Use your job as a tool

December 12, 2011

Note:  the following story is made up.

 I had a friend named Jim who loved to sleep.  He was probably the laziest guy I've ever known.  He would miss 1pm classes because he couldn't wake up in time (ok, actually I did know that Jim!).

Over time, he learned to turn his passion for sleeping into an income.  He found a job testing mattresses.  He would sleep 12 hours a day on the mattress and then write a short review the next morning (or afternoon).  He turned this into a full-time business and began testing mattresses all over the world, and now he's a billionaire.

Ah, if only I would have thought of doing that!  Ok, back to reality.  It's inevitable that we aren't all going to find our passion in life and make good money while pursuing it.  Way too many times we hear that all we need to do is find what we love, and then everything will fall into place.

While this has happened for some people, it has not happened for a majority of people.  My mission with Your Life, Their Life (YLTL) is to someday turn my dream passion into income, but we all still need to realize the importance of our ‘day jobs’ while pursuing our passions.

Our day jobs are very important financially and psychologically.  Without them, most of us would be lost and poor.  Hopefully, we can all find one which gives us the challenges and opportunities to keep us somewhat fulfilled.  However, most of us expect too much fulfillment out of our day jobs anyway; keep in mind that jobs aren't designed to fulfill our wants and needs but to fulfill the wants and needs of our employer.

Where does that leave us?  I'm pursuing my passion through YLTL, but for now I still have a full-time job that’s very important to my family’s livelihood.  I view my ‘day job’ as a tool for furthering my wants and needs in life.  This can help emotionally detach you from your job and see it's not everything in your life.

Just because I’m a consultant at my day job doesn't mean my life's purpose is to be a consultant.  I can change jobs and titles, but that doesn't change my purpose.

I like to compare life to growing a garden.  There are many things you need to grow a great garden.  One is to till up the soil to provide enough air, water, and nutrients to the plants.  Just because you're tilling that day, does that make you a tiller for life?

Of course not.  Tomorrow you'll be planting.  The day after that you'll be watering, and soon you'll be harvesting.  Your title and purpose in life doesn't change each time you start a new task.

Your purpose is to grow a great garden, and you can use everything else as a tool to get you there.  Viewing your job as a tool allows you to see its real purpose:  to learn, make you money, and find some sort of satisfaction that helps you do what you want in life.

You must have some level of happiness and satisfaction with your day job or it will be nearly impossible to be happy.

Here are five tips to help use your job as a tool:

1.  Find something you like and you're good at 

2.  Start exploring your passion on the side through a mentor, volunteering, or even job shadowing

3.  Create your life plan.  Your plan might be to always have your day job but will spend your evenings or weekends fulfilling your passion 

4.  Continue to work smart and succeed in your 'day job' and the money will come

5.  Get control of your money so you have a life style that will allow you to continue using your job as a tool to help you get to your life plan; don't put on the golden handcuffs  

I’ll mention it again.  It's important to find something you like and align with ethically or you won’t be happy.  You still need to gain some fulfillment and respect out of your job or it won't cover your psychological needs.

Can you find some fulfillment without pursuing your passion?  In Thou Shall Prosper, Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote, "It is a reliable fact that you tend to start enjoying anything at which you become competent and from which you derive a sense of happiness."  Most people can find that in a day job.

However, to successfully use your day job as a tool, make sure you’re doing something that helps you pursue your passion.  It may not directly, but if it's providing you with an income that allows you to pay off your debts and save money, then it is helping indirectly.

One thing I discussed with Chris Fagan, CEO of Mobestream Media, was how he used his full time job at Accenture to learn the wireless industry which helped him launch his mobile app business.  He now runs his own business, which he considers his passion.

As he proved, sometimes there's a sacrifice period where you aren't doing exactly what you want, but it helps to get you where you want.  Sometimes that ‘sacrifice’ period can be someone's entire life!

Don't let your perceived lack of passion for your job lead to unhappiness in your life.  Some people will search their entire life and never find their passion, and for the ones who find it, most will never figure out how to make money while pursuing it.

However, we can all use our day job as a tool to help reach our goals in life.  Do you use your job as tool?  Tell me what you think in the comments.

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