Wake up
Shower
Coffee
Drive to work
Get “8 hours of work” done in 2 hours
Check Facebook
Daydream
Leave 8 hours later
Get home in time to relax and watch some TV
Dread thinking about doing the same thing for the next four days because it’s only Monday
Sounds familiar?
This is what everyone loves to call, “the morning grind”
This is what my neighbor across the street used to hilariously call, “A mind numbing, soul leeching day”
Now maybe this isn’t your job, and maybe you LOVE what you do and wake up every day not to a job, but rather a LIFESTYLE
If so avert your eyes
But for everyone else, I am here to tell you that you don’t have to work some shit job you don’t like
You can work any job in the world, from a firefighter to a veterinarian to a professional race car driver
WHATEVER YOU WANT
And I am here to give you 5 reasons why you should stop kicking your own ass and kick your boss’s ass to the curb
1. You are worth more than your job
Many people are under the impression that their job holds a very high level of importance in their life
They couldn’t be more right
But where many people lose sight is when they believe that their job defines who they are, and ultimately their place in life and how much they are worth as a person
This may sound a bit crazy but think about it
How do most people view a person who is a Janitor?
He cleans trash cans, he makes almost no money, his tasks are so menial, and he has no real future career planned out for himself
Now look at the financial adviser
He makes million dollar deals, he makes more money than god, his tasks have large surface value, he is paving the way for being a partner in his firm, and his future is secure
Now I am purposely skewing the viewpoints of these two because this is how MOST people would view these people
Look up to the financial adviser in his new Porsche
Look down to the Janitor and his POS 89 Chevy cavalier
This is how society works; this is how we are “SUPPOSED” to think
The bottom line is that no matter how much time you spend at your job, or how much you make, or whatever you do
You are not your job
Let me reiterate
You are not your fucking job
You are so much more and you are worth so much more than your job
Don’t let yourself be confined by a job description, or become hung up on an image that has been created by yourself and others for this “amazing” or “terrible” job that everyone sees it as
Either way if you call work, “your work” and the job you do, “your job” then ultimately it’s just something that you are doing to make money
You have interests and passions in other areas
You LOVE your family
You LOVE your significant other
You are PASSIONATE about writing
Whatever it is
This “hobby” or person or activity will always be worth more to you than any job you could ever work
So the next time you pick up a broom and dawn your blue matching uniform
Or put on your Armani and get behind the wheel of your BMW
Remember that you are so much MORE than your work
2. You will have more FUN doing something you love
Do you have something that you love to do?
It can be anything
Writing
Working out
Building things
Everyone has something that they love doing, something that they are PASSIONATE about
That feeling you get inside yourself when you are fully engrossed in doing something that you love is what many people dub, “Your calling”
You may have multiple callings in life, but they all give you that great feeling inside
Now imagine if you could MAKE MONEY doing these very same things?
What if you could wake up every day not to work or a job, but rather to another day filled with such excitement and passion that you can’t wait to start accomplishing things?
Is this some dream world in the Matrix where you’re going to be asked to choose a pill?
No this is your life
Or rather what your life could be…..all you need to do is DO IT
Take massive action towards making your passions your new career
If you research and TAKE steps towards making your callings your career, you will be amazed at how motivated you will be to “work” and how much fun your career would be
Use the infinite power of the Internet and seek out people who have done what you are trying to do, learn from them, and start taking action towards making your career FUN
3. You can make more money
Alright so you have started this website, or business, or whatever and your currently are totally in love with what you are doing, but you aren’t making much or any money
Clearly you should quit and go back to writing memos for your dumbass boss
WRONG
Do you think that you can make more money than your previous job doing something that you love or by working some career that you maybe have sort of liked from time to time?
Of course you are going to make money doing what you love
You are motivated to make changes, to stir things up, to take chances, to grow and evolve your business, or the business of another and take it to the next level because you are 110% engrossed and infatuated with what you are doing
It doesn’t take some 4000$ a month life coach or a multimillion dollar business counselor to tell you that if you have drive and passion behind what you are doing, you are bound to succeed and find more wealth than you ever imagined
Sticking with what you believe in, with anything in life, will eventually lead you to success
You may make little or no money to start, but because of your drive and passion behind what you are doing you will find financial success sooner than you may think
Before you know it you could be making more money than you imagined, doing exactly what it is you want to do
4. You don’t want to “work” 40-60 hours a week, you want to LIVE
Now even if you work your dream job
Make more money than an Arabian prince
And still have energy left over
You are defiantly going to burn yourself out
You may have found yourself working as much as 70 hours per week starting your own business up
Or maybe even you were working part time in the past and now find yourself working twice as much in order to get involved in more projects and get some rent paid as well
This is well and good, and it’s fantastic that you are this motivated and involved
But even if you are motivated and sinking countless hours, or just starting out and only putting in a few hours a day, eventually you going to overwhelm yourself and lose your mind
The best people with money in the world are not always the people with the most, but rather they are the people who are making money even when they aren’t trying to
They are getting paychecks in the mail, getting deliverables to their PayPal accounts, and getting passive income at all points of the day
Making money while surfing, painting, hiking, and even sleeping should be the ideal goal of any business
In order to achieve passive income with your work, ultimately you need to have someone else doing as much of your work ass possible
This can be easily achieved through outsourcing nearly all of the tasks you do to professionals over the internet, or companies who can head your business for you
These are just some of the resources that have professionals from nearly all walks of life, and all of them are fairly cheap and can work for you virtually
Meaning, you can be scuba diving in the Bahamas and pay someone from one of these sites to update your website, or deal with a customer service issue, or overlook a document you just wrote
The options are limitless, and many ideas of how to outsource are just a Google search away
The less work you do, the more you win, and the more you win, the more fun you are having with your life
5. You have big dreams, and your job is in the way
Ever made a bucket list?
A list of things that you truly want to do before you kick the bucket, so to speak
The list can be as elaborate or as simple as possible, but the idea behind having one understands exactly what your dreams are in life…..then to take steps to make them reality
Assume for a moment that you work exactly 40 hours per week after you graduated college
From age 22 you work 40 hours per week until the age of 55 when you retire
How many hours are you working in your life?
Well that’s 1920 hours a year across 33 years
That’s 63360 hours or 2640 day’s time of your LIFE are spent WORKING
That’s a fairly large portion of your entire life, only to be dwarfed by sleeping
What if that job wasn’t so great and really, if you had more options you could quit in a heartbeat
This is the exact reason why you need to leave any job that you don’t love
Otherwise you literally waste 2640 day’s time, or about 7 and a half years of your life doing something you don’t like, or even hate
Life is too short
Those years could be better spent chasing your dreams, working towards the career you always wanted, getting outside, anything
It is absolutely imperative that you find the means to get into a line of work that not only doesn’t get in the way of your dreams in life, but SUPPORTS them
Once you have achieved that, you don’t need to find the path to happiness, you are already on it
Gabriel
My perception is that “Quit your job tomorrow and start off on your own” is the exact same deal as “Stop caring what other people think.”
The latter sounds easier, but to people not in self help, it sounds equally impossible. How could you just stop caring? Your reputation is so important. If you make a fool out of yourself at a bar, you can NEVER go back because you’ll be the laughing stock when you come back. You need your friends’ approval or no one will hang out with you. You need women to like you or you’ll never have anyone to date. There’s NO way you could stop caring unless you already are super popular and have people to lose.
Sound familiar? It’s what your friends think when you tell them about cold approaching or suggest they stop giving a fuck about other people’s opinions.
Financial security is the same I believe. I say “I believe” because I’m not actually living it yet. I still hold fear and want for security, and it’s something I chip at a little bit every day. I can’t explain logically how Gabriel’s message makes sense anymore than I can explain why not caring what other people think ends up getting you much more approval from others.
Steve Pavlina talks about this in posts like “Why You Should Never Have A Job.” He even says it’s better to be homeless than employed, something I’d like to see him try for himself before he suggests it to other people. However, he may have a point.
Wayne Dyer talks about something similar, where you let go of handling your problems and let the universe take care of it. He compares it to hanging on to a boulder over a waterfall, and you’re told all you have to do is let go and you’ll be taken care of. Part of you really wants to let go, but you can’t logically come up with any way that letting go of this boulder will be safer than hanging on to it.
One thing I will say is that quitting your job in a shitty mental state is a recipe for disaster. Yes, people do go broke, get evicted, and fail in their new businesses. I think it’s better to take small courageous steps at a time rather than a huge jump while you’re still sweating the small problems of whether you should buy your favorite tuna if it’s not on sale. Similarly, if you walk around “acting” like you don’t care what other people think, you can end up in fights and alienate all your friends. It has to be legit, not faking the funk.
However, I know people who have done worse than that, and none have had any permanent problems. Worst case scenario, they had to move back to their awful desert or rural hometown for a little while. Still, I think had they been resourceful, they could have found a way to stay in the same place at least.
I look forward to more posts from Gabriel, and am going to check out his blog right now.
–Dan
P.S.- “Anything of value takes hard work” is a myth. You can easily find reference experience to hard workers who succeed and slackers who fail, so it’s a very easy belief to maintain. However, I know people who have it come very easily. I’d say “opportunity recognition” is 10,000x more important than any type of “hard work.”
Your right on the money, great article
@Slojodan
Thanks for the positive feedback and the great input. There is a large amount of truth in what you have said, especially in regards to the notion of people having a fear in their life for qutting their job as it could jeopardize their security or rather certainty as I like to call it. Once people gain leverage on themselves to let go and take steps towards the unknown, they will find their life unfold in new and powerful ways.
@Showcase
Thanks man 🙂
Agree with some points, disagree with others.
Do not quit your job because It gives you a backup plan and cash flow in case your business does not flourish. Plus, it’s common to lose money at the starting point of business.
Always plan for success but be prepared for the worst.
Entrepreneurship 101 Rule #1:
CASHFLOW cashflow cashflow
I suggest taking an entrepreneuirship class before tackling one on your own.
@okami
Thanks for the input, I definitely agree that a plan should be put together and you shouldn’t drop everything and move to Paris to pursue your dream of being a painter/male prostitute 😉
A class on how to start a business, or even a few books like 4 hour workweek or Rich Dad Poor Dad can help in anyone’s efforts
Everyday I think about this……. makes me sad
@Mike
I know you have the ability to get anything you want out of life Mike, and I would love to help coach you through this for nothing other than the satisfaction of helping you get what you want out of life. Email me at gabriel@gabrielhummel.com and well talk more
My brother recommended I might like this website. He was totally right. This post truly made my day. You cann’t imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Thanks man, much appreciated
LOL! Gabriel you ARE one funny guy 🙂
You have such a gift of humor…go Gabriel go!