an authority and we have to obey his orders. If we try to stand up, we get punished. So that other kids get scared and don’t repeat the same mistake. How clever. Manipulate young fellas with a fear.
Then we get to the primary school. All of a sudden, we have to sit still for multiple hours. And obviously, listen to some artificial authority, too. Story goes on, until we graduate from high school. And here, we usually have two options: get a job and become a slave or go to a university and then get a job and become a slave.
But there is the third option. It’s like a bonus level. Not many people know, that something like this even exist. You can do what you love and even make living with it. How cool is that?
As a bonus, here’s an article, which will make you realize, that “normal job” is not the way to go: https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2012/05/jobs-vs-passive-income/