How long have you thought about escaping the 9 to 5 and finally living the lifestyle you want? Has it been months or even years? You aren’t getting any younger, I am sick of people not going for their goals. This is the only life you have make it incredible. If you feel as if you can live an incredible life by being stuck in a 9 to 5 job than fine. But most people don’t, they just are too scared to leave their comfort zone. So if you really want to know how to escape the 9 to 5, make more than enough to live on and enjoy the lifestyle you want read on and I’ll go through the steps I used in making a break for it.

Find Your Passion

This is essential in escaping the 9 to 5 -ology. You must know what you are passionate about in life, not just what job you’d be passionate about but what makes you tick. Do you long to travel (like me) or are you more in tune with the arts. Would you love to spend several hours a day teaching sociology to students at a prestigious University or would you rather raise your children in 4 different countries? As long as you nail down the most basic of things that make you crazy (in a good way), the passions that you think “If i could do ANYTHING with my life it’d be this” then you are on the right track and you can move on to number two…

Finding Your System

I think one of the most important, yet overlooked things in life are systems. Systems can make your life 100x better by organizing and stream lining the tasks you don’t like and making more room for what you love. Considering we just found your passion… now we need to find a system that will make that dream a reality. Money is not the object here, but it is essential, since everyone needs an amount of money to live their dream life. Some people’s amount is smaller than others and some have aspirations that are very large monetarily (like me) but we need to figure out how to make the money that leads  us to living our passions. Here are some options:

1. Stay in the 9 to 5 work for someone else world. If this is your choice then so be it, we need people that work for others or we’d not have a society (and I’d be out of business) but just make sure that you LOVE what you do and that you can do all the things you are passionate about.
2. Freelance. Are you a programmer, cook or writer? Do you loathe working for others but lack the motivation to start your own business from the ground up? Freelance, it is an amazing way to make a living (often a good one) and live life on your own terms. Some of the best blog posts I’ve ever read on freelancing are here.
3. Start your own business. If you chose this one you will be doing what I do, which means countless hours of work but in a year or two time you’ll have it much easier and know that you’ve created a solid future for yourself. I endorse this one all the way but it ISN’T for everyone. On more help to start your own business check out my free resource start up school and get started today!
4. Franchise. The ultimate business in a box, you pay more but also get everything handed to you, learn more about franchising here.
5. Go into business with someone else. If you’ve got the brains someone else has the money and vice versa. So if you are great at cakes but need a person with business savvy to take your biz to the next level partner up, like wise if you are awesome at biz development but need a creative side kick get looking. Partnerships are a great way to make something awesome come together.

Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

Now what are your excuses? Come on I know they are out there, well if you need a kick in the tush go pick up Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It if that doesn’t convince you to get out of your comfort zone & start living the life you want I don’t know what else will. Actually if you are still whining probably nothing will, but for those of you who aren’t whining… who are saying “Wow, this is what I should/am doing with my life” then please double your efforts… put in more time, set your goals higher and truly become an extraordinary person in the mean time. Never be afraid to set your goals to high, never be scared to leave the comfort zone, like I’ve said before the biggest jumps I’ve made have always paid off in amazing ways.