The term side hustle shouldn’t be new to anyone reading this. It was coined to describe the fact that people aren’t happy in their traditional 9-5 and many high profile influencers have mentioned the need for two or three income streams at least to avoid cashflow traps like losing your primary income i.e. don’t stick all your eggs in one basket and all that. Makes sense right? Except that most of the people I talk to have NO side hustle or exit strategy for their careers, despite the amount of complaining I hear about how much they hate their current jobs and work life balance! Why is that?

For some the thought of putting in any extra work after an already tiring day at the office can seem like a step too far right now, even if in the long term they are likely to be able to address that work life balance in their favour. Short term pain should always be sacrificed in favour of long term gains, but for some, just getting through yet another dull work week is all they can handle mentally. Sunday evening blues become Friday evening celebrations week in week out. Pretty sad right?

I’m not suggesting we all go and quit our day jobs and move back in with our parents if we don’t 100% love what we do now – of course it’s important to be responsible towards your financial commitments (and leave your parents in peace!). However what if we could use our current set up to pivot towards our longer term vision of how we want to earn a living to support our ideal life styles?

There are of course a plethora of career coaches who do just that (I met with an amazing highly skilled and experienced one yesterday. She highlighted to me that I wasn’t suitable for career coaching (primarily because I already have a good idea of what I want to do). However another career coach helped me realise my primary purpose in life was to serve others, and in order to have a happy and balanced career I needed to apply purpose to my job as well as my life. This meant I had to find an alternative career that afforded me the work life balance I wanted and needed to manage my health issues as well as earn me the lifestyle I was accustomed to. I assumed this meant working ten jobs but I have since found a solution that allows you to keep the comfort of your day job whilst still working towards your long term financial and well-being goals.

Of course it isn’t for everyone. Some people are perfectly content grinding out the so called 9 to 5 for 5 days a week. So why should you bother with a side hustle and what stops you? No ideas? No time? No passions outside your perfect job? (lucky you!) but what if your company went bust tomorrow, do you have a back up plan? No? Cue stress!! And who wants that lol.

If you are unhappy in any aspect of your work life balance there is always a solution – the side hustle. It requires you to do the following work:

• Brain storm or list down everything you love and hate about your current and past roles. Look for patterns.
• Spend weekends and evenings reading around the subjects that interest you to educate yourself and become one of the top 1% amongst your peers.
• Decide how you can use this knowledge to add value to others.
• Network and find suitable mentors who have done this journey before. Take all the advice you can get (it doesn’t have to cost you anything).
• Learn sales and marketing. No one will buy from you if they don’t know what you’re selling, or you don’t know how to close a deal.
• Practice all of the above on people you know. Then practice on people you don’t know.
• Refine the strategy until something sticks. Your gut instinct will tell you if you’re onto something.

If you are feeling blocked with anything I have said please DM me or email jeena@schoolofj.com for a no obligation call to discuss how we can move you forward towards your 2023 work life goals.

Happy hustling.