Career Choice

A common belief that has been created by society is that work is simply not meant to be enjoyed, and that it is nothing more than a legal means of generating money, in order to survive. Think about how many times you hear your friends complain about how much they hate their job, or the number of times your workmates whinge about how much the manager, the working conditions, the customers, and the company sucks. Perhaps you only need to go as far as your own words and opinions about your job, and realize how much you also dislike it, and how much you actually whinge and complain about it yourself? Well, if it is in any way comforting, you're certainly in the overwhelming majority of people globally, who also hate their job. Studies have revealed that nearly 9 out of every 10 people dislike or hate their job. That's a pretty damning statistic, made even worse by the fact that for nearly a third of our life, between the age of 18 and 65, we find ourselves at our job, or running our business. When you consider that another third of that time is spent sleeping, that leaves us with just one third of our life, over those 45 years, to be potentially doing activities we actually enjoy. Even within that final third, there are still the basic tasks that consume our time, such as cooking, eating, showering, and cleaning, further reducing any time that we can be doing the things in life we really enjoy, such as traveling, spending time with our family, socializing with our friends, and engaging in our hobbies. Now let's be honest, in those 45 years though, despite those brief periods of doing the things we love, work is always there enveloping in this bubble of unhappiness, because it is such a dominant aspect of our life. We may love and value our sleep, we may enjoy and relish in the time outside of work, but there still lies that 33% of time that we are unhappy, and that's well and truly enough to drag our whole attitude down.

The average life span of a human sits at around 79 years. With the continual advancement of medicine and technology, we would like to think that average should further increase over time. Having said that, one thing is for sure, we are not guaranteed to reach this age, nor go beyond it. We are not even enlightened in any way as to how long we will live for, or given any indication of what age we will pass away. We are well aware that unfortunate accidents and unexpected tragic events do happen, which cut lives short, and sadly subtract away from the days of life that were anticipated to be lived. We each have an expiry date, but one in which we are not granted the insight of knowing, highlighting the need that we should make every day count, and be spending each one in happiness. I know so many people who hate their job so much, they are actually counting down the years and months until their retirement age, and the unfortunate aspect to this is, many of these people are only aged in their thirties or forties. We are talking 20 to 30 years before these such individuals retire, but because they have already have endured 15 to 25 years of working a job, or jobs, they hate, they are already over it, and they're sick of feeling unhappy and unsatisfied in life. It's both a dangerous and foolish thing to be pinning your hopes of happiness, freedom, and goal accomplishment, on your retirement. Considering what I mentioned above about the fact that tragic accidents happen, that we are in no way guaranteed to reach the age of 79, let alone retirement age, and that we have no insight to how long we will live for, why would anyone gamble on the fact that they will live until retirement at all?

Imagine this thought for a minute. You have just reached the age of 60. You have worked several jobs for over 40 years of our life, in which every one you have hated and feel exhausted from. You feel a fair amount of regret for having worked so hard, and not having spent enough time with your loved ones, nor doing more of what you love, but you always felt obliged to work as hard as you did in order to survive and save. You have finally just paid off your home loan, and now own your house outright. You have saved up a million dollars in your superannuation fund. You have been counting the days down to retirement for around 20 years now, as your goal is to undertake some extensive travel around the world with your partner, soon after that day of retirement arrives. With the finish line in sight, your doctor gives you the harrowing news that you have terminal cancer, and have maybe six months to live. In hearing the news, you immediately quit your job and start making plans to at least complete your travel goal, however your health begins to rapidly deteriorate, and you become too ill to travel. Just place yourself in that moment for a minute, and try to capture your thoughts, your feelings, and your emotions. You'd feel clearly feel devastated, you'd feel scared, and you'd undoubtedly feel upset, but with these emotions, you would possibly also feel a sense of anger and annoyance at yourself. Why? Because in closing in on your death, you'd no doubt begin to reflect on your life, and likely start to think of all the things you didn't do, should have, or should have done better. You'd be frustrated that you didn't take your chances and opportunities whilst they were there. You'd be furious that you spent so much of your life at work, rather than spending more time with your partner, your children, your friends, and any other loved ones. You'd be capturing that feeling we well know as being regret. You may class this as just a fake scenario, or a manufactured example, but the truth is, so many people do head to the grave with so much regret in having wasted their opportunities to live their life doing more of the things that brought them joy and happiness, and spending more time with those they love.

It's bizarre how so many people place the opportunity to achieve their goals, live the lifestyle they desire, and gain that happiness and satisfaction they long for, all in the hands of their retirement. People are quite prepared to take the risk of saving their goals and ambitions to the age of retirement, when they are no longer chained to their job, despite the fact no one is given the privilege of knowing how long they will live for, and yet people refuse to take any risks to achieve their goals at a younger age, fearing they may fail, lose financially, make a fool of themselves, or be criticized for their decisions and actions. We are only allocated a certain number of days in our life, to which we have no knowledge of, to pursue and achieve our goals, and to discover happiness and satisfaction. We need to be proactive now in striving to achieve our goals as soon as we can, not waiting until retirement. Achieving our goals is one sure way of earning happiness and satisfaction, but that doesn't solve the fact that we are still living miserably in having to work at a job we hate. We know that we need to work, in order to generate an income, but why do so many of us settle for working a job we don't even like or enjoy? An even bigger question is why don't we take the risk in changing from a job we hate, to discovering our passion? Again, it all comes back to fear. As much as people dislike their job, it's what they know, and they feel more comfortable as what they would if they had to make a change. Not only that, but the biggest reason is that they are too scared to part with their paycheck, as after all, it's their beloved paycheck that provides them with food, shelter, and it pays the bills. If they risk changing jobs, or entering into a different line of work, then that paycheck they have become so accustomed to, all of a sudden is in jeopardy. Another reason is just pure laziness. People can't be bothered investing time into discovering their passion, and turning into their profession.

This is where many people would now be awaiting a solution. How can they just get up and leave their job and discover their passion? How can they simply just turn their back on their current job and invest time into working on their goals? How can anyone afford to take a risk in losing their salary? Firstly, no one else is capable of delivering a solution to you, that onus rests with yourself, because the solution is found in action. People, like myself, can give you all the motivation, tips, encouragement, and inspiration, as we possibly can, but unless you take ownership and go about pursuing your passion, you'll continue being stuck at a job that you hate. Secondly, you need to get clear on what it is your passionate about in life. The easiest way to discover this is to perhaps think about a hobby of yours, or something in which you personally believe you are talented in? For example, you might be someone who loves surfing, and is pretty good at it too? Thirdly, this is where you need to get creative. You need to transform that hobby, or that something that you are passionate about in life, into a business. So if surfing is your passion, how can you turn that into a business, how can you create an income stream from it? Do you set up a surfing instructor business, or do you start to sell surfboards? Whatever it may be, this is where you need to get creative, and think of different ways you can incorporate that passion of yours into an income generator. The fourth step revolves around that income generation step, because the best way you can create profit for yourself is by ensuring that your business idea benefits others. That's right, it needs to add value to people's lives, it needs to be something that makes people happy, it needs to be something that makes people's lives more convenient, it needs to be something that helps and supports people. It's where we need to adjust our thinking from being desperate to earn the dollar, to being desperate to help others. When we are adding value to the lives of others, and people can see the benefit in the product or service we are selling, they will purchase. If we focus on helping, and adding value to the lives of others, the profits will take care of themselves.

If you haven't got the gist of the above suggestion, yes, it is about starting your own business. I will always promote entrepreneurship as the best working option, because I believe it offers more flexibility to do what you want, how you want, and when you want. Not only that, you are in charge of your own results. You will be rewarded with an income that is in line with the amount of work you do, the amount of commitment you have, the amount of adaptability you are prepared to give, and the level of perseverance you apply to the success of your business. Basically, you're in control. Not only that, but if you start a business, and do so because you have a genuine passion for what you are doing, all of a sudden those 45 years of work don't look so bad after all. Marc Anthony quotes that "if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life", and it's true. Because you start enjoying your work, all because you have a genuine passion and love for what you do, it starts to feel like it's not work at all, but instead, more like doing that hobby you enjoy so much. That's job satisfaction right there! You are finding yourself now enjoying that one third of your life that was destined to be unhappy, boring, tedious, and depressing. I make it sound easy, right? Well it certainly isn't! It takes a lot of hard work, commitment, resilience, patience, perseverance, and dedication, there's no glossing over that. Any entrepreneur will tell you it's bloody hard work! Nothing rewarding comes easy in life after all. You need to make it happen! In the end, it's all worth it! Even if your passion lies within the corporate world, but you are perhaps unqualified in that field of work, then get qualified. Sure, it may take a few years of tertiary education to get qualified, but if that's your passion, then you should be prepared to do so.

Either starting a business, or upskilling yourself to enter into the job of your dreams, both are going to require a few years of great sacrifice and hard work, but suffering for a few years for the sake of many years worth of happiness, satisfaction, and success, is better than suffering for many years without any reward at all. Stop wasting your days away being unhappy! You don't want to be one of those people who wish for retirement, just so they can then be happy. You need to find that happiness now, and live your life in complete satisfaction and fulfillment. Discover your passion, and make it your career! Have the courage to do something different, to make changes, to take risks, to invest time in devising an idea for a business, and to actually get off your butt and do something you truly enjoy. Think about your perfect career choice now, and make it happen! Life is too short to live in constant unhappiness.

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