It’s Not About Quitting Our 9–5. It’s About Pursuing a Life We Aspire To.
Maybe, it is time to get our focus right.
Many of us hate our 9–5.
We paint a picture of a cubicle purgatory each time we think about our jobs. No, that is not true. Not at all.
- Are there full-time online writers who hate continuous writing?
- Are there social media influencers who hate producing a high volume of content?
- Are there professional marathon runners who dread running from time to time?
The answer is yes!
And this is where we got it wrong. It is not about our jobs.
It’s not about escaping our jobs, either.
It’s us.
Two-Face Everywhere
Would you complain when you are working on something you enjoy?
I doubt. Michelle, a marketing intern at my current company, never complained about working late. She never fails to be the second last person to leave the office.
I know because I am the last one.
Michelle loves banging her head on the SEO wall. Her eyes lit up when,
- She is assigned to work on Google keyword-based copy.
- On getting the company website to appear on page 1 of search results.
- And when she is figuring out how to funnel leads from Google to the company website.
She engages with these work items with a smile until 9 in the evening.
However, Michelle frowns and laments when tasked with conducting market research.
Asking people for their opinions? She twists her lips.
Cold calling unsuspecting folks to fill up random survey forms? She laments.
And these are super straightforward tasks. Like, they are defined in scope and expectation. Finish 10 a day, and you can go.
Nope, Michelle hates that.
Does she sound familiar?
We Miss the Point
It has nothing to do with our income too.
There is a bit, but not all of it. Here’s why.
Big money does not solve the work stress problem. I know many ex-colleagues in the consulting space earning 5 digits a month and cannot last for 3 years.
A rare few survived. These people rise to the top.
Same income. Same stress level.
I once asked Ben, a Senior Manager in my first consulting firm, how he could stick to this hell-on-earth job for 12 years. His answer is classic.
“I have always wanted to be a consultant.”
I asked another long-timer. Linda has this to say.
“I love to work on complex issues. I enjoy cracking that difficult client code too. It brings me immense pleasure to knock everyone out and drag them across the finish line.”
And then, there are Sarahs.
“I need the money to pay my bills and mortgage. I hate the long hours. But no one will pay me my current pay elsewhere. So I am stuck here.”
They are all from my ex-consulting firm, by the way.
And they are my seniors in the same project.
Who do you think I feel happier working with?
A Tough Question
But still worth cracking.
What keeps us going at 9 in the evening? Or 11? 12 midnight?
I will go first.
- I can write an online article draft at 9 in the evening.
- Presentation rehearsal and script rewrite.
- Structuring creative contract set-up.
- Sales follow-up work.
- Financial modeling.
I am obsessed with the above. I love to think in dollar terms. It keeps my brain cranking.
I’m driven by perfection when it comes to writing and presentation preparation. I write, edit, write, edit, think, elaborate, prune, think, elaborate, prune.
And then I will rehearse, time, discard, rehearse, time, discard, ad infinitum.
It excites me to know I am going to deliver a brilliant show. Or a high-readership article. Or a financial model demonstrating a 10% return on investment in 3 years.
That’s me.
What turns your crank?
3 guiding questions can help.
- What is it that you cannot stop thinking about?
- What do you want and cannot buy?
- What do you regret today?
I love all these questions. I collated them over the years, and they come from my mentors in the workplace who spit sense.
The second question is my favorite.
It is weird to think about what we cannot buy at work. No, it isn’t.
I cannot buy the achievement I want. It includes,
- Closing a high-ticket deal no one saw a 1% chance of succeeding.
- Working on projects that are understaffed, under budget, and under impossible timelines.
I cannot buy customer satisfaction either. This is what I like. We can fake our credentials, productivity, and efficiency metrics.
But.
We cannot fake customer satisfaction. It is based on human emotions.
People can tell when we are genuinely working hard to solve their problems. They know when you pick up their calls at 10 in the evening.
These are things that I demand from myself during my 9–5 that I cannot buy.
Now, your turn.
What do you demand from yourself at work that you cannot buy?
Parting Keynotes
Pursuing what we want is the real question.
We fall into constant lament mode when we are unclear. Distractions become powerful. Soon, we slip into the mindset of I want to quit my job!
Sure.
But the problem persists. We will carry the same issue from one workplace to another.
Even if we become digital nomads.
Even if we become full-time online writers.
As a content contributor, I write my daily life observations and business exposure. Our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.