When you were a teenager, you wanted to be a:
- Writer
- or an Athlete
- or a Chef
- or a Scientist
- or a Meditation master…
You probably didn’t think of it as work, more like a way of life, something you would be proud of.
Like most people, did you abandon those fabulous dreams and opted for a “Job”?
I did too, for a while, thinking that it was safer to exchange my life-force for a payroll, until I realized that job security was a total scam. Then I decided to start creating my own business and do what I loved.
I really don’t regret it: being in control of my life is awesome enough to advocate for it, even if it can be challenging at times.
Looks like you’re ready for a change too… Maybe you’re also contemplating to dump your day job to do what always inspired you?
Congratulations :)
In this article, I’ll share 5 things to remember if you ever want to stop living paycheck to paycheck:
#1- Begin by Waking up at 5 AM
Before doing anything else, adopt this one religion: the cult of waking up insanely early.
Deciding to wake up early means a radical life change, it’s a statement that means you’re aggressively enforcing your plan to break free, reality will respond by providing opportunities.
Besides:
– You’ll be able to start planning your new career while keeping your day job (if a smooth transition is needed)
– Your productivity will increase tenfold before 8 am
– Nobody will be there to distract you: they’ll all be sleeping :)
– You’ll skip useless entertainment (TV program suck at 5 am and you’ll go to bed too early to waste time with FB)
Now, how about overcoming ideas that are preventing you from starting your own business?
#2- Remember: this economy is about to dump you
In case you’re holding on to your day job out of security concerns, I’d just like to tell you one thing: wake up.
last month, I eavesdropped a conversation between two of my former bosses.
They were complaining about how complicated it was to fire their Europe-based R&D division. And I’m not talking about undergraduate people with outdated skills, no, their R&D guys were highly qualified, smart, passionate engineers.
Still, all their bosses could think of was to trash them for cheaper resources somewhere offshore.
Don’t believe it’s only happening in Europe, that’s everywhere. As employee, you’re worth hyena’s dunk now.
Your boss doesn’t care about you, don’t fool yourself, and when it comes to stake-holders, they’d simply love you out to cash some more.
Please start taking care of yourself and investigate on what you’re really passionate about, soon that’ll be the only value that market will be willing to pay you for.
And what did you want to be, BTW?
Photograph?
blogger?
Butterfly curator?
The time is now, don’t let others be that for you.
#3- Still hesitant? Hey, you won’t live forever!
If you’re still afraid to start your business and fail in the process, I can relate, failures happen.
The outcome of a personal choice is always uncertain, nobody can give you a guarantee.
However, while you’re busy assessing the risks, time is running out. This is useful to remember.
We all think that we’ll die “some time later”, but in order to move on toward freedom, you have to be more specific and ask yourself:
“what if death comes for me, say, in five years?”
“Is five years enough to become who I always wanted to be?”
“Can I afford to postpone my dream while the time-bomb is ticking ?”
Face it, you’re running out of years, that’s a fact, not just another self-help trick. Death IS already busy cleaning the place, just look around you, who’s already gone?
Do you really believe you’re too young to die?
There’s not a minute to waste, whether you consider yourself young or old, your house is already on fire.
Include death in your life plan now, make it your jetpack, everyday. If you really look, you’ll see that you have no choice but jumping and living your life fully.
#4- Ready to go? Leave in style
Don’t slam the door as you leave your day job, do it gradually, it’s childish to burn bridges.
Why would you make enemies at your previous workplace, anyway? The world is too small to act as a jerk, besides, hatred for your day job will only hurt you, your main motivation to quit should be awareness of your precious life and passion for your new business.
I left three years ago by resigning from my employee position, I immediately offered to free-lance for the very same job, that allowed me to get used to the entrepreneur mindset.
Then only I started this blog with the idea to make it a stream of income in the long-run, because I also need, Oh, yes, that’s right > The Money:
Please save money before you take leave: having a lump aside ensures a smoother transition. That’s an advice I didn’t take and I know for a fact that the consequences are a serious shortage at the worst time.
Save money, seriously. And also:
#5- Cut down on crappy beliefs
Now that you’ve chosen to go out in the wild and build your business, keep in mind that your main obstacle will not be finances or competition, but disempowering beliefs, since they are vicious and slimy ideas designed to ruin your drive.
Disempowering beliefs usually sound like that:
– “I’m not smart enough to be a writer”
– “I’m too fat to start a pole dancing school”
– “How an old guy like me can expect to learn Objective C?”
Dump your doubts regarding your capacities. You are capable to achieve any dream as long as you’re willing to be positive and persistent.
I made it a habit to bust my own disempowering beliefs constantly, it’s a never ending job! For instance, I’ve worked a lot on uprooting my goddamn fear of failure. This has been tremendously helpful so far.
The progress you can make by tuning your mindset is just amazing, check this great book if you’d like to dig deeper in the subject.
Another way to feel less self-conscious about your capacities: turn on the News or MTV, you’ll have shiny examples of incompetent people ruling entire countries and singers making millions with no ability to sing whatsoever.
They made it, so can you
What are you waiting for?
Please share your hopes and fears below ;)
If you like this post, please stumble it or tweet it, I appreciate it