The ancient “Japanese Secret” to being less frustrated with Making Money Online freelancing
How to avoid quitting on your Freelance journey when you are just starting
90% of people hate Mondays!!!
I did too.
So what makes the 10% that don’t stand out?
There are two types of people, Those that wake up excited to start the day, with energy and vigor.
It does not matter the day. They are just up for it.
Then some wake up to a screaming alarm clock lay in bed for a few more minutes, pissed but aware they have to live like this for another 5 days till the weekend comes around.
Rinse and repeat next week.
How about you? where do you fall in?
The latter? because most of us do.
The most unsatisfied people who you would hear complaining about their jobs are 8–5 workers and there is no surprise to those statistics. There are several reasons for this.
You hate your job because it does not
- Give you the amount of money you want to earn
- Give you the satisfaction and freedom you crave
- Give you the fulfillment of waking up excited each day
You are bound to do one to two things
Stay stuck feeling it would change or type the most asked question on google
“How to make money online”
This leads to a torrent of answers and you pick a few that seem very “promising” because the ad says you can make “$60,000 in 6 months, doing 6 easy things daily”
You click, fire off a “pixel” and you are added to lots of audiences(thanks to Facebook), and the retargeting starts.
You do not finish a program, you jump from one marketer’s lookalike audience to another one and you eventually give up.
3 months later you start all over again… doing what you hate for money and looking for more things to hate for money.
It is no wonder we hate our Mondays… because this equation rarely works and for good reason.
You are going to spend a huge part of your life working and if the oldest people who have lived the fullest lives have anything to say to you today, it is this — you should do something that makes you come alive.
The Happiest Centenarians in the World
The Indigenes of Okinawa, Japan, and other countries in the blue zones (the non-scientific term is given to geographic regions that are home to some of the world’s oldest people e.g Sardinia and Nikoya) have the highest centenarians(people over 100 years) in existence.
They have some of the oldest happy people in the world and one secret that keeps this going is to find pleasure in the work you do.
Finding pleasure in the work you do means you have a strong reason to get out of bed in the morning.
In Okinawa, this is called this IKAGAI (pronounced Ick-ee-guy)- Your reason to jump out of bed in the morning. Here’s how it works
The Japanese secret to a long and happy fulfilling life
The Ikigai Equation follows four simple Laws
- Do what you love(Passion):
The belief in this first rule is that by doing what you love, you are always going to enjoy the process.
You can get lost in your work and enter what author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a “flow state” — This flow state is the moment of deep work when you are lost in the work you do.
You are going to spend a major part of your life at work, it makes sense that you do what you love.
But what if what you love does not translate to money?
Then you have not tried out enough things because there is always something you are good at (or can be good at, that can translate to money)
2. Do what you are good at(Profession):
The second law follows that you should only do what you are good at or what you can get good at.
Having something you are good at or can get better at can lead to you always learning.
This follows the “goldilocks principle” — where you are always on the edge of your comfort zone and improving every day because you love and enjoy what you do.
You can also find something you want to get good at and do the same
3. Do something the world needs(Mission):
You and I are wired to make an impact in our community, and the best way we can achieve that is by doing something in 1 and 2 that leads to 3.
Society appreciates you when you make an impact and the internet has made is doubly easy to make an impact.
On platforms like Medium, you can reach and connect to your “tribe”. People on the same part as you.
Providing value to this tribe with the work you do is impactful.
This is making an impact. You know the joy you get from helping someone. That is the joy your job should bring you.
- Writers get this through claps on medium and responses
- YouTubers get it through likes and comments
- Freelancers get it by helping businesses and getting favorable feedback.
This coupled with one and two is great
4. What can earn you money(Vocation):
Doing something that earns you money is a by-product of all 3. Finding somewhere they intersect is rewarding
This is why people in Okinawa rarely retire as they believe “living to work, rather than working to live”. This brings progress and a life of bliss and happiness
Where all these intersect is called IKIGAI
How to Implement this in your Freelance Journey.
What happens 99.9% of the time when you want to choose a money-making opportunity online?
You start from law 4 of Ikigai(Something that will bring you money). We look at the opportunity that would give us the most money and try to fit in Laws 1,2 & 3 in.
Just how we are told to do something with “passion” that we hate.
The result.. you give up. At the slightest opportunity.
You hate your day job and the one thing you should not hate is your side hustle.
Saturday, 10:02 a.m. June 16, 1984, In the Boron letters, By Gary C. Halberts he writes
Money, in my opinion, especially big money, is most often a by-product of enthusiasm. If a person, secretly in his heart, wants to be an architect, he shouldn’t go into selling real estate, for example, just because he has heard that that is where the money is. The money is where the enthusiasm is. Please remember this!
let’s see how we can make this Japanese secret work in our favor when picking a freelance opportunity with actionable tips.
- Law 1: Make a choice.
Decide on the business model you want to start with. there are lots of ways to make money online and if you read this curated story on selling “Selling Shovels” you would see my recommended place to start if you are just starting.
Making the choice to start something is the very first step. Deciding to change something and do something for you.
Making the decision that you want to start a business you love is the motivation for most freelancers. (asides the money and freedom that comes with it of course)
- Writers love putting words on paper
- Affiliate marketers love selling something for a commission and so on
2. Law 2: be curious about what you are good at(or can get better at)
Curiosity is the next step when choosing the freelance journey you want to be a part of
One way to do this is to use the dreaded shiny object syndrome to your advantage.
Try out a bunch of things you like and see which ones keep your interest long enough for you to enter “flow state”.
To get into the flow state you need to overcome the initial learning barrier of learning something new and the only way to achieve this is by enjoying the work you do.
Having the curiosity(and the guts) to try something you have an interest in is a WIN-WIN for you no matter the outcome. You would learn something from the experience.
The greatest mind-shift I have had and one you must have seen in a quote is —
“No one is born an expert”
3. Law 3: Impact
Finding where your new “hobbies” intersect by helping your tribe is the next step. If you want to be a writer what industry do you want to help with your writing skills?
How can the impact of your writing (and this is why I love medium) help others who are constantly searching for your message? What problems can you solve for your tribe? What value can you bring?
By solving people’s problems or giving others around you different perspectives to solve problems, you would be making an impact.
This is eventually rewarding…
4: Rule 4: Money/Success/satisfaction
If you structure your freelance career to fit this, you have a higher chance of success and making money with your skills.
you can model someone in your chosen freelance journey who is already having the results you desire. Follow, learn, and replicate what they do.
Affiliate Marketing is a low barrier to entry and one on the best business model I have found where you can build an impactful career around your hobby.
Choosing any Freelance Career to make money online should make you excited to jump out of bed in the morning.
This is your Secret now. Use it.