Why You Shouldn’t Get a Job
When you graduate from college the first thing you think of is getting a job. You put on fancy clothes and go to interviews. You answer questions about where you see yourself in 5 years and spew out industry jargon you don’t actually understand. If times are tough you may even find yourself explaining why your college class on post-modern literature makes you an ideal candidate for answering phones at a bank.
When you land a job, you spend most of your waking hours wearing uncomfortable clothes and shoes. You do a lot of things you don’t want to do. You wonder why you spent all those years working towards a degree when your primary responsibility is fetching people coffee. Perhaps you ask for more responsibility. Chances are you feel a bit disgruntled when the more responsible work you receive is taking lunch orders for everybody. Sooner or later you quit.
With a little bit of bullshitting experience under your belt, you find yourself a better job. You go to more meetings. At some of these meetings you are assigned tasks equivalent to fitting an elephant inside a can of Pepsi. If you say it is impossible you are told you are an expert and it is your job to make it happen. In fact, your boss thinks you should actually be able to fit 2 elephants in one can of Pepsi.
The cycle of quitting and finding new a new job continues for most people. People who have not realised that they don’t need jobs. Before I elaborate, let me share the Dictionary.com definition of the word job.
Job (noun) – a piece of work, especially a specific task done as part of the routine of one’s occupation or for an agreed price
A job is nothing more than a series of tasks which you do from 9 to 5. Believe it or not, there is a way to do something you love while still making money. The key is not to find a job, but to find your passion. That’s when it stops being work and it starts being fun.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
-Confucius
If you are still not convinced, ask yourself 2 questions. How many people do you know who hate their job? How many people do you know who hate their passion?
There is no doubt that abandoning your job for your passion is easier said than done. Then again, nothing worthwhile comes easy. It might take time to figure out what your passion is, and even more time to figure out how you can use your passion to support yourself financially. Then you need to figure out what steps to take in order to turn your ideas into reality. Be prepared to accept that plans don’t necessarily go according to plan. Also keep in mind that you may not need to work hard but you will certainly need to work smart.
Most of us think we can’t afford not to have a job. We don’t realise that jobs cost us our sanity and happiness. If anything, we can’t afford to have jobs.
Great post!
As I said to my son this morning when I asked him what he wanted to do as a career when he got old and he said he didn’t know. I said to him “what is your passion?”.
Great post. My passion is coding and it’s what I do for a living, so I am one of the lucky ones I guess 🙂
You most certainly are one of the lucky ones. Hopefully you serve as an inspiration to your son 🙂
Completely agree. Torn between putting food on the table on that road to your passion, but I will get there.
Sure the transition period isn’t easy but it definitely gives you something to look forward too 🙂
Great advice, it’s something you hear often, but that few people really understand. If more people loved their jobs, I believe that there would be less violence.
I don’t know about ending violence but I’m sure the world would be a cheerier place
I like how you’ve still managed to tie in some humor with your post on a very real-world issue but I would say, “Nice!” with a quid pro quo. Even if you do what you are passionate about, you still will have days where you might feel hatred towards the job. Passionate vocations (like writing, art, social service, etc.) still include menial tasks as part of the process. Real life is just hard sometimes.
Very true but I guess you need to reassess when you spend more time doing menial tasks than what you love.
People get stuck in a rut and sometimes you need a little extra push to step up and make things better for yourself 🙂
Reblogged this on MedinaQue and commented:
Believe me I agree. My “job” is a mix of boredom, crazy people, and juvenile work.
Brilliant, the last paragraph especially!!
I’m lucky because I have always loved my jobs….. From the creative world of PR to accounting, still loving every minute. It helps that Sir and I work together in our own companies – and it helps that I let him believe he’s the boss. He should be so lucky!
Nice post. I just recently quit my job and followed my passion. 🙂
That’s exciting! How is it working out for you?
Loving it and making money from it too. 🙂
Nice one, motivating too! It’s so true, but yeah, only if you have a passion.
Loved this. However, I’ve found (the hard way) that using your passion for earning money can take the fun out of the passion. I stopped reviewing films when I found out what a chore it was getting to be — I was looking at each film critically and quite forgetting to just simply enjoy it.
I suppose it can be hard to watch a film and not analyse it after you are used to doing that. I always felt English teachers could not enjoy books because they are too busy assigning motives to the author!