For some, working a 9 to 5 job their entire life is ideal. There are plenty of people out there who need the structure of a traditional job. While there is nothing wrong with this, I personally have an enormous problem with it.

You see, I am one of those people who does not like to be powerless at a job, be forced to work with specific people (read: bad bosses and idiotic coworkers), and spend my life building someone else’s company.

I may not like it, but I have been doing exactly this my whole life.

There are millions of others who feel the same way about the institution of corporate America, the rat race, or whatever you want to call it. We work in jobs we don’t really care about (or vehemently despise), get 2 weeks off every year, and if we’re lucky, have a pension waiting for us at age 65.

Is there a better way to go through life? I believe with all my heart and soul, yes!

A Good, Hard Look

When I turned 39 last year, I took a hard look at my life and its direction, and I did not like it. I had already spent 8 years working in the financial services industry, an industry that I had come to hate, and all indications pointed to me spending the rest of my life working in it.

This scared the shit out of me and I knew that I HAD to make a change as quickly as humanly possible. After doing some soul searching, really figuring out what I wanted in my life, and what I was most passionate about, I realized that my passion WAS my job.

What I am most passionate about is getting out of a miserable job and having a business which will allow me to spend my time as I wish. My motivator is my daughters, Georgia and Lily and getting to spend much more time with them.

Almost every father I know works a “traditional” job. With the painfully long commute times here in the Washington D.C. metro area, many 9 to 5 workers end up with a 12 hour day.

When are we supposed to see our children when we get home at 7pm? One hour each night and on weekends is not nearly enough. I want to see my girls actually grow up, not hear about it from my wife.

I know I’m not alone here either. There are millions of others who feel trapped in a job they can’t stand and would love to do something that makes them happy.  I know there is a better way to live.

I started my blog to spread this message, to build an online business while doing it, and create the freedom to control how my time is spent.

Being told when to come into work, when to eat your lunch, and when to leave is no way to live. The vacation time we are given is just long enough to start relaxing and forget about our jobs and then it’s time to go back. It’s a miserable existence and I am done with it.

All of this sounds great, right? Just quit your job and do something you love. I wish it was that cut and dry.

The Employee Trap

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The problem is that many of us are trapped in our jobs. We put ourselves into a position that we cannot  get out of. We have mortgages we can barely afford, children to support, and often a spouse that does not work.We are essentially stuck, stuck until we figure a way out-or not…

For me, I have 9 years of financial services experience holding me back from changing careers because I am not in a position to take ANY reduction in pay. Anyone else in this spot? Of course!

We could certainly try to find another job, but then what? Even if we do manage to find one with comparable pay, we will just be trading one job we don’t like for another. It doesn’t make any sense.

So what’s the answer? Well, my plan is to put all my energy into my blog until I see the results I want. I know for a fact that there are millions of people who are in exactly the same spot that I’m in (or worse) and are looking for a way out. If I can help people find that way out, everybody wins.

Of course, building a blog into a profitable business sounds much easier than it actually is! Make no mistake about it, creating a blog that provides a full-time income is very difficult not to mention extremely time consuming.  I am willing to put in the work, because I love it, but I find myself facing a whole host of obstacles every day.

If you are looking to create an online business as well, you need to understand the amount of work that it will take to be successful. The good news is that if we are successful, the rewards will pay off in spades.

What I’ve found to be my most difficult challenges in building my online business are as follows:

My Biggest Obstacles

  • Time. I work a full-time job, teach a fitness boot camp a few nights each week, am still pursuing my degree, and trying to spend quality time with my family. When am I supposed to work on my blog? I find that I have to make sacrifices each day to make this happen. I spend my lunch hour at the library writing articles, I stay late at my office several nights each week to get caught up, I will use my sick days to work on my site, and I have all but written off watching television.
  • Energy. With such a busy life, I find myself running low on energy quite often. Having a to-do list that never ends, I need all the energy I can muster, but find that it’s difficult to sustain. I think working on reducing stress in my life along with improving my diet will both play huge roles in my energy levels. Why haven’t I done these things yet? Well,  I’ve been too busy working on the blog….
  • My Job. Although my job is my biggest source of inspiration for writing my posts, it is also the source of 90% of my miserableness. Having to show up for a job you detest is not an easy task, especially for someone like me who doesn’t do well with management, bosses, office politics, and all that other crap that comes with a job. I just need to keep reminding myself that my job, although I’ve been working here for 4 years, is temporary.
  • My Family. My #1 goal is to be able to have freedom over my time, which will allow me to be around my daughters whenever I want. Building an online business that will afford me that time is a long and challenging road. It’s going to take some serious dedication and commitment, but I know it will be worth it. The difficult decision I face is that of spending more time with my kids now or spending less time with them and build the business? Also, my wife does not fully understand the effort and commitment that a wannabe full-time blogger has to take on. I have not tried to monetize my blog yet and therefore have no income coming in from it. Unfortunately, no income equals waste of time for the ill informed. I guess my results will have to do the talking for me.

Will I be a highly successful blogger some day? I believe I will. The odds say that there is a very strong possibility that I will not succeed, but that’s not going to deter me one bit.

Why? Because I absolutely love what I’m doing! I love writing about my passions and especially love hearing from and interacting with people who are reading my articles. There is no chance I’m going to quit until I have reached the level of success I want and I hope you all do the same!

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