Are You Trading Your Life For A Paycheck?

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I know many people will feel offended, but what I'm about to say is simply the truth.

There's a saying: "A salary is the price they pay you to forget about your dreams," and I can assure you, it’s often true. After receiving their first paycheck, 99% of people completely forget their dreams, as if they never had any.

Most people working a 9-to-5 job fall into the cycle of wishing for the workday to end, for the week to pass, and for the month to finish so they can receive their next paycheck. But in doing so, they forget that this time is their life.

I can't imagine anything worse than someone wishing their life away. It’s often subtle—you’re going through the days, hoping for each one, then each week, then each month, to be over.

There’s an Arabic proverb that says, "You are just a few days; whenever a day passes, a part of you passes with it." The very day you wish away so you can go home is a piece of your life that you’ll never get back.

Now, I know some people will feel defensive, but let me say first that I also have a full-time job. This isn’t about whether or not you have a fixed job; it’s about your attitude toward it.

If you’re eager to learn more about your work, aiming to become an expert, avoiding gossip, fully living in the moment instead of just surviving it, constantly making progress both in your job and outside of it—if you’re exercising, developing yourself—then you’re on the right track.

If you’re not doing these things, then your time is slipping away to the job. If you don’t go to bed every day knowing something new or improving in some way, you’re exchanging your time merely for a paycheck.

I have hundreds of colleagues at work; most of them simply wish the time would pass. They have no other activities, no purpose, and no goals. I believe I’m the exact opposite, even though we all share the same job.

A fixed job isn’t the problem; it’s how we approach it.