Unless you’re lucky enough to have realised and alchemised your true calling in life into being early on in your life, or you are able to go experimenting with life without having to worry about finances (for whatever reason), you most likely at some point or even currently have done a job that you may not necessarily enjoy or want to do for the rest of your life, but must do to get by.
I’ll be the first to tell you it’s okay, there’s nothing wrong with that. People say “follow your dreams” blah blah, and that is important, and you should never have to shovel shit every day for the rest of your life (unless you genuinely enjoy it, no judgment!), but oftentimes “follow your dreams” is easier said than done. And, for that reason I wanted to point an important attitude change you can make NOW which should help you look at things differently and enjoy life a little more without getting overwhelmed by the gap that is between your current situation and where you ideally see yourself in terms of your life calling.
I’m currently going through a course with Aubrey Marcus and Erick Godsey to better understand my purpose in life – everyone is always learning, remember that. One of the things that stuck around in my head, probably because of how relevant it was a few months ago when I quit my corporate job, was that you have a choice between seeing the current job you do as an “occupation” or a “profession”.
Paul Chek describes this very well as the “prostitute archetype”. That is to say, an occupation is something that occupies (read: steals) your time and energy. There is no purpose of it aside from getting you money. It’s like trading money for a piece of your ass(et), to be quite crude. Now, where profession comes in, is where that occupation actually serves a bigger purpose. That could be a stepping stone, a bridge, you acquiring money to fund a progressive route that will help with a bigger goal that you actually want in your life. For example, waiting tables in a restaurant to fund an online course to become a personal trainer. But, there is more to it. Not only is it about a purpose, it is also about your attitude. You can now be a “fuck I hate this job” kinda waiter or a waiter that is a fucking badass. You can smile at people and make them feel good after being served by you. Not only are you acquiring money to fund your PT course, you are also actually enjoying your job, making someone’s life nicer, and getting skills that you can use anywhere in your life – like looking at the bright side, the discipline and hard work.
So to give you a little story of where I was with this a few months ago. For those who don’t know, I have been running my own accountancy services business for almost the last five years. One of the biggest issues, since this is my first proper business, has always been gaining new clients, and of course, there sometimes is a knowledge gap as I don’t have 30 years in the industry (which is fine because I always manage to be able to answer my clients’ questions) which I sometimes beat myself up over. So, when I got back from my Belize trip in March, somewhat in a state of travel blues, I started focusing on all the negatives about my business…
“Accounting and tax are boring!” – they can be, but don’t have to.
“I am shit at this.” – I’m not. I’m always learning. No one knows it all.
And soon I came to realise, okay, I have clients, they are paying me and are happy with my services. So why the self-doubt? Yeah, maybe accounting is lame at times, but what isn’t lame is great customer service, finding solutions, helping others with their life passions and taking the headache away from them. All the cool tech solutions that help me do my job. All the skills I’ve learned in terms of organisation and productivity – is that lame?
The point here is, I flipped what I was focusing on 180 degrees. You could say, I was focusing on all the problems initially and then started focusing on the solutions and the perks of having an accountancy business. I genuinely enjoy what I do because I am able to help my clients save money, get access to funding, take the headache of taxes away from them, digitise and automate their business processes and actually have a chat with each of them about their areas of business (and I love a good chat about business!). Do I see myself actually doing the taxes for the rest of my life? Hell no. I probably want to actually keep TaxDone going for as long as I can, but I do at some point want to hire an accountant to delegate this client servicing work to and instead focusing on the management and growth more, as well as other projects I wish to pursue in life. But right now, it is what I am building, it is what I have and I have a choice of being a gloomy complainer or being the best fucking accountant I can be for my clients.
So the next time you find yourself complaining about your current job, ask yourself if there is an aspect of my ideal dream goal I can incorporate into my current job, what is it and how can I do that? If you want to be a comedian, and you are currently waiting tables (well, when COVID is not around) maybe you can make people laugh a little, entertain them. Or set up a free show in your local community centre every weekend to make people laugh. You have a choice to make your occupation into a profession. It’s okay to be getting by until you have the opportunity to do the leap of faith for your dream vocation, but you choose whether you do that with a smile on your face or with constant complaining.
Peace and love,
Wiktor