Do you ever just want to run screaming from your job?
You just CANNOT stop wondering why the hell you’re still there?
It's time to STOP believing you're a workhorse and run free like the magical #unicorn you are. Here's how to change your mindset. Plus, get your FREE Superpower Discover Guide. #YouAreWorthy #Confidence #SelfWorthClick To Tweet
Like, hit the road and just NEVER look back. Maybe you’re in a toxic workplace and just cannot wait to escape the 9 to 5.
“You’re not going to cry, you are not going to cry.
No screaming either, just breath. You can do this.
You still have to do this stuff to survive.”
But do I really, though? (Perhaps that’s a question for another time).
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Sure you hate it, but it won’t kill you to do it. You’ve got bills to pay. Okay, maybe it takes just tiny bits of your soul, but you can repair that right? Right?! A soul is repairable, isn’t it? (Someone, anyone LMK).
I somehow lied to myself that I don’t hate it nor love it, that it just is what it is. But the truth glaring itself at my face right now, with flashing lights and warning signals: doing a job you hate really does kill me a little bit. And If I don’t change course, soon I’ll find myself asleep at the wheel of my life.
Lulled into the routine and rhythm of worker life, giving all I am to someone else, forgetting the magic that now lays dormant within.
Taps chest, hello, anyone inside there? Where’s your magic hiding?
If you’re feeling the pain of working a 9 to 5 and find yourself wishing you were free to pursue your passion instead of a paycheck, then this post is for you. So, are you a magical unicorn waiting to be free? Let’s find out!
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The Reality of Working a 9 to 5
There was a time when getting a job of your own choosing was a form of freedom. Way back in the day the majority of the population did not have a choice on how to spend their waking hours.
Think about it, you were born into a circumstance and there really wasn’t a ladder or a path out of it. There was no choice in it. You were born into a family that served a purpose for society. If you were lucky then, you did what your father did, what your mother did. And for us females, there were even fewer options. No freedom to even own property much less earn an income.
So, sure, from this perspective we’ve come a long way. And the 9 to 5 job was an opportunity, a pathway to freedom.
But somewhere in the last decade that just hasn’t been the same. Things are different, the rules have changed and somehow a regular old day job has become a life sentence of unhappiness for most people.
Any millennial will nod knowingly to headlines like, “most Americans hate their jobs” or “50% of Canadians dislike their jobs.” Like, no shit Sherlock, you didn’t need a study to know that.
It’s no wonder they hate us, we refuse to accept the sentence that used to be like a lottery ticket for our parents and grandparents.
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The system is broken, there is no loyalty in the workplace, there are even fewer actually exciting opportunities for a largely overeducated and uninspired generation. A cohort of magical unicorns desperately wanting and needing more. The society raised us to be dreamers, to believe that we could do anything we put our minds to. So, is it really a surprise that most of us want more. Nay, demand more!
More and more unicorns awake to asking questions like:
- Should I follow my dreams or be realistic?
- Can I pursue my passions or work for the paycheck?
- Should I quit my 9 to 5 and become my own boss?
- How do I start a side-hustle or make money at home?
- Can I start a profitable business that I love?
And so many variations of these questions that shatter the prevailing story of how to become successful. The narrative is falling apart in the cubicles. It’s no longer true that you have to college, graduate with good grades, get a real job and find happiness and success.
Is This Me Overreacting?
Sometimes I feel like I’m being melodramatic when I get so emotional about not loving that I still have to do things I don’t like for money (working, I’m talking about working.. like a job).
So many of us feel guilty for hating it, for wanting more. And likely one conversation with your parents or anyone above the age of 45 will leave you feeling like you’re overreacting.
Don’t listen to them!
When I wanted to escape the 9 to 5, sitting there at my desk, doing the mind-numbing work day in and day out, I realized something… I don’t have to, I choose to. I chose to, again.
Staying at a job you hate, or even taking on projects you are less than excited about.. is a choice.
Why didn’t I just say no? Why do we keep showing up day after day, saying yes after yes?
I honestly ask myself this like every single day or like every 20 minutes.
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It’s been a year since I haven’t had a full-time, part-time, or anytime kind of time job. And it’s really been a crazy ride, with moments where I feel like I’ve gone so far that I can never go back, yet I still have moments where I’ve somehow found myself here again. Even as an entrepreneur you will be faced with the choice to take on projects, jobs and contacts you’re not thrilled about, BUT you have to pay the bills.
“So, you’re back? YES, I’m back… stop giving me that look self.”
Right where I hated being. Right, where my mind drops into deep darkness and everything starts to go off the rails. My health, my sleep, my happiness… my everything.
Even though doing this work again is SUPER temporary, and yes I’m less than thrilled to find myself doing it again, I am now even more convinced that the path I’m on right now, is the right path for me.
Sometimes you need to be reminded that you made the right choice, and going backward even for a minute does that for you super quick.
Have you been here before? Stick with your choice to change your life. Don't go back!Click To TweetYou find yourself walking down a road you’ve already traveled to the end of, and you stop, because you remember that you’ve been here before. You whip around real quick like, “NOPE, I know where that goes. And it’s NOWHERE.”
You already know that it’s a dead end. So why you still walking in this direction?
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I’m Too Old for This
Maybe I’m too emotional about these things, but I really can’t stand having to do things that I dislike. And that really isn’t for my benefit beyond a day or two. Sure it’s money, but not enough to actually change anything for me.
At the end of a day, a couple of hundred dollars here or there REALLY isn’t changing my life enough to justify the side-effects. But, then again there’s the rationale – you need money to eat, to pay the bills so you can continue to be in business.
Like, I’m an adult, aren’t I?
You're an adult, use your veto power and start making decisions to build a life you love. #bossbabeClick To TweetIf I don’t want to eat those vegetables (which would never actually happen because I love vegetables) or a better example if I don’t want to take those nasty tasting cod liver oil pills I don’t have to.
In any case, ADULT = VETO POWER power over anything me no likey, right?!
Ugh, I wish.
And then I wonder, am I just being a millennial? Ugh, why are we so into loving what we do and doing “work” that matters?
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Why Am I Still Here?
So, why then am I still in this position (workforce pun totally intended) where I’m doing work that makes me roll my eyes, scream my head off internally, essentially go nuclear and cause tears to fall on the inside where no one can see them?
I try and explain this to my mom, she doesn’t get it of course, but I try nevertheless to put it in terms that she’ll understand.
“But I hate it every time I’m asked to do easy stuff (who am I kidding, I say shit, I say stupid shit because I’m an adult) that they could do themselves. Like in less time than it takes to ask me to do it.”
And my moms like, “Okay, why does it bother you?”
To which I huff and poof, “Because it’s annoying and it’s as if they do not respect me or my time and feel the need to bother me with the littlest of things.”
“But isn’t that what you’re being paid for?”
Not nearly enough I think.
Okay sure not the best rationalization that I’ve ever come up with, but ugh it just bothers me and writing this now I finally realized why and it’s the same reason that I hated my 9-5.
I just do not get ANY pleasure from being needed for tasks just anyone could do or for something someone could do themselves.
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I’m a Unicorn, Not a Workhorse
Just make me feel special already.
No girl would respond to a compliment so generic and general like “you’re a pretty girl.” Did you copy and paste that garb? Why am I pretty?
Sometimes I just feel like, I am way too magical and amazing for this. And odds are my friend, you are too magical for the confining position you find yourself in.
Like just let me be the blogger, photographer, designer, writer, dreamer, hustler, a curly-haired unicorn that I am! I am a magical creator, do not ask me to do menial tasks, I am not a workhorse. Magical unicorns do not do such things, we run wild and free in our magical forests.
Maybe it just doesn’t pander to my ego? (Thinks about that for a minute…) More likely it’s because it doesn’t require any substantial part of me, just some faceless pleb. Is that you, ego?
I’d be the worst secretary, “Get your own damn coffee!” (I promise that’s never happened, I’ve never been asked to get coffee. Good to cuss I’d just drink it all myself #coffeeaddict).
Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Me
I blame it on my childhood and my childlike imagination that’s still going strong today.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?“
“You can be whatever you want.”
Lies! So, tell me why is my life so generic and lacking all things special and unique to me?
Are you over living a generic life lacking all things that are special and unique? This is for you!Click To TweetSure, this magical creator is found at a desk doing repetitive and mindless tasks that give her back pain and aggravate her carpal tunnel. I seriously forgot about this part, but trust me I’m remembering the physical pain now. I say that feeling is remembering.
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Someone, please tell me where’s the magic is in any of this?
I spent (ya know because it had a cost) eight-plus years in university. That’s eight years (and the few years between programs) telling myself that I only had to do this unchallenging, low paying work that satisfies me none until I graduated and found a “real job.”
Diagnose me as delusional already, because I clearly believed the lies way longer than I should have.
And do not get me started on student loans… (another post for that).
The Blue Fairy Lied
I’m realizing just how much of a Pinocchio I’ve been for most of my life, believing the lies that I told myself that this is just for now, that you’ll get there, you’ll be a “real” adult with a “real job.”
So many years thinking, “I just want a real job.”Just to end up with a “real job” that was just as unchallenging and as boring as any of my many retail jobs.
I realized that the magic wasn’t found with the “real job” it was found with the “real me.” It was right here with me the entire time.
The magic isn't found in a real job, it's found in being the real you. Embrace your awesome.Click To TweetI’m sure there are “real jobs” out there that would allow me to be my magical self, I’m just not willing to “work my way up” for ten more years, having to tell myself the same lie that “this is just for now” when it may not be.
If only someone had told Pinocchio he was good enough, that being “real” was overrated. Isn’t being a talking, walking, alive wooden puppet way more interesting than just being a boy?
The world already has so many of those. But you are the only magical creature in this world like you.
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Just Let Me Be Magical Already
Please job, stop asking me to conform, be one thing, faceless, nameless thing. A girl with no name, no personality.
Are you tired of conforming to your job? Being just a faceless, nameless cog in the wheel?Click To TweetBut still, I do it because I said I would.
I wake up, I squeeze every bit of my magic into a working girl mindset, playing the role of a good employee. I do what I have to pay the bills and keep gluten-free treats in my belly, all the while sneaking glances out my window at the magical land I wish the run free in.
Is it break time yet? Can I go home early? Oh wait, I forgot I work from home, I’m already at work.
I’ve spent basically the entirety of my memorable life minus the last year not really being myself entirely. Be the good student, the good worker (I won’t lie to you, I was probably never a good daughter), and probably wouldn’t be a “good wife” either (whatever that is).
After a year of freedom, it would be hard to step back into a “good” worker.
Or so I’d like to believe.
Forgetting is Too Easy
What scares me more than hating this work that doesn’t give me life, is not hating it. Becoming docile and okay with not infusing everything I do with my own magic.
I am more concerned as to why it took me so long to quit in the first place and why after a year I agreed to “do more work.”
It worries me how easy it was to forget just how much I hated it. So easy to forget all the back pain, headaches, waves of stress that used to roll off of me like a tidal wave, crashing into everyone in sight (sorry mom).
It has me wondering why we don’t fight to run free? Why do we stay when we feel captured? And I really don’t think it’s as simple as “we need to work to survive.”
But what if, just what if, you could create your dream job?
If you should start a business you love and live your dream life?
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Why do we settle for the ordinary? Live our lives as if we believe that we are anything but extraordinary?
Why do we deny everything that makes us magical? And take so long to embrace it?
You are magically unique! Even if you don't feel like it, you are so specialClick To TweetYou are Super and Magical
I know you might not feel like it right now, but trust me when I say YOU ARE MAGICAL!
Discovering your superpower is the best way to wake up from the monotony of the 9-5 life.
Once you find what makes you magically unique, it is almost impossible to ignore it. You’ll love the feeling of freedom and purpose it gives you and you won’t be able to avoid it. Freedom and happiness are just too addictive to let go of.
Stop wondering if you should do it if you follow your dreams and if you should run free.
Are you tired of being a workhorse? Embrace your inner unicorn with the Superpower Discovery guide.
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I think a lot of people fee that way about their jobs. I know I stated a job for 9 years before moving on. Sometimes it is not the right time to move on, I finally found a great job last year and I am loving. So patience is surely a virtue.
This is an interesting way of putting things. I know I refuse to conform. I am who I am and I have opinions on things that I won’t change.
And if I don’t want to eat veggies that day, I won’t!
Hey Amber,
YES, we must resist! Forget veggies and desk jobs too!
Really interesting…I could connect it so much to what happened with me in professional life few years back..I hated the work I did but since they gave money I continued…I could not admit for such a long time
We just do it, because that’s how it’s been done. It’s how we survive in this world. But, you’re right it takes time to realize the toll it’s taking on us.
I think any situation, be it work or a relationship, that makes you feel unhappy or not complete is worth taking a break from and re-thinking things. Maybe easier said than done, but we only get one shot as this life lark and …..i think unicorns have more fun 😉
Seems like you are a mind reader and have covered everything, I think about 🙂
A lot of this really hit home. I think my parents ingrained in me growing up that you couldn’t stop something just because you disliked it or grew to hate it. But then again they were never good about investing in themselves. I feel sad for them in that respect. I know that I have commitments and I cannot neglect them so no money is a non-starter. But I can do differently.
So interesting. I use to feel alot like this before. Thank goodness im in a better spot now!
Hey Marisa,
I’m so happy to hear you’re able to be the magical unicorn you were meant to be!
This is a great post which makes us realise about our magical powers. We all have some but we forget to look for them.
Hey Deepa,
Love it – you are magical indeed!
I can hear you gal and can relate to so many things that you’ve mentioned in best! I believe in the quote of the Frank Tyger and if you’re not happy, then everything is vain!
And then I wonder, am I just being a millennial? Ugh, why are we so into loving what we do and doing “work” that matters? Exactly my thought!
This is a disease for us millennials. Impossible really. But it’s the reason why we get so much done. Great post!
You and me both! I think we have the advantage of being able to see it for what it is. More so than those who came before us.
While reading this I just thought that every word could be also from me. I find myself in exactly this situation right now! Thank you so much for these inspiring words
I do not believe in unicorns I guess I am not a millennial. My beliefs are more on hard working and achieving goals. The magic I make it on my own focusing and having real goals. My super power is resilience and never giving up.
Hey Adriana,
None of this disqualifies hard work and achieving goals. We don’t believe that life should be handed to us, just that we should actually care about what we’re doing.
By realizing and venting my opinions about the working situation, does not in no way mean I’ve given up, that I’m not resilient.
I refuse to accept anything that I know I can change.
This post is so relevant for me – I just quit a job I hated with a horrible boss – it was a tough decision but it needed to happen!
Congrats on being a free-running unicorn!
I quit my job 3 weeks ago exactly because of the same reasons you delineated. I felt like I was stuck in a routine that made me unhappy. Time was passing by, I’m not enjoying life, and I’m miserable waking up every morning and going to an unsatisfying job. These past 3 weeks of having my own time have been bliss.
Hey Ronnie,
I am so happy that you’ve quit your job! Yes, isn’t it amazing being in control of your time and destiny? Congrats!
I stopped working the day before I gave birth to my son. Never went back to the corporate world ever since, and no regrets with my decision. 🙂
Yes, for leaving and not looking back!
this is great! i wish i could be back to kid and imagining this things again..
The amazing thing is, you can be that kid again, who believes that anything is possible for yourself! It’s a choice to believe. And it’s yours to make!
This is indeed an interesting post. I know I have felt like this years ago. Someone once told me if you don’t like the job you are doing than you will never be happy. This can be so true but there is also reality and sometimes we have to do what we have to do to survive. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and this guide.
That’s amazing advice that we should all live by. We spend most of our lives working, it’s hard to do that and not enjoy it!
I think we all go through moments where we feel this way. Then we remember the real goals and work harder to meet them. Even if it means doing something you don’t like.
Hey Scott,
There are times we have to do things we don’t like, that the unicorn becomes the workhouse once again. All good as long as the goals are your own!
Motivation is hard to maintain. I have worked in some fantastic places with great people and I have also worked in places where the morale was horrible.
Oh my, don’t I know that! But I find as a unicorn I have way more motivation to be successful than I ever had before.
We are all unicorns in our own way. We just have to realize our potential and make magic happen!
We so are! We have to wake up to who we are and let that magic happen! Totally agree.
Sometimes we make sacrifices to get to where we want to be. Some famous actors were waiters first on their road to success. I’m all for following our dreams and making sure our practical needs are met.
That’s so true! I do things I’m not entirely pleased with, but it’s in service of the goals and choices I’ve made for myself so that I can one day choose happiness every single time.
I am all about making sacrifices and working my tail end off until I get to that point of success. Sometimes I like to think that makes me a magical unicorn. That and mommin’ is hard while trying to run a successful business. <3
You’re amazing! You got this unicorn mama!