52.3% of Americans are unsatisfied with their job.
An unsurprising but sad truth.
While some people chase their dreams to find a job that fullfills them, most have given up on this.
The underlying emotion regarding an occupation is that it is merely means to an end.
You need money to support yourself and your family, you need money to be able to effort vacations, you need money for basically everything.
Since we cannot live for free, we are pressured to take on jobs we hate for money that is not enough to staisfy our desires.
This results in an unmotivated workforce.
The people get detached from their jobs, counting down the hours until work’s done and using every possibility they can get to take easy and stressfree routes.
They don’t educate themselves any further, they get depressed, they stop having sense in their lives.
Because many people find themselves in the situation where money, and the corresponding job, are major sources of frustration, contributing to depression and overall low quality of life.
If you are reading this blog, I already know one thing about you.
You dread the exact situation I just described.
You want get more out of each second, minute, and day. You want to live the best life possible.
However, if you have dealt with the topic of self-improvement before, you know that it requires sacrifices, dedication, and tenacity.
You cannot simply adapt it from one day to another, enjoying long lasting success.
Now if you want to get there, picking the right occupation is a minimum requirment.
Picking the right objective
A common mistake when trying to get successful is focusing on the wrong objectives.
Instead of trying to nail down the skills and the knowledge required for your job, many people focus on wanting to earn money.
The quicker the better.
But if you work towards this goal, you will lose track of whats actually making you money.
To illustrate, let’s take the example of two photographers opening up a business.
Due to his passion for photography and aesthetics, he is trying to learn every possible aspect of his job, and master it.
He is never satisfied with his work, always sees small and big mistakes in his techniques, and keeps on improving even if that means a painful amount of practice and tries.
Because he is focusing on the photography itself, he will steadily improve his work, therefore making customers increasingly satisfied.
This way, his business growths, he gains references and experience, builds his network, and makes a lot of money.
That is the dream-scenario.
The second person, simultaneously opening up a photography business, is doing it because he sees the opportunity to make money.
Once the equipment is bought and he has gathered a general
After that, he only really focusses on the money aspect.
Even though it is very important to have a good marketing strategy, in the end, the customer wants a good product.
Since he is only slowly improving his skillset, similar businesses with more passioned personell will have a distinc advantage.
Someone who reads, watches, and thinks a lot about photography will always be better at making photos than someone who reads, watches, and thinks a lot about money.
Ironically, this results in the one who cares less about the money to earn more.
Factoring in the time it takes
Rome was not build in a day. And neither is a successful business.
It is not a sprint, but a marathon.
There is always more that needs to be done than there is time available. The grind never stops.
If you are looking to make a lot of money, this can be a very good motiavtion for a long time.
You hassle every day, envisioning your goals, awaiting the day you finally buy the house of your
It motivates you to do a lot.
Regardless, after a few months
Perhaps there is another business model that would work better.
What if the photography business is already saturated?
Because your objective is, again, to make money, and not to create beautiful looking pictures, you will be more likely to lose your confidence in the whole idea after not seeing immediate results.
Since you don’t care about photography, it was only serving you to hopefully make money.
There is no underlying connection to the task that keeps you from giving up, providing you with the necessary long term fuel.
Therefore, it is extremeley easy to sidetrack you, making you unsecure about the business.
On top of that, you realize after you have spent some time dealing with the topic, that it is actually very boring.
After the initial basic learn-curve is over, the improvements you will have to make are going to be small adjustments, details, stuff that gets deep into the material.
When you didn’t think basic photography was particularly exciting, you sure as hell won’t be eager to learn about the complex, technical details of it.
Since you probably have prepared for such a turn of events already, you think you might just be able to hassle it out.
Push through the necessary work, and finally earn some cash.
In reality, there is always room for improvement, always knowledge to be acquired.
Eventually, you will burn-out.
Left with no motivation and every cell in your body refusing to learn the advantages and disadvantages of another special lense and when to use it, you will either give up right then and there or reduce the work input to a minimum.
Finding ways to skip work and choosing the easy path whenever possible.
No matter how, your business has very low chances of taking off.
The competition is fierce, full of people who are actually passionate about what they are doing, improving every single day.
The most important takeaway is, therefore, that trying to build a business or working in a job that you don’t like is not very sustainable.
Diminishing chances of success and promotion.
Don’t waste your time
The average person spends 90.000 hours at work in their lifetime. 90 fucking thousand hours.
That is a third of our total life.
Now take away sleeping, eating, and all the other small stuff that takes away time, we are left with a disproportioned amount of time spent at work.
Depending on your believes, we only live once.
Spending a third of that time on something we don’t like, feel connected to, or are passionate about is simply not acceptable.
I am not saying this only because I want to everybody to enjoy their life.
It has health-consequences, too.
If you are dealing with something you don’t even like for such a long time, how can you be happy?
As the human is wired to have a pessimistic outlook on happiness in general, positive emotions have to overweigh negative ones by a lot in order for us to feel satisfied.
With that much time spent on uninspiring work, there is no way we achieve this ratio.
In turn, inviting negative thought patterns and depression to be part of our lifes.
While it is sad enough that it can have such a destructive nature for our own life, it will also be difficult for our loved ones.
If we are in a bad mood all the time, it is that much easier to get upset and frustrated about small errors or bad habits of our close circle.
At this point, we stop adding value, and start dragging people down.
If you are not happy with yourself, it is so much harder to make someone else happy.
Bottom line
While monetary obligations often make it difficult to choose your oppucation, you still need to try.
Simply becasue you deserve being happy, engaged, and passionate in your life.
Working 90.000 hours on something you lack interest in is not acceptable and will have severe consequences regarding the quality of your life and the ones surrounding you.
On top of that, picking something you care about will give you the best chances of success.
Already providing a competitive advantage compared to people who soley focus on making money.
Additionally, it will make sure you have the necessary endurance, discipline, willpower, and tenacity to get the job done.
Even then, it will not be a walk in the park. Opening a business or progressing heavily in your career will always demand sacrifices and a lot of time.
Choosing an occupation that you love and are passionate about is, however, the best start to that journey imaginable.
Are you satisfied with your job?
What is your occupation?
Leave a comment and contribute to the discussion!
Thanks for reading, guys!
Matthis
