Quitting Your Job vs. Moving Toward Passion

What was the worst job you’ve ever had?

Back in 2008, I had a summer internship between my first and second year of grad school. (“Intern” in the architecture field doesn’t mean unpaid coffee-fetcher, it’s more like a normal job but with a crappy title.)

I got to spend my days “designing” big box chain stores. I use the word “design” in quotes because there really wasn’t much design involved. Basically we would get a prototype set of blueprints from the client. (“Prototype” means that if you died and went to heaven and there was a Wal-Mart, or whatever, there, this is what it would look like.)

It was a very boring job. I spent most of the time using drafting software, pushing and pulling walls so that the prototype would fit on the lot of land that our client had. Moving a wall 3 feet to the left can be a very tedious task when you have to make sure that the changes are on a 50 page set of construction documents.

I suppose my complete frustration with this situation is what inspired me to start getting into this lifestyle design stuff. Before I knew it I was introduced to the world of blogs. I would read Tim Ferriss’ blog, Leo Babauta’s, and Jonathan Mead’s.

A long time ago I used to believe that working a job you’re dispassionate about was something that was unavoidable for most people.

Maybe the best case scenario would be to just find something that was tolerable and convince yourself that it isn’t really that bad and just kind of slip back into that hypnotic spell.

Instead of actually loving what you do, you suddenly look forward to stupid things that you otherwise wouldn’t care about at all (like Doughnut Monday in the break room, a $25 Best Buy gift card as your year-end bonus, or being asked to work for free for your dream company because it is part of “paying your dues” and it might, just maybe, lead to an actually paying job if you play your cards right).

But I guess being pushed into a situation I absolutely hated, and could not tolerate, really got me out of the trance. Being pushed too far in one direction, makes you have a very strong reaction in the opposite direction.

That’s what led me down this path. (Of course I was helped by the fact that there are barely any jobs available these days, and the fact that I’m virtually unemployable.)

We all have our reasons for striving to make money online.

I think that for most of us it is because we have a bigger dream than tweaking big box chain stores.

In 2011, I had the great fortune of meeting Jonathan Mead who runs the blog Illuminated Mind.

Jonathan is very skilled at helping people quit their unsatisfying jobs.

If you don’t particularly like your job, you should check out this video that Jonathan made with a professional film crew. Maybe this strikes a chord with with you.

You Can Check Out The Video Here! (Danger: Affiliate link)

Or Just Click Here (Not affiliate link)

Sometimes we can get so caught up in the details of SEO, PPC, or other incredibly deep and technical things that we lose track of why we started internet marketing.

After all, moving away from something bad (like a job you hate) isn’t enough.

Trading a boring job that drains you for working for yourself online is a pretty shallow victory if you just end up running a bunch of niche sites on topics like yeast infections, registry cleaners, or hemorrhoid remedies.

Personally, if I had to chose between being a hemorrhoid blogger or “designing” big box stores, I’d go with the big box stores.

Sure, escaping something you don’t like is a great motivator, but you also need to anchor yourself to something that you want to actually move toward.

Otherwise, you’ll just flop around.

Kind of like if you decided you didn’t like Los Angeles (as an example) and you wanted to live “anywhere but LA.”

If that was your only goal, you might end up living in New York, London, Cape Town, or the middle of the Afghan Civil War (which according to Wikipedia, has resulted in an estimated 600,000 – 2,000,000 deaths–Congratulations, you got your wish, now don’t die!).

For me, when I first started down this road of lifestyle design or internet marketing or whatever you want to call it, my mind had just been blown open to some serious possibilities. I wanted to discover if it was possible to automate income and spend time traveling the world (turns out it is–just a bit harder than some make it look).

My girlfriend and I got this idea that we wanted to go to Thailand and chill out in a thatch-roof hut by the beach. I used to watch videos of stuff like that on YouTube to get me pumped up to work on websites. And somehow, everything fell into place and we actually got to do that.

Since then my vision for what I want to do has been getting bigger and bigger as I open up to more possibilities. Every time I peel back another layer, I discover a whole new world of exciting ideas. And each time, I feel like I’m a little closer to the most fulfilling thing imaginable. I know that sounds a bit like New Age talk, but what I’m trying to say is that you really don’t have to build an empire of boring websites that you have no passion for (those poor hemorrhoid bloggers!).

I’ve seen all sorts of blogs rise up out of nowhere in the strangest niches imaginable (like minimalism!).

And if you are starting to feel like a prisoner in your own business, maybe you’re just not in alignment with what you really want.

Or if you’ve been holding back on getting started, maybe that’s because you don’t really want to dive into something that really doesn’t excite you.

If that’s the case, maybe this video will speak to you:

Click here to see it (Affiliate link)

Or here :) (Not affiliate link–but if you get it, tell Jonathan I sent you…maybe I can get him to buy me a beer at least)

I’m curious, what was the worst job you’ve ever had?

And if it were possible for you to make a living doing something you really loved what would it be?

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