Love What You Do and Never Work a Day in Your Life

Today, the idea of working a 9 to 5 is dead. Of course most, if not all of us are doing just that. Actually I get to work at 8am and get 1 hour of unpaid lunch. I always take my hour. Actually, if my boss is reading, I usually work through lunch and get massive amounts of work done (if he's really reading this he would probably ask me when I was going to tell him about this 3 month bike trip too). As far as I can tell nobody wants to work the 9 to 5 anymore. Sure, there are people who love what they do and good for them. That is not to say I hate my job, but when I am here I'd rather be doing basically anything else.... someone has to pay those student loans. When I get home from this lovely job my roommates and I consistently talk about winning the lottery, quitting, and golfing everyday. No time like this was more prevalent than this past week with the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot. This talk doesn't stop at roommates. It is everywhere.

For about a year now I have been thinking hard about an app or an idea where I would make a bunch of money and finally be able to quit my job and live the life I want. I'm sure I am not alone on this one. I am also sure you have all heard that money won't buy you happiness or make you happier. So I dug a little deeper each day. What would make me happy?

Of course I already am very happy. I have a loving, tight family, an amazing girlfriend and great friends. There are millions of people who are without these things. But I kept thinking, what can I do day in and day out that would make me happy all the time. By this I mean no "Sunday Scaries", no Monday blues, no hump days, no more sitting around thinking what I would do with a million dollars.

I tried to keep my mind busy and open. I was reading a lot of fiction on my subway rides. I put that time to use to read some stock books. Maybe trading could be a hobby. After a while that started to fade. I started to go rock climbing a few days a week. That also faded. I have noticed about myself, I tend to get really into something for 1-2 months and let it fade but never lose it. Kind of like hitting the gym hard for a month or two and then hitting the pantry hard for a month or two. I enjoy knowing a little about a lot. But I was still yearning for that something.

I was stumped.

Then the day came where I was moved to a new project (I am a construction engineer so my office is the project I am working on). I mentioned this in my first post, but the short of it is that now I am able to bike to work. So I hijacked my dad's bike to the city and started biking to work. Really it was to save $112 on an unlimited monthly metro card (now it's $116.50) and not to mention a little extra exercise. Not only did I receive those things, but I fell in love with biking instantly. The more I biked the more I loved it. The further I biked in a day, the more excited  I was about going further next time. This is it!

I had no idea cycling was going to become my new love. That is just my point. If you feel like I did, try everything. Try new stuff and try old stuff. But it is so important to just try things. You may not know what that something is, but your subconscious knows and when you find it you will know to.

I started this blog saying the 9 to 5 is dead while I sit here on my lunch break typing this out. I believe the more I pursue this passion and fuel it with more passion that I will one day break that mold. For now I can feel excited when I wake up for the work day knowing I have my bike.

Edit: Adam (my brother) sent this clip before I wrote this blog post and I didn't see it until after I wrote this. The video is of Steve Harvey talking about taking that jump. It is related to what I wrote about trying things. Steve wants you to jump. Enjoy.

Get on your bikes and ride!
M^2