How to escape the 9 to 5, Create a Life You Love, and Still Pay the Bills

The year 2020 will forever be remembered. Unfortunately, not for good reasons! Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost in this year. Brick-and-mortar business was the hardest hit as a result of the pandemic related restriction.

But despite the gloomy year, there were a lot of lessons learned from the experience. As service delivery and jobs went online, it was a lesson to many on leveraging the internet’s ability and working from home. This is the dream of any freelancer.

The biggest takeaway from last year’s events is that it is important to learn how to create the life you love without necessarily working from 9 to 5. Is this even possible?

Yes, you can still pay your bills and meet all your daily needs without necessarily being employed or working for someone from 9 am to 5 pm.

How can you liberate yourself from a 9 to 5 job and still live a happy life?

Whether you need to retire early or you need freedom, you have to strategize early. Make a clear path for your exit way before you “fire your boss”.

How can you do this?

Here are some essential tips that you need to keep in mind when working your way out of the 9 to 5 job.

Identify what you love.

To many, escaping the traditional 9 – 5 job means getting right into doing freelance jobs. Yes, this is the quickest way out. But how do you make sure the freelance work will make you happy and still pay your bills? This is the big question.

It is important to choose something that you love doing. Something that you would still do even if you were not being paid to do it. That way, you will enjoy every single day of your journey to financial freedom. Once you have found a way of monetizing what you already love doing, you will never work a single day. Every day you wake up will be unique, because you will always be looking forward to doing that task.

Make a plan

Always plan. Escaping the 9 to 5 jobs means that you are now your won boss. You will realize that you are the hardest person to manage because you will always do what you want or feel like doing instead of what you ought to be doing. Therefore, creating both long-term and short-term plans will help keep you on track.

Sharpen your skills.

Traditional jobs would sometimes offer you the training and grow your career. The same applies to working for yourself. Since your biggest asset is your skills, it, therefore, goes without saying that you need to horn your skill. Sharpen your skills and try to be the best in your niche.

In the current highly competitive world, you need to work on your skills to stand out from the rest of the freelancers in your space.

Evaluate yourself: do a SWOT analysis on yourself.

Before going full-time on a freelance or any personal business venture, you have to do a detailed Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of, the business, and your skills. Look at what you can do best (your strength), where you need improvement and further training (your weaknesses), the low-lying fruits (opportunities) and the threats (competition).

Once you have a detailed analysis of these four factors, you will establish whether you need to fire your boss or hold on to your job for a little while.