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Happy Friday, {{first name | friend}}!
I used to think my job was the problem. Turns out it was never the job. It was that I didn't have a plan for anything outside it.
Here's how that happened. I spent years assuming quitting was the actual goal, like the job itself was the obstacle between me and whatever I was supposed to be doing instead. So I resented the 9-5 for existing. Blamed it for the side projects I never finished, the newsletter I never started, the hours I "didn't have."
Except I did have the hours. I just didn't have a plan for them, so they disappeared into scrolling and recovering from the job I'd already decided to hate.
The people I know who actually built something on the side weren't the ones who hated their jobs the loudest. They were the ones who had a specific plan for a specific hour, protected on purpose, used the same way every week. The job stayed exactly the same. What changed was that the hours around it stopped being empty.
1 question for you:
If your job disappeared tomorrow, would you suddenly have a plan, or would you just have more hours to not have one in?
2 rewrites worth studying:
Weak: "I hate my 9-5, it's holding me back from my real goals."
Strong: "I have a 9-5 and a plan for the hours around it. The job was never the part missing."
Weak: "I don't have time to build anything on the side."
Strong: "I have the same 24 hours as anyone. I just didn't have a plan for mine until recently."
3 things about blaming the job instead of the plan:
The job is an easy villain because it's specific and visible. A missing plan is invisible, so it's harder to blame, even though it's usually the actual problem.
Quitting doesn't create a plan. It just removes the thing you were using as an excuse for not having one.
The 9-5 isn't stopping you from building something. The absence of a protected hour, used the same way every week, is.
Stephen
P.S. I still don't hate my old 9-5s for existing. I hate that it took me years to realize the job was never what needed to change.
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