70% of Americans are either disengaged or outright hate their job.
If you don’t like doing it, then stop doing it, find a way to get out.
I’m not saying that you should just go and quit your job tomorrow, that might be irresponsible, but you can make an escape plan, a way to get out in 6-9 months or a way to change your lifestyle to live and do what you actually want to do.
I remember when I used to live at my mother’s house and she would say “When you move out you will have to do laundry and have to cook”
Why would I? I thought to myself, I hate cooking and doing laundry, to me it’s a waste of time.
I don’t like laundry, cleaning or cooking, so I have never done those tasks. I have always hired out those jobs to someone else.
“But that’s easy for you to do, you have money” you might say.
That was not always the case, what is true is that we must manage our priorities.
What do you really love to do? And what do you hate doing? How can you have someone else do the things you hate?
For me it was a matter of hiring people for jobs I didn’t like to do.
- Here are some jobs that I hate: I haven’t opened my mail in 5 years.
- I haven’t written cheques in several years, I just sign them.
- I haven’t shoveled snow since my parents were together, the same goes for cutting grass.
- I haven’t managed rental property in 5 years.
Those jobs are unexciting to me and uninteresting, they still have to get done, someone has to do them, but I pay someone to do them so I can do more of what I am truly good at.
Nothing in life is mandatory except death and taxes.
You might say “that’s easy for you but I have kids and a wife and a big mortgage”
If you really don’t like the life you are living then:
- Get a smaller/cheaper house or get an income suite
- Tell your kids that you are going on a new budget and to suck it up.
- Get your wife on board or get a new wife, if she’s not on board she’s not your wife anyways. Don’t be offended by that statement, she’s either in or out.
Magic happens when you live a life doing things that you like to do. The time flies by each day, you stop paying attention to what each day of the week is because every day is Saturday. You have more energy and can begin to live life on your terms.
You even become more attractive and better looking when you do only things that you love and stop doing the things that you hate.
You don’t need the resistance of waking up every day and doing things that you hate doing, life is too short for that.
Just ask yourself “how can I do this differently?” or “can I get someone else to do this?” or “who can do this better than me?” or “how can I trade this work to someone who likes it?”
When you start to ask “how can I?” that opens up the brain pathways to see things differently.
There are more options than ever, there are more ways to live a life of freedom from things that you no longer love to do, it’s simply a matter of thinking, working out a plan and executing on it.
Today I am stranded in the airport, the airlines have failed me too many times, flying takes a toll on my body, my sleep, my health, my time, my money, my company and rather than complaining about it, I am designing a business model that requires no flying.
I hate flying, so why keep doing it?
If you hate doing it, stop, you don’t need to do it, just find another way.
Don’t be so rigid in your thinking, your premises and assumptions to think that the way things have always been is how they must always be. Don’t be afraid to transform and do things in a new way.
Remember that a caterpillar cannot “caterpillar” his way to becoming a butterfly..
No matter how hard Blockbuster tried, they couldn’t “Blockbuster” their way to becoming Netflix.
No matter how hard Walmart tries, they can’t “Walmart” their way to becoming Amazon.
Caterpillars transformed into butterflies, blockbuster should have transformed into Netflix, Walmart should have transformed into amazon.
The list goes on: Kodak should have transformed into Instagram.
The caterpillar must destroy himself, liquefy his body inside of a cocoon and undergo a metamorphosis to become a butterfly.
If you want to change, you must destroy what you were before. Destruction brings creation and creation brings destruction, such is the circle of life.
If you hate doing something, stop doing it and negotiate a better way for you to live your life.
The options are endless, the only thing limiting you is your own mindset.
Respect The Grind,
Stefan Aarnio
