Have you ever felt that you know what your life calling is but decide not to follow it?
If yes, you are not alone. Thousands of millennials out there, including me and some friends also feel that way. Sometimes we listen more to what other people say more than what our inner voice says.
Since early age, vast majority of people are told that definition of success is working in reputable companies, making a lot of money, and having a luxurious life. However nowadays a lot of millennials are not only solely looking for money but also for learning opportunities, legacy, and sense of accomplishment. If you are a millennial who is working not only for money, once again you are not alone :)
I read a lot of articles that endorse young people to leave their job and start our own business that is aligned with our life purpose. Reading this makes me and some of friends have mixed feeling. On one side we are inspired to start something new but on the other end, we pull ourselves back because we are unready to face uncertainty ranging from no fixed income in the beginning, huge business risk, and unclear career path.
After gathering opinion from some people and reading some other articles, I find an alternative to chase my life calling without quitting by job. This alternative works best under this situation. Firstly, your job should be relatively close with your calling. For example, if you have a calling to create a start up that distributes energy to remote part in Indonesia, you should work for a renewable energy company or at least an energy company.
Secondly, your job should have reasonable working hours that allows you to do something other than just work.
If your current job does not fit to those criterion, it does not mean that it’s impossible to do the following tips. It’s just more challenging.
So this is how I think about the alternative:
1. Allocate 5-10% of your time to pursue your calling
We have 168 hours in a week and most of us spend ~60 hours for our job and commuting so still have ~100 hours to do other things. Try to allocate 5-10% (5-10 hours) per week to do something related with your calling. If you have not found your calling, you can find my article about finding life calling.
2. Find productive side activities
We tend to use our free time inefficiently such as by opening social media too much *self slap*, excessive hanging out *double self slap*, or other things that make us gain short term happiness. Start using that free time to do something that brings you closer to your calling.
For example, if you are a programmer who work in a tech company and aspire to found your own start up, then you should start visiting co-working space or events that invite start up. As time goes by you should spend more and more time and find opportunities to make money from your side activities.
3. Decide between these alternatives: scale up / maintain / shrink
As your side activities is growing bigger, you need to spend more time on it. For example if usually you still can hang out with your friends after office hours, get enough sleep, or have dinner with your family but now you can no longer do it because of the size of your side activities.
If you are on this point, you need to ask your self the following questions:
Do I want to make this bigger with the consequence of leaving my job?
Do I want to keep it as it is so I still can keep my job?
Do I want to make this smaller so I still have time to hang out with my friends?
Think about this very carefully. More importantly, prepare yourself to face the consequence of your choice. There is no absolute answer for this because this really depends on case that is faced by every individuals. If you are currently in this situation and looking for someone to talk to, we can schedule a call (for free) here.
Nowadays, doing a full time job while working on something else is not impossible to be done. We, millennials are very lucky to live in the era where learning something new and starting business (particularly online) is not that difficult. Therefore, don’t waste this opportunity and start allocating your time to do something that brings you one step closer to your calling. Good luck!