“Be the hero of your own story.” – Joe Rogan

I sold out.

At some point in my life, I started receiving a good amount of money to get just enough of what I wanted, to the point where I forgot what I really wanted to do when I grew up. I got so comfortable paying my bills and saving some dough to do the things I’ve always wanted to do that I forgot that I had a dream at some point in my life. I was given a certain amount of money just to be told, “hey, you’d be good under our wings. You don’t have to work as hard as you thought, you’re already pretty much set. Did you think you’d be at this spot at this point?”

It’s crazy, right? I gave up on my dream (whatever it was) that easily. I have given myself to a job and have called it a career at this point. I NEVER wanted to do this when I got older. I never would have imagined myself doing this at this point in my life. I would not be excited to go to my future kid’s Career Day at school. At some point, I am actually proud of what I’m doing too. I know how many people probably envy the position I’m in at this age. I’m not ungrateful by any means, but it sucks, you know? Being able to look back and seeing exactly when you gave up on your dream for a little bit of money.

This isn’t some post to just sell the difference between starting your own business or working a 9-5 job. I’m a firm believer that you can always be happy with a 9-5 job. It’s just a matter of perspective and what you really want. Tons of large corporations have sucky jobs, but they also have really good jobs. I’ve gone through sucky jobs and have been fortunate enough to have jobs that I really enjoy. The key is just realizing when and if you have a time limit for how long the pixie dust will last during the job you enjoy because at some point, so much time will flash by and you will wonder where the hell the time went. That’s when you run and you run fast.

Here’s a breakdown of my ideas for what each piece is and what you should be looking for when you’re in the position.

Career/Job: we can call this the phase where you got stuck. It could be the role you had when you had your first major life change. You could have gotten married, you could have had kids, or you could have gotten stuck paying a few bills (car, mortgage, credit card bills, etc). This is the place that gives you enough time to do the things that you like and it sets up the idea that you have the perfect work life balance. It projects an idea that you have everything set up for you. You have retirement benefits, you have insurance to care for you and your family, you have holidays off to give you time back with your family. It’s easy, you know? You begin to start looking forward to being off on weekends after a certain amount of time and you continue to look out for new challenges or tasks that will keep you busy. It gets easy, but just so damn repetitive that it just causes so much fatigue after a while. Once you figure out that you got into this role as a sort of trap, it might be too difficult to start over. You’ve put in so much time that you don’t think your resume stacks up against those that gained so much experience with different companies because loyalty isn’t what it was back in the day. So you stay. That’s when you have to go. It’ll be difficult, but I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be worth it.

Dream Job: I’m just going to keep it simple. Steve Jobs once said something like, “if today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you’re going to do, today? If the answer is no for too many days, it’s time for a change.” Find the one thing that you can see yourself wanting to do for the rest of your days. If your thought process is to help solve the poverty issue in the world, make sure every move is circled around that goal. Find something for you to keep having fun with. Most people don’t chase this because of fear. Screw fear.

Passion: Find the thing you’re good at and do it often. Do it obsessively. No excuses. Remember to keep a “fuck yea” mentality at all times. If you ask yourself if you want something and the answer is a simple, “yes”, you have to want it more. The answer to everything you do going forward just has to be “fuck yea”. Find your “fuck yea” and keep it going.

Good luck!