by: Timothy Tye
I write this article to awaken your senses. If it succeeds in doing that, it may be the most important information you have ever read.
There's a strange feeling that manifests itself on many people everywhere once a week. As Sunday draws to a close, they have a feeling of dread that the next day is approaching. Some call it Black Monday, some Blue Monday. Any color and any case, it leaves you feeling black and blue in the heart. No matter how much you hate Mondays, it will come and you can do nothing about it.
If you disdain Mondays, you are not alone. It affects millions of people worldwide. And it's nothing to do with the type of job you hold: many people holding rather "pleasant" jobs do not look forward to the approach of Monday either.
Why do people hate Mondays?
Different people have given me different answers, but generally, it boils down to one reason: Monday represents the sacrifice of personal freedom for the sake of financial survival. A day or two of rest puts us in Relax Mode, and we abhor the very thought that our Relax Mode is ending.
But why do we have to go to work on Monday anyway?
In order to keep the job.
In order to earn the salary.
In order to pay the bills.
In order to survive in today's society.
If you don't realise how silly that is, listen to this: When a person says he is looking for a job, I tell you, he isn't looking for a job. If you give him a job without a pay, do you think he will take it? No sir, what he is looking for, is the opportunity to trade his time and energy and skill in exchange for money. Why then, does a person say he is looking for a job, when in fact he is looking for regular money? Because society has conditioned him to accept that the only acceptable way of getting regular money is to trade his time, energy and skill for it. If instead of a job, you offer him regular money, would he accept it? You bet he would! Unfortunately society doesn't work that way. In fact, society has us believing there is no such thing as regular money without a job. So much so that a jobless person is regarded with sympathy, if not contempt.
If you say everybody should accept his lot, go to work and bear with it, you are exhibiting herd mentality. If the whole village says the world is flat, do you accept that, or do you continue to believe that it is round? Just because everybody believes something or does something, doesn't mean it is the best thing to do. If it is, why do we hate Mondays, why do we look forward to public holidays, why do we wish our annual leave is longer? It's because humans are not made to work.
I believe God created us for a better purpose than simply to work for a living. I think God would be very disappointed that we waste the precious life on earth working for money, when we should be spending it edifying the human race. How do we "edify the human race"? By creating things of value, things of beauty, things that help people, including writing an article like this one that helps people realize their purpose of living. At the very least, we should be enjoying this life rather than spending it in exchange for money.
Do you love your job? If you say yes, would you be willing to hold the job without pay? If you say yes to that, then you are indeed filling your time doing something you are passionate about. You should continue doing it, whether or not it pays money. If, however, you don't love your job, or you love it but you wouldn't do it without pay, then you should seek to create a new stream of income so that one day you can either quit the job you hate, or work simply for the love of it. In either case, you should be working for the love of the work, not because you depend on it. Does that make sense?
I acknowledge that today's society is powered by money. Electricity may keep a lot of things running, but money is the ultimate fuel that keeps everything - including electricity - running.
If you're looking for an alternative income, you should have no difficulty finding one. Snap a finger and twenty will line up outside your door. There's always Multi-Level Marketing. Then there's sales, of everything from pots and pans to insurance, investment instruments, and encyclopedias. Before you sign up to an alternative form of income, ask yourself this important question: are you going to love that new job? If it's no or if you're once again trading your time/energy/skill for money, don't go any further!
Through my website HappyJoblessGuy, I teach people to earn an income by building their own website. However, a web-based income is by no means the only way to earn a living without holding a job. There may be others, but I am sharing this method with you because it works for me. I am not saying it is the easiest thing to do. Like everything else, you need to develop a skill. But if you can spend a few years in college just to acquire a skill, so that you can exchange that skill (plus your time) for money, you should be intelligent enough to acquire the skill to build a website that earns you money. Always build websites that support your passion, not just for the sake of earning money. Do not imitate me by putting up another travel website or living-skill website, rather look at yourself, discover your own passion, and create a website where your passion is celebrated.
When I started my first serious website AsiaExplorers four years ago, I wasn't able to articulate back then that I did it as a new stream of income. Instead, I did it because I was passionate about exploring Asia. Now it earns regular money, a byproduct of the passion I invested into it. Isn't that the grooviest thing, to do what you love to do, and earn money for it? I suppose it would have earned even more, had I known how to make the website more optimized to earn money. That's lesson learned as I move on to new websites.
Many people hate Mondays. If you're one of them, do something about it. Start today.
