Don’t Quit Your Day Job

I don’t buy 99% of the side hustle stuff.

I fully believe that you can build something on the side, while working full-time and living a good life (I’ve been doing that for the last 4 years), you don’t need to sell your soul.

You don’t need to wake up 4 am to grind until 8 am then repeat from 6 pm until 10 pm. You don’t need to work all weekend, you don’t need to double your input because you hate your job.

Instead, there’s another way.

If you hate your job, do this instead

If you hate your job, the best way to be successful on the side? Find a job you like.

I know, not what you’re expecting. But hang with my because it’s been evident in my life and I want to explain to you how it’s worked for me.

I spent 80% of my time, 4 years ago hating where I was, what I was doing and who I was becoming. I was miserable. So miserable I spent all my time idolising people I’d never met, dreaming of a life much better than the one I lived now.

I nearly quit my job and took a 60% pay cut. I very nearly spent a silly amount of money on software I didn’t know how to use (or need). I started several businesses and they all failed (and wasted a lot of money).

Why?

Because I starting from a place of desperation. And that’s never good.

Instead of spending all your energy hating where you are, spend a month or two looking for a new opportunity and then, once you like your job, start building something on the side.

Now, you have a job you like

Here’s the thing, if you have a job you don’t mind, you can create from a place of patience. You don’t need to make $10k/month by next Friday because your life isn’t miserable.

Instead, you can create at your own pace. You can take your time. You can (wait for it) enjoy yourself in the process because the rent is still being paid, you can still afford the lifestyle you live and all you’re doing is spending an hour each day working on the thing that brings you joy.

If you like the people you work with, the place you work, if you find the work meaningful, if you’re learning stuff, if you have a boss you respect all of these things are signs that you like your job.

And despite what the internet might tell you, there are people that like what they do for a living.

Not everybody wants to quit and move to Bali.

Also, let’s just confirm what ‘miserable’ is

An important lesson for me has been to integrate my own thoughts.

For years I thought at a surface level. I didn’t question my thoughts. I sort of just agreed with them as they popped into my head and that was that.

I’d convinced myself that I hated my job, I was in the completely wrong space, doing the wrong things, with the wrong people.

It wasn’t until I sat down and asked myself what my dream life would be that I realized I wasn’t too far away. I just needed to make some adjustments.

So I got a job in the same company, just in a different team.

And that changed everything. The point? You might not be as miserable as you are convincing yourself you are. I know I certainly wasn’t.

Fast forward to slow down

Okay so, let’s pretend you’ve ‘made it’, you’ve got everything you ever wanted, you’ve ticked off all the goals you’ve got in your head and you are flying.

Now what?

Sometimes it takes looking past where you want to be to understand that really, life doesn’t change much on the other side of all these goals. Okay, so you’ll have more money and that, of course, is a positive.

But to do what? How different will life really be? How will your Tuesday mornings change if you do all the things you want to be doing?

For me, the big realization was that nothing much would change. I’d live in the same place, doing the same things, with the same routine.

Life wouldn’t change that much. So I didn’t need to chase this big high. This big shift.

Instead, I could just make small steps in the right direction each day.

Maybe you don’t want to quit

I work 9-to-5.

I have no plans to quit my full-time job and I create on the side every single day. Maybe that’s not for you or maybe it is. The point is there are many ways to live and you can create the life that works for you.

You don’t need to quit. You might just need to make a few changes that move the needle.