The job: Waiting for the end of the day freedomiseverything.com /2016/05/26/the-job-waiting-for-the-end-of-the-day/
Do you enjoy your job? Or do you find yourself always waiting for the end of the day? Have you ever stopped to think about how you are spending your days? In 2015 I stopped to look at the days in my life and how I was spending them. I had a realisation that shocked me.
What I realised was that I was spending many of my days at work waiting for the end of the day. Then I would get up and do the same thing again the next day – for 5 days in a row. Madness.
When I stopped to think about it, I knew that this was a sure sign of a few things:
I didn’t enjoy my job I wasn’t fulfilled by my job I was in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing I was working to please someone else (face-time) I had the wrong outlook on life
These realisations led me to review other areas of my life and I realised that when you truly enjoy something, you don’t want that activity to end.
I also realised that there were times at work when I was genuinely enjoying an activity. I saw that what made those activities enjoyable was the feeling that I was adding value to both my own life and someone else’s at the same time.
Comparing that to most days at work I could see that the times I was engaged vs the times I was unengaged came down to a few simple points:
I was engaged when the activity was of obvious benefit to both myself and others I could see and feel the results of what I was doing An activity fully challenged my brain, rather than purely ‘busywork’
Having my own business – full engagement 1/4
What I have discovered since starting my online business through SFM, is that I have far more days where I feel fully engaged. The reason is that whatever I do has a direct effect on my results, and I can see and measure these clearly.
I can see how my actions impact my finances, business and customers, and I can feel everything I do being part of my greater purpose.
Compare that to my job, where I was essentially a cog in a rather large wheel, it was easy to see why I spent so many days simply waiting to get to the end of them.
What is the answer? Perhaps you can identify with spending endless days at work waiting for the end of the day to come. If so perhaps, like me, you realise that this is a complete waste of life. Think of all the things you could be doing and seeing instead of waiting at work for the clock to strike 5.
Many people say you should ‘do what you love’ and find a way to make your living from that. I believe that can work for some people. Too often though, people mistake a hobby for a passion.
A passion is something that gets you fuelled up with energy and purpose. The definition of passion is to suffer. A hobby, on the other hand, is something that you do purely by choice. If you start using your hobby as a job or business, it could very soon turn into something you hate doing.
The reason is that the hobby is now associated with stress, financial worries, the morning alarm clock etc – just as work was before.
The passion should stem from your purpose
For me personally, I found that trying to use my favourite hobby as my job didn’t solve the problem. The hobby started to become an annoyance instead of a source of inspiration. However when my hobby became a means, instead of the end, I found the answer.
The ‘passion’ should be your higher purpose, or reason for doing what you do every day. For example I am passionate about serving my customers and growing my business; because these will eventually lead to my vision (service to others, financial freedom, time freedom etc).
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My hobby, on the other hand, is just a hobby. I enjoy it and love talking about it – yet it is not the reason for my existence.
If my hobby is the mechanism, or means, that I use to build my business, that works. If I try to use it as the end reason (ie doing it all day everyday just because I ‘love it’), that does not work.
Don’t wait for the end of the day
You may agree or disagree with what I have written above. Perhaps you feel that ‘doing what you love’ is what we should all be striving for.
Whichever way you look at it, the point I am making is this: don’t waste your days. We only have one life (that we know about), and wasting even one day is criminal.
If, like me, you spend days at work just killing time until the end of the day arrives, get out of there now! Find a way to do something engaging. Every moment should be either enjoyable or purposeful. Do NOT wait for the end of the day!
Good luck! P.S. If like me you want to escape the 9-5 and build a business online, start here. Meet my mentors and build an online business you will love.
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