Are you stuck in a job?
Episode #940 October 27, 2023
In our recent survey, the overwhelming majority of you said you dream of running your own business – or you want to grow the business you already have.
Fewer than 10 responses said you wanted help in finding a job. And yet a whole lot of the stories you shared told of feeling stuck in a job — being in a job now that you wanted out of.
So, moving forward, I will be interspersing those stories – only to provide a framework for how to go from the job you have to the business you’re dreaming about.
We’ve got some gripping stories today from that recent survey that will give us the setup for how to move from where you are to where you want to be.
Questions:
I need to find a new job. It likely won’t be a dream job, but it should be better than where I am.
Let’s start with the end in mind. If you ultimately want to be doing something on your own, when would you want that to begin?
I’ve never met someone who said, “I wish I would have waited longer to start my own business.” I just don’t hear that.
In already deciding that your next job won’t be your dream job, we have a mindset issue. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”
If you think you’ll end up with a job that’s just a little better than what you have now, that is what is likely to happen.
If you think you’ll get your dream job, that’s likely to happen. If you think you’ll start your own business and love it and make five times more money than you’ve ever made up to this point, that’s likely what will happen next.
Just like Earl Nightingale says in The Strangest Secret, your thinking leads to your reality.
Think of something that will stretch you, which will ultimately excite you.
Go back to the basic process in 48 Days To the Work and Life You Love, where you identify your skills and abilities, your personality tendencies, your values, dreams and passions. Your life leaves clues along the way.
Go back in terms of finding what the mission of your life is. Go back and look at the clues. When is it that you really come alive? When is it that you’re in your Zone of Genius?
I have a JOB but I think it has the potential for passive income.
I don’t know of anything that has more power in terms of potential to make you money than software development. Think about all the things we use daily that were developed one time and then people get paid over and over again.
I had a friend a while back who was a software developer for a company and had an idea. He decided to go out on his own and develop his idea, so instead of making like $180,000 a year, last year he sold his company for $50 million.
Now he has the luxury of looking at other businesses to invest in.
Don’t overlook those kind of opportunities when you’re sitting there. So morphing into self-employment as a software developer is a pretty straight-line path. Identify what it is that you have that you could offer in that way.
I’ve been advised to go after the low-hanging fruit/opportunity and put my passion aside.
If you follow your passion, you may just burn out.
If you don’t follow your passion, how are you going to be excited about something? Will you be “stuck in a job?”
Is it easier to make money doing something you’re really excited about or something you’re just doing because it’s the practical, responsible thing to do?
My experience is it’s a whole lot easier to make money doing something I really love doing. And I would venture to say that’s true for you as well.
For example, I started as a Sunday school class. That little Sunday school class just grew and grew and grew, and people were asking for resources and for my time and all that. So I had a whole bunch of things that all were part of my passion. I was really clear about what I wanted to do, but then I could look at that and say, okay, I have coaching and speaking and writing a book, creating a course, having live events, building an online community, starting a mastermind. Those were all ways I could lean into my passion of helping people identify their unique and most powerful talents and passions, and then how to translate those into meaningful, purposeful, profitable daily work so they can make a larger impact, leave a legacy, thrive financially, and do all that in 48 days. I was really clear about that. I could have done any of those and been passionate about them. But in that case, the low-hanging fruit was coaching.
I could start coaching immediately. I could decide I was going to be a coach on Monday and Monday afternoon be coaching somebody. So that was the low-hanging fruit. So I did that immediately, and I was coaching people five days a week. But as I got so much information from people going through these processes and learning from those and having things to share with others, then I started on those others — speaking, writing a book, creating a course, having live events, building an online community, starting a mastermind. Those came over a period of time. And I reduced my personal coaching from five days a week to four, to three, to two, to one.
And at this point, I reserve one day a month to work with somebody individually, just so I keep the rubber on the road, so to speak. I never want to lose that. But it’s been reduced that much because I’ve developed those other things.
Now this business of avoiding your passion because you think you might lose the enjoyment is a really, really confusing, circular mind game. I think it’s an excuse to not have to be creative enough to lean into your passion and find a way to make it work.
I’d rather help you find a way to grow dandelions and turn that into a business if that’s your passion than to help you get stuck in a job like a corporate accounting position at $180,000 a year, because that’s the practical, responsible thing to do.
Explore your passion. Figure out how could you put legs on that. Be creative.
I’m stuck in a job — in my own version of the Stockholm Syndrome and don’t know how to break out.
This listener says they were stuck in a job that was abusive for two decades.
Stockholm Syndrome is the bond that can develop between hostages and their captors.
If you feel stuck in a job, definitely don’t go back there, even if it is the only thing you know.
My recommendations:
- Keep your skills sharp.
- Know your marketable value. Why would companies hire you?
- Look at how you can take those skills and use them if you don’t have a job.
I feel trapped by my resume and my wife wants me to make a sensible choice and “stay in my lane.” I want to do something more creative, fun, and exciting.
Give yourself 48 days to come up with a clear plan.
How can you take your project management and team building skills in a new direction?
Don’t just get stuck in a job — another job.
But if you aren’t able to prove yourself in a new direction, then look at staying in your lane and getting a new job.
But first, start with your dream.
Quotation:
“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Nelson Mandela
Resource:
Join us for a free webinar on our November 14th, 48-Day Dream Life Blueprint, to help you bring your dreams to life for the new year. Save your seat at 48Days.com/webinar.
Business Idea of the Week:
Become a Plantpreneur and take care of other people’s plants at their location, either businesses or even in people’s homes. If you’re a plant lover with a gift for taking care of plants, this may be a great business or side business for you.
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