If Money Were No Object- Finding Freedom

We all know that meaning is more important than money. My wife is my hero because she showed me how to do something about it.

“Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.”

Alan Watts

I’m at the kitchen table with my laptop, trying to punch out this article like a pro. My favorite person is on the couch researching gel nail techniques. We’re both doing what we want to do today, focusing on our interests.

Nicole’s an amazing nail artist who loves her job. With her spare time, she finds video tutorials and articles on how to master her chosen craft. She orders new products and tries them out on her eager clients. She constantly studies with her online mentors and improves.

She makes her own schedule and is her own boss. Nicole really enjoys her work and has a blast visiting with all the repeat customers.

This is her normal situation. She isn’t a corporate slave like me. And she built this herself from the ground up, starting from nothing, while working a regular job.

I Want To Follow in Her Footsteps- But How?

For the last month I’ve been working on my passion too. I got laid off due to the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of March. They won’t be calling me back. I’m unemployed and without any prospects. With all this spare time on my hands, I started writing again.

I’m enjoying the crap out of this glorious freedom. I’m so grateful for a break where I can stop worrying about how to get ahead. There’s no way to change my current work situation, and that means all the pressure is off. It isn’t my fault that I’m an unemployed bum. Most of the nation is in the same boat as me. I can take this time and make it my own.

I’m writing every day, spending time at home for a change. I’m happy with this routine of creating, doing household chores and caring for my elderly parents next door.

But soon, the world will fire back up again and I will feel the pressure to go look for a job. I’m not ready for it, and I never will be.

And unless I make a stand, I will just slip right back into a waking nightmare of regular working days.

Does Your Career Satisfy Your Soul?

Mine does not.

I work in quality control. It isn’t a terrible job.

I complete my share of paperwork. I fill spreadsheets with fascinating information about tracking numbers and dates. I sign things and stamp things. I scan documents and email them. More paper objects arrive on the desk for processing. Then, a field trip to critique some manufactured items. Back to the office to write reports.

Commute. Punch that clock! Be a good keyboard jockey. Sprinkle a couple coffee breaks in to get away from that desk. Watch the time pass slowly until the day ends. Then, commute!

This work doesn’t feed the soul. I enjoy the work friendships and I really appreciate the money, but it’s just a means to an end.

I wonder what it would be like to join my wife in the dream club. I could do something every day that I actually want to do, instead of something that I feel I need to do. I would be free.

Change Is Scary

We all get comfort with routines and familiarity. Jobs and traditional industry are all I’ve ever really known. I go to a workplace, and they give me tasks. I complete them. They put a check in my account. I pay all my bills and go out for supper a couple times. I save about three dollars a week and I buy a lottery ticket. Then I go back to work to repeat Groundhog Day all over again.

Even if I switch jobs or industries, this pattern is set. It’s the same day, the same week, the same year. Then I die or retire, and retiring seems unlikely. This month of freedom is a fast way to deplete the savings that I do have in the ‘ole bank account, and keep me on this hamster wheel.

If I want to break this pattern, I will need to embrace change and uncertainty. There’s no way around it. I need to stop drinking the Kool-aid.

But how would I keep paying for all of this stuff that we are on the hook for? Insurance, vehicle payment, mortgage and utilities. It’s a big chunk of change.

All Or Nothing? Nope

I need to grab this bull by the horns. I need to stare life in the eye and go after what I want. But that isn’t the same thing as being reckless.

There’s no reason to pull the plug on everything today and go for broke. I can use the gradual approach. I need to consistently work on creating a new life. It took me over 50 years to get to this point. Taking one more year to aim in a different direction? Not much time at all.

And isn’t that what so much life advice boils down to? Persistence and consistent effort.

Are You Living Your Best Life?

Getting sidetracked into someone else’ agenda happens to most of us. We get seduced by the easy path. Business owners and corporations have dreams and goals. We don’t have a better plan, so we end up borrowing theirs.

This isn’t always a bad thing. Having a job to get up in the morning for means I earn a wage and I don’t have to live in a van, down by the river. Working for the man paid for everything I needed. I raised three kids by following the herd.

But maybe we deserve more.

Are you happy with how things have been in your life? Do you want to stay on this path? Or do you need to head off in a new direction? This is a hard topic, different for everyone.

What Makes You Feel Happy And Successful? How Can You Do More Of It?

What works for me probably won’t work for you. I’m planning on writing every single day, whether I go back to a job soon or not. This will let me call myself a writer, and that is success to me.

That might be the worst thing ever for you. Maybe you are more like my wife, with a dream of a small business in something that really gets you fired up. Can you see yourself hanging up a sign with your shop’s catchy new name and your phone number underneath? She did. And she made it happen.

My wife decided to become a gel nail artist. It was a huge step for her. She didn’t think she had an artistic bone in her body. But the beauty industry and nail art is what she loves. After agonizing about making the first step for weeks, Nicole jumped off that cliff.

She took courses. She practiced on friends and family until she was ready. This took months. There were times when I watched her almost give up. She toughed it out.

Then, Nicole quit her job and started working for herself.

She’s my hero. She had a passion, and made it her dream. Then she went and did it.

It isn’t too late for anyone who wants to make some changes in their life. We can chose a new path.

Think about it.

“It is absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like, in order to to go on spending time doing things you don’t like.”

Alan Watts