Your suspicions are correct; you are smarter than your boss! It’s not just that feeling you get once every so often, being asked to do yet another mundane, repetitive and pointless task… Unfortunately for your boss, you were brought up in the era of the PC, the internet, email, google etc.. It’s a whole new ball game.

Companies today aren’t ready to adapt, the ‘company’ as a model hasn’t advanced at all with the rapid change in technology. Webcams, video conferencing, instant chat, emails, FTP servers, PDF’s, and you’re still having pointless meetings, faxing, printing out mountains of paper and clocking in at the office from 9 – 5!!!

With all this technology and resources at our fingertips, and more often than not freely available, workplaces still aren’t moving towards being effective and efficient. We’re still padding our day out with 8 hours of ‘work’. You STILL sit in your cubicle, if you’ve been good you get an even bigger cubicle. So with the change in technology, your earned dollar still have to pay for the office overheads, your manager, his manager, their company cars, the receptionist, the building lease, the office equipment, your transport to and from work, uniforms etc. All unnecessary items that the freelancer or home based consultant simply doesn’t have to deal with.

The freelancer either has the option of working the same hours and making a lot MORE money, as they save on all of the above mentioned garbage, or they can work LESS for the same amount they were making in the office. Either way, it’s their choice.

The freelancer is providing their value direct to the customer. Sure you might have to work late into the night, because YOU said YOU would to YOUR customer. Not because your boss asked you to.

This all leads to individuals providing value direct to the customer and focusing on their core business.

The 10 reasons why you shouldn’t be at work right now….

1. You’re smarter than that, just because everyone ‘got a job’, why should you?
2. Driving in peak hour traffic this morning was over-rated.
3. You’re becoming a domestic pet.
4. Your pay is limited. You might think you’re lucky enough to have the ‘overtime’ carrot dangled in front of you, have fun working that 65 hours this week.
5. It’s nice to have Friday drinks with your own friends, not people you have to spend 40-50 hours a week with.
6. You’re all grown-up, you should be able to wear what you want.
7. There’s plenty of other ways to make money, you should spend your days doing what you enjoy. Don’t fool yourself, you don’t enjoy data entry, answering the phone and dealing with customers.
8. You’re good at what you do; you should get paid what you’re worth.
9. It’s Friday, long weekends are the shit!
10. You didn’t wake up at 6:30am this morning to sit in a cubicle all day and play solitaire.

Now you might be one of the lucky few who enjoy their jobs, congratulations, you’re in an elite group. But YOU should still be reaping the financial rewards of your job.

Enjoy your day, hang on and battle through, it’s not long until it’s the weekend, and you’ll be released for two days of good behaviour!

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Did you wake up this morning, alarm set as the same time as yesterday, and the day before, and tomorrow? You might drive a different way to work, or wear an obscene tie that doesn’t match, just to mix things up. Ever wake-up to the alarm on a Saturday? And on auto-pilot find yourself in the shower way too early, only to laugh annoyingly at the fact that you have a day off but still got up for the Monday – Friday routine?

I want to tell you that ‘this’ isn’t it… There’s more out there for you, you can have and do whatever you want, but unless you scratch the miracle lotto ticket or a long lost relative leaves you a heap of cash, you’re going to have to make the changes yourself.

So what are you doing? Shuffling papers, working towards next Tuesday’s deadline, sucking up to your boss, hiding in your cubicle or trying to figure out which way you can sit at your desk and not get caught having a snooze? Just for a minute take some time to think about how your life would be if you were enjoying yourself all day, every day?

What do you do?

I want a world where you strike up a conversation with a stranger, when they ask you what it is that you do for a living, you don’t answer with what you get paid for, you answer what you love doing. Unfortunately we spend too much time of the week earning a crust that we adopt our mindless job as ‘what we do’. It’d be nice to meet someone and automatically answer with – I’m a; Photographer, Surfer, Musician… anything that YOU love doing. I want to know what YOU DO, not what you get paid for.

You’re saving your money, putting some aside for the glory years, maybe a holiday once every now and then and some investments here and there for retirement. If money buys you time (retirement), then when do you declare there’s enough money to spend it on time? Is a lengthy retirement really the goal? Why can’t you have your freedom now or a little bit here and there? If you do have a prosperous retirement then you’ve probably worked too hard to get there and won’t know what to do with yourself.

The Epiphany

My realisation came at work, having a conversation with an older co-worker, he was telling me how he’d recently sold a fishing trawler for well over a couple of million bucks cash, $2m cash! After I slapped him around and beat some sense into him* I clicked that for a lot of people, work isn’t the thing that people do for money, it’s just a thing they do, it’s the norm, it’s their life. Friends, the routine, the auto-pilot; something has gone terribly wrong here?

So What?

I want you to take some time out to REALLY think about what you’re doing at work and why you’re doing it. Can you remove the safety blanket of the weekly paycheck and take a chance on yourself?

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This article will not self-destruct in 5 seconds. You’re not Ethan Hunt and unfortunately your workplace isn’t Mission: Impossible. The corporate world and the office work model are too full of corporate fluff and their own bullshit that business, companies and you as an individual forget what it’s all about.

I’m proud to say that Tim from The Discomfort Zone was nice enough to let me guest post for him! Read the rest of this article here…

Successful?

Have you ever seen a slim, fit, athletic manager, executive or director? Me neither. Have a good look around – news articles in the paper, online, always with a photo of ‘some’ CEO who just closed a big deal, no need to ask who ate all the pies.

And there it is, you’re that much of a success that you don’t have time to eat properly, exercise or get a ray of sunshine during the day? I think someone should evaluate how loosely we use the term ‘success’.

The corporate ladder is a funny one, its own little world. You’re a team player, a company man.

In my previous job, my next step up in a few years would have been a project manager; making the tough calls, running the job, reporting to my bosses about the project cash-flow, and ultimately being the first in line to be shot. Inspirational stuff.

Before I entered the working world, I decided I’d like to be a project manager – all that control, looking after the job, the smooth operation of things. I was quick to discover that it meant excessive responsibility, living the job, no time off and in the end devoting your life to the company and project.

I’ll harp on about this, because I am so perplexed that someone who’s supposedly been educated can become so brainwashed and removed from reality. To be honest, I’m also so passionate about this work/life conundrum because I used to be so hell bent on a career path.

You’re special!

Working within a company structure, you’d be surprised to find that you’re just another name in an organisational chart, replaceable and interchangeable. The further you travel up the company ladder, the harder it will be to climb back down.

Now a lot of the guys I used to work with out on the construction sites were a good bunch of guys, but picture your typical construction workers. Not the healthiest brood around, it was the norm, work 11 hours, shovel in a couple of pies during the day and then head to the pub at night time, repeat. It was a social norm that most of the older hands were on heart medication, blood pressure tablets, and cholesterol medication. Not once was the thought to exercise, eat well and have a break from work. People (management, workers, anyone) are willing to put their own health and safety before stepping back and taking the pedal off the gas?

If you remember way back when you first enrolled in the joys of the working world, you worked to live, not the other way around. It will all become a grey mash-up of job/career/life/work. You stupid JERLK.

The ‘career’ might be fit for some of us, if you enjoy the job then why not. But if you want to climb the corporate ladder then don’t worry about the MBA or extra-curricular study, here’s an easy how-to;

• Carry several documents under one arm when walking through the office,
• Look slightly angry around the office, people will think you’re busy,
• If you work in front of a computer, shake your head a lot, the odd fist slamming against your desk won’t hurt,
• Casually greeting your bosses doesn’t hurt, a bit of bravado and confidence will get you everywhere,
• Most superiors/managers/executives are hot air factories, say yes a lot and stroke their ego’s,
• Don’t get caught playing solitaire too much,
• Learn a few ‘office buzzwords’ Refer to Corporate Fluff for the game ‘Wank-word Bingo’.

So there you have it, you could be a manager in no time at all. One thing that I won’t be forgetting too soon is the conversation I had with one of my managers when I resigned. A human resources ‘manager’ was also present. After explaining how I wanted to take a brief sabbatical from the working world, explore my options, maybe travel a bit etc. the HR manager present offered me counselling sessions! So the concept of taking an extended break from work is that far removed from the corporate world psych that I probably have a screw loose?

God help us all.

Work

What are you working for? If you had the choice, if someone paid your bills and expenses would you still go to ‘work’? No one within their right mind would prefer to go to spend their time trapped in the cubicle, or wearing ‘that’ uniform, digging holes, standing at the check-out…

You could be stuck in the 9 – 5, the daily grind. The sad thing is, some people are actually envious of the 40 hour work week, as they’re working ridiculous overtime as it is!

Before I dive into this article, I’d like to qualify ‘work’ as the drudgery, the place you’d least like to be. Some of us are lucky enough to enjoy our jobs and don’t see it as work at all, congratulations to you small few as you’ve already got the work/life balance sorted out. As for the rest of us…

I’ve come to discover it is definitely all about the journey and you should be spending your time doing what you want. Sure work is a must for some but it should be an 8 hour inconvenience to your day (if that), not the be all and end all. Life is all about the 1% moments.

Life

I’m more confused than ever, as people look forward to their 4 week annual holiday. 4 weeks? You’ve worked for 48 weeks, to be rewarded with 4 weeks of your own time? Don’t you see something wrong with that? Wouldn’t it be nice to have more time off, more often?

It’s taken me three full time jobs and a university degree to realize the working world is not for me. I get laughed at when I say I wouldn’t mind retiring next year (by retire, I mean retire from being ‘employed’). People comment that they’d ‘get bored’. Now they’re usually my friends or work colleagues, but seriously, is your life that boring that you need to have someone else give you a set of mundane tasks for 8 – 10 hours of the day to fill it up? You can’t entertain yourself for more than a few hours a night?

One of my good friends and I quite often have a laugh about trying to increase the ‘hobbies and interests’ component of our lives. I’ve taken great pride in being able to introduce friends to kayaking, golf, beers, anything! There’s plenty to do. There’s plenty that you don’t know how to do, so learn it!?

I’m not saying that throwing the towel in at work is the answer, but at least remember why you’re working in the first place. It’s not because you’re trying to increase profits for the share holders, it’s not because you love your company, it’s so you can fund your lifestyle. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to de-couple your time from your income?

Balance

Look around you. Everyone is ‘too busy’. Too busy doing what? Writing reports, filing, sending emails, reading blogs!? I’m not religious at all, but I do believe in the minimalist. De-clutter your life, your time, possessions, even to the point of your associates and commitments. Focus on what and who is important to you. For a wake-up call you definitely need, read Steve Pavlina’s blog on why you shouldn’t be working for anyone but yourself and that being employed is the dumbest way to make money! And after you’ve read that and you’re either seething with rage or disgusted at yourself as Steve points out how you’ve been begging for scooby snacks your whole working life then grab yourself a copy of Tim Ferriss’s ‘Four Hour Work Week’ which will help you get out of the rat race and onto bigger and better things.

Whether you’re a lowly paid office grunt, a manager, a cleaner, nurse or garbage man, if you’re employed you are getting paid for your time. If you put in big 16 hour days in the office, congratulations, you’ve been giving yourself a 50% pay cut! It’s no wonder your bosses love you, you’re cheap labour!

In the overall scheme of the work life balance, you’re aim should be to increase the ‘life’ quota. Educate yourself, I’m sure you’ve met my friend Google, knock yourself out.

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