“Why don’t you leave your job and start something of your own? I believe you would do much better than you are doing here in this stupid job.” This was Tamanna, yelling at Sam.
Sam is a digital marketing manager working with one of the reputed companies in his city. But, he’s involved in a lot more than just digital marketing. He writes great content. He is never short of ideas for graphics. He loves to keep the team up and running on its toes with his witty sense of humor and fun-loving nature.
“It’s too risky Tammy. I can’t take the risk. What if I don’t get any clients? At least now I know a fixed salary will be credited on every 7th in my bank account, and I am happy with that.” Sam replied.
And, so it continued.
Can you relate to this story? Most of us can. In fact, I won’t hesitate to acknowledge the fact this is my story in many ways. Before Dreams and Desires happened, I was always reluctant to leave a job and start something on my own.
And, in today’s post, I am going to share some basic psychological things that go through our mind which keep us from moving out of the vicious 9-5 job cycle. Let us take a look at them one by one –
Fear of failure
How many times has it happened in your life that you choose against doing something simply because you felt you would fail? ‘Quite often’ – I’m sure you would all reply the same in unison.
However, when you haven’t taken the first step to do something, chances of you failing and succeeding at it are 50-50. As you can see, chances are equal.
As they say – “Adventure may hurt, but monotony will kill you.”
Leaving a vicious routine of 9-5 work environment might look dangerous at first, but it is a ride worth taking. At the end of it, you will reap benefits that will stick with you forever. Whereas working in a regular job is kind of monotonous, that will kill your creativity sooner or later.
We are okay with ordinary
We all dream of having an extraordinary life full of flair and money. But how many of us actually take the steps needed to achieve that extraordinary life? Not many!
In the end, we all end up becoming satisfied with an ordinary life fearing the initial discomfort you might have to go through during the initial phase of leaving your job.
Remember, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary it that little ‘EXTRA’.
The question is – are you okay with an ordinary life? Or you are willing to put that extra effort to get an extraordinary life?
We are too lazy to invest in ourselves
The biggest reason why we are not able to take the giant step to a freer and happier work life by breaking the 9-5 cycle is that we tend to get caught in the comfort zone of monotony.
Just like Sam’s case, where he got too comfortable too leave a job, we too become too lazy to invest in ourselves and move out of that comfort zone.
More often than not stepping out of your comfort zone requires you to learn a new skill. For instance, you might be interested in creative work, but in order to become a professional in any creative field, you might have to learn a certain skillset. This is where our brain starts to signal negatively because it does not want to come out of the comfort zone.
Remember, at any given moment we have two options ‘to step forward into growth that lies out of the comfort zone or move back to safety.’
Your growth depends on the choice you make for your career.
Conclusion
It’s pretty simple to understand – getting out of comfort zone is difficult, the earlier you do the better it is for you.
As far as being afraid of failure is concerned, sometimes it is okay to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.
So, are you brave enough to take this leap of faith and start a career which is not run by the hands of a clock?
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A version of this post was previously published on Linkedin and is republished here with permission from the author.
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