What do you do every day? Are you making a living or are you earning a living? Please do not confuse, when I say making a living with getting up and earning a paycheck, that would be earning a living and there is a difference. People who wake up every morning and go to a job they hate and work with people they can’t stand for 8 hours day are forced to earn a living. People who wake up every morning ready to seize the day, do what they love to do, with people that help enrich their lives, make a living! Which one do you do? Think about that for a moment wont you!
If you are forced to earn a living your life is pretty much defined by the amount of money that you take home in your paycheck. Chances are it is not enough.Day after day and week after week you do what you have to because you have to, or at the very least this is what you have conditioned yourself to believe. I am not just talking about people that go to work for the man every morning, I am also talking about the man himself; the person that owns the business andis just as miserable as the people that work for him or her. Misery breads misery!
In the late 80′s and early 90′s I listened to a man by the name of Less Brown who made his living being a motivational speaker. He said something that has always stuck with me. “Most people die when they are 21 and get buried 60 years latter!” Think about it for a moment it is true, Does that statement describe your life and situation? If so don’t you think it is time to start making a living and stop earning one, I mean after all you have not died yet; Have you?
Do you remember when you were growing up and you were asked, What do you want to be when you grow up? What did you answer? Your answers probably stretched the gambit of your imagination! A cowboy, an astronaut, a ballerina, or maybe even a superhero. So now that some time has passed and you had sometime to think about it let me ask you again, What do you want to be when you grow up? Yes I am talking about right now! What do you want to do with your life, that will bring meaning to yours or to somebody else? It is not too late to start dreaming, or changing your life for that matter!
How would your life change if you were doing something that you loved to do and not feeling like you were forced to do? I am pretty sure that the quality of your life would improve ten fold!
What are you passionate about? What drives you? If you could do anything that you wanted to do today, what would that be? Think about how you would feel doing that today now think about doing that everyday! How does it feel?
I was laid off form my job, May 13th 2010 to be exact. That moment I was forced to make a choice. I could sit on the couch watch TV and also waste my time doing things that didn’t matter. Or, I could do things that did. Marc Reece Design is a result of the decision that I made.
If we put things in perspective, creating a blog may seem insignificant to you, however if I drill down and look past the surface there is so much more to it. I created it, designed it, and optimized it, then I publicized it. I could spend hours attached to my computer doing this, why because I have a passion for it. Designing my blog has opened new doors and possibilities that just didn’t exist a few months ago. More are opening each day!
Everything starts with you. If your life sucks, look in the mirror, If your job sucks nobody is keeping you there, find a new one. (Trust me regardless of what you hear companies are hiring.) If your friends suck make new ones, If you hate the business that you own do us all a favor and either sell it or close it. Take responsibility for whey you are at where you are, then take responsibility to change it.
You have just one life isn’t it time you started to make a living as opposed to earning one?
I love your comment that it’s ok for someone to dream and change their life. A successful businessperson is one who changes his/her thinking and relearns how to dream.
I like the idea of making a living instead of earning a living. It goes along with the old phrase, “Life’s what you make it”
Exactly Renee, We have the power within us to achieve great things unfortunately it I see too many people give up right before the moment success was about to hit
I too have known several people that I believed in them, but they did not see it in themselves, so they gave up.
Most people are coachable, but there is a point when some just don’t want to look in the mirror because of the element of “fear”, so they decide to keep with the status quo.
I hated my previous job, so I decided to quit it 9 months ago and start my own business doing something I love. Was it risky? You bet! My husband was laid off from his job at the time. Do I regret quitting? Absolutely not! It’s one of the best decisions I made in my life.
I truly believe that moving on to “making a living” involves overcoming a fear of something that’s holding you back, leaving the status quo, and taking a risk to improve your life.
Making a living is a conscious choice and yes there is a risk. But there is nothing more rewarding than knowing that you are in control of your life. it is scary however once you make a decision each day becomes easier. Before you know it you have something sustainable. You will never get rich working for someone else, who only cares about how much money you can make them.