By archelys3@gmail.com How to “Never work another day in your life!”
For seven years I owned and operated a successful web design company.
Having no knowledge of how to create a website, but a vision for a profitable business, I stepped out on my first day of business walking from factory to factory, in a local industrial estate, and sold five websites.
From that day forward I built around me a team, and even when I sold the business, many of those clients, whom I met on that first day, were still my clients.
But what now?
Well I had been blogging away for quite a number of years in the personal development field and found myself to be extremely passionate about helping others in the areas of motivation, inspiration, positive psychology and personal development.
So ever since the day that I sold the web design business I have immersed myself into that area, supplemented by business coaching, professional speaking, and have even purchased a hair salon for my youngest daughter who is a qualified hairdresser.
So what has that to do with the title of this article?
Everything.
Over the years I have discovered how to never work another day in my life, and still get paid.
Let me start by sharing with you a few formulas that I have created.
a. Do work that you hate = Hard
b. Do work that you love = Easy
c. Do work that you hate and get paid for = Bearable
d. Do work that you love and get paid for = Surprised & Very Happy
So let me now share with you the 6 things that I have discovered about never working another day in your life and still get paid.
- To do work you love, is not work
Once I decided to monetize my motivational blog, it was leading up to the Christmas holiday period. All my colleagues were heading on vacation, but because this was a totally new direction for me I headed straight back to the office. I knew that if I was going to build momentum for the New Year I needed to invest some effort while everyone was relaxing.
As an entrepreneur I have always done this – work when others are sleeping or on holidays and then when they’re all back at work I’m off taking holidays. One of the joys of working for yourself.
But the fact was that during those Christmas holidays I wasn’t really working – well at least it didn’t feel like it. I was in fact writing articles, and because I was writing in the holiday period I was the one who got published all around the world during that time – and even got a mention in The New York Times – which gave me a great kick-start before I even hit the New Year.
- To do work you love, you will work harder and love it
It’s a fact. When I love what I’m doing I work harder. That’s why I am sitting in one of my favourite cafés at the moment writing this article at 7am in the morning. This is a habit that I have developed over some time. I have generally done a day’s work before the office doors open at 9am Monday through Friday.
That translates into 10 additional hours of creative work done before normal business hours. That equates to more than a whole work day invested into creating and building an exciting new venture.
- To do work you love, you will work smarter
Just by being involved in the process of working in the area you love, you begin to develop smarter systems, smarter ways of marketing, and smarter ways of using technology. You also begin to discover smarter ways of surrounding yourself with smarter people.
I am a firm believer in the power of developing a mastermind group. In our office alone I am surrounded by people younger and smarter than myself. In the area of blogging I have hired a smarter and younger entrepreneur to coach me in that area. I may have been a leader in the web design industry, but I am now the student in the blogging arena. To sit at the feet of a master is the smartest thing you can ever do.
4. To do work you love, you will get paid better
It’s a fact. If you’re happy in your work, you are going to perform at an optimal level. Just the very nature of your positive attitude and application to the work at hand will make you attractive to potential employers, joint venture partners, clients and colleagues. That in turn will equate to an increase in your revenue streams and the income you can generate. As bees are attracted to honey, so too money to people who do the work that they love to do.
5. To do work aligned to your strengths is the smartest thing you can ever do
Most of us, when we left school, got a job. Why? To pay the bills. But why? Because that’s what our parents did.
At 18 years of age though, I was introduced to the world of entrepreneurship, and it impacted me so much that I have never been able to get it out of my system. It in fact ruined me for life in the area of getting a job.
Because I have been an entrepreneur now for so long, I am now in fact unemployable. The reason being that I have taken stock of my strengths, my natural abilities, my inherent passions – the things that I find easy to do and enjoyable to complete – and I have continually been in the pursuit of operating only in those areas.
As a result work is not work to me. It’s fun. Business is a game. Projects are a competition where I play against my last efforts.
I don’t compete against others. I in fact compete only against myself and my last attempts. My one goal is to outdo, outwit and outplay myself.
- To do work aligned to your strengths, and get paid for it is even smarter
To be working in the area of your strengths, every working day, is a privilege. But this has come about because I have made the concerted effort throughout the years that I would pursue my passion, profit from my passion and become pre-eminent in the area of my passion. And as a result I get paid for doing what I love. It is not work. It is joy in expended effort.
Work is an opportunity to extend myself, to grow and to help others to become all that they’ve been created to become.
So don’t work another day of your life. I dare you to seek out your strengths. Strengthen your strengths. Learn from the strong. Position yourself to profit from your strengths, and get paid for the rest of your days.
Have you discovered how you can get paid for not working another day in your life? Share it with us.
Read:
- Positive Light In A Dark Negative World, staying positive in a negative world – archely
- Find purpose and meaning in life, How to live with a purpose – archely