Today we’re talking about ways we can fall in love with our day job again – but before we dive in, let’s talk about a few reasons why we might want to stay at our day job as long as possible while building our side hustle.
First and foremost, our day job provides us with a steady paycheck, and when we have that steady money coming in, we have more freedom in our side hustle to experiment, to make mistakes and make calculated risks.
We have the time we need to build a strong foundation in our business, one that’s going to be able to support us financially without draining us emotionally.
And we also get the time to decide if owning our own business is right for us – because it’s not right for everyone. It’s a huge benefit to you to have the safety net of a day job to fall back on if you decide that a side hustle just isn’t right for you.
So if you’re starting a side hustle to escape your day job like I was, I’m going to share with you a few actionable things that I did – and that you can start to do today to learn to love your day job again so that you don’t make any desperate moves that could leave you feeling more stressed and in a bad position financially.
The first thing I did to change my mindset about my day job was to write down 10 things I liked about my day job and 10 things I was grateful for because of my day job every single day.
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Now, I didn’t come up with this on my own, it was an assignment from permanent weight loss coach JoLynn Braley.
So after I got out of the shower every morning, I’d sit at my desk with a towel on my head, drinking my coffee and I’d pull out a journal and I’d put the date on the page, draw a line down the center and on the left-hand side I’d write the words “10 Likes” and then on the right hand side I’d write “10 Gratitudes”
On the likes side, I’d write things like
I like that I finally have a window.
I like listening to podcasts on my way to work.
I like the decorations in my office.
I like that we have a keurig.
I like my team.
I like building websites.
And then on the Gratitude side, I’d write things like,
I grateful that this job lets me have a roof over my head
I’m grateful that I can afford the internet because of my job.
I’m grateful that I have electricity.
I’m grateful that I have a car.
I’m grateful I can put gas in my car.
And I did this every day for a month. I’d try to think of 10 different likes and gratitudes each day. And the change was noticeable. It was really amazing to not dread going into work every day, to focus on the positive things and not dwell in the things I didn’t like or couldn’t change.
So I challenge you to do this exercise just for the next 5 work days and see if it makes a difference for you – come and join our online community of side hustlers over at www.shannonmattern.com/facebook and request to join our Facebook group and let me know how it went!
And tomorrow, I’ll give you another tool that you can layer on to help you feel even better about your day job.
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
