The daily grind is so last year.
I don’t know about you, but I can feel a shift in the wind this year. I’m getting the distinct sense that if I play my cards just right, I won’t ever have to return to the 9-to-5, commute-my-life-away grind that I spent my pre-motherhood days living. And you know what?
You don’t have to, either.
Take a look at the online jobs available these days. Check out the various ways that people are making a buck. Side hustles have become lucrative, full-time work for those who put in real effort and skill. Side hustles are becoming straight-up hustles, and I’m here for it.
If you’re sitting hunched in a drab little cubicle right now, as I was a few years ago, stop for a second and just think—what if you could be working in your sweats and doing something you loved instead? Something you were amazing at?
It’s more possible now than ever before.
While I haven’t fully reached that potential just yet, I’m on the right path, scooping up little wins along the way. We’re entering a new and exciting age—an age that’s been in the making for over a decade and is finally starting to flourish. An age in which we can make our professional dreams a reality and not just survive, but truly thrive.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so ready to thrive.
We’re in the age of the online entrepreneur, and there’s no better time to follow our professional dreams and put our humdrum 9-to-5 behind us.
Meet the new boss
We’ve all had bosses we disliked. Some of us outright hate dealing with our bosses.
I’ve had overly emotional bosses. I’ve dealt with bosses who expected too much from their staff. Then there are the bosses who couldn’t clearly express what they needed and didn’t know how to or wouldn’t delegate—the martyrs.
There’s nothing worse than working for a martyr.
If I continue to create content that connects me to people, strikes up hearty discussion, teaches, and inspires, then I can shimmy into the position of being my own boss. I can become the best boss for me, and what’s better is that I’ll still be working for other people.
I’ll just be working for them in a different way. A better way.
Businesses and entrepreneurs are hiring contractors more often these days, and there are a number of reasons why this might be preferable. For one, it’s a great way for them to find contractors they like and will hire again, and it helps them weed out those who don’t quite fit their needs. It also helps that freelancers need good word of mouth to find more employment, so their work ethic is usually better than that of employees who have a salaried, safe position protecting them.
Whatever the reason, becoming a freelancer or contractor is a great way to work for people in a way that keeps you in the driver’s seat.
Opportunities
When it comes to online employment, the opportunities these days are absolutely up the wazoo.
I’ve searched for a plethora of positions that offer freelance work, contract work, part-time work, and full-time work. With such flexibility, you could work a part-time gig that helps pay the bills while still having the time to work on your passions, and that’s a beautiful equation.
Ten years ago, that would have been a pipe dream, but today? It’s just another day at the office.
I’m going to throw out a little credit here where its due and give a solitary nod to COVID for the one good thing it brought along with its disgusting, evil self. When COVID took the world by storm, it ruined an awful lot. There’s no debating that. But one thing that COVID did bring to the table was its ability to pressure companies into making working from home a viable option.
Now, so many companies have ironed out the kinks and figured this previously tricky process out that most office jobs available are able to offer some sort of work-from-home alternative, which is great for us side hustlers. The opportunities that alternative work setting provides leaves us free to work and live wherever we like, and that means more freedom to pursue our other passions. Less time commuting, too, which is a bonus.
When you stop to really look at the situation we’re in, it’s a pretty good one. The opportunities available are practically endless.
Variety
I remember working in a grocery store in my early twenties as I put myself through school. That job was the same every day: as “floor personnel,” I faced the shelves (if you’ve ever worked in any kind of retail job, you know what that means) and went through out-of-date stock.
That was pretty much it. Eight hours a day of moving around and rotating jars of things, except on delivery days—then I added “putting jars of things on shelves” to my exciting role. It was fine—great, actually, for a student whose mind was full of school work and college-related drama—but the monotony of my jobs through my twenties and thirties held fast after I was no longer a student.
Now, as I create my own freelancing business and work for people who share the same passions as me, my job offers variety and excitement that twenty-year-old me could never have imagined possible.
And that’s saying something: twenty-something me could imagine a lot.
I also have a say in how and when I work, which is great because I also have a huge goal this year—finishing my book. Being free to set aside time to put on my “book author” hat is not only extremely freeing, it’s vital to my success.
Hard work = success
Grandparents around the globe have imparted buckets of wisdom for the younger generations for as long as grandparents have existed, but one nugget that really rings true today is that hard work will bring you equal success.
Yes, really.
There was a time in my life—about 12 years of it—during which this was not true. I worked for the local government, and whether you worked your butt off or not, everyone earned the same wage. I could do ten times more than the guy in the cubicle next to me, and there was still a chance that if we went for the same promotion, he’d get it over me.
Depressing. No wonder I have no desire to go back.
Now, with the ever-progressing shift into online work, the old hard work equation is actually ringing true again. Don’t get me wrong: unions are great. They’ve done wonders when employers try to pull a few fast ones on their employees, and I’ve benefited from their efforts on more than one occasion.
But working for myself means that I am the only one looking out for my professional interests, and while that’s a lot of pressure at times, it’s also an incentive to make sure I’ve crossed all t’s and dotted all i’s. Beyond that, though, working for myself is a clear picture of how much work I am actually doing. If I’m working hard, writing a lot, and marketing myself effectively, I’ll have a decent month.
When I slack off? The proof is in the pudding, or, more aptly, the lack thereof.
So whether you support it or not, I suppose capitalism is doing its job here, because the equation is true: work hard and you’ll be rewarded appropriately. It won’t be easy, and there will be times early on that you will likely be paid a fraction of what you’re worth—but persistence is key.
With persistence, you’ll push past and make a living wage. Be patient, grasshopper.
. . .
It’s not all puppies and rainbows.
Ask anyone who’s ever made a buck doing what we do—you can start here on Medium. Authors on Medium who’ve “made it” spent hours working after their day jobs to keep afloat. They contracted their time for work that didn’t inspire them as they chased their passion. They were paid less than they were worth as they built up their portfolios.
And if they stop working, it could all dwindle away to nothing. They’d be back at square one.
But the opportunities available to creatives these days are endless, and as cliche as it sounds, there’s no limit to what you can do. Out there, people just like you are looking for writers who will write about what interests them. Out there, people just like you are looking for a start-up to bring them the right kind of product for their needs.
There’s a market for people just like you. All you have to do is take the time, work hard, and tap into that tamped-down passion and skill that’s been hiding inside of you. Unleash it—this is our year.
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This post was previously published on ILLUMINATION.
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