Working to Pay the Bills

Most employees work to pay their bills and fulfill their financial obligations. If your 7-year-old child asks you why you always leave home before sun up and get back after sundown, the likely answer will be that you are working to pay his or her school fees. This means that if you had a choice, you would rather do something else.

You cannot excel in a task, work, or job whereby your heart and soul are somewhere else, a job you are only undertaking simply to pay your bills, a task you would rather not do, save for the fact that you do not have a choice.

To attain financial freedom, you have to locate where your passion lies and give your best, to become the best you can be. It is very difficult to invest in personal growth, development, and improved performance in a job you tolerate. If your employers send you for training, it seems like torture. That is why you see many employees endure or skip training classes. Their heart is somewhere else. They are in it only for the money.

The major attraction of taking a job is that it is a shortcut to guaranteed income. We all love shortcuts and instant gratification. You come out of school and get a job that comes with a guaranteed salary at the end of the month. All you need to do is just show up and undertake some tasks, and you are sure to have the money paid into your account at the end of the month (or two weeks) – guaranteed. No risks involved as far as we can see, except surviving job layoffs.

If you are serious about attaining financial freedom, you need to switch from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial mindset. You have to take responsibility for your financial future rather than leave it in the hands of your employers or pension fund managers. You are not in control, and when things go wrong, which often does, you are stranded without the skills to bounce back on your feet.

Living below your means and saving money is a good place to start, but you need to invest the money for returns higher than the rate of inflation, and this requires entrepreneurial skills, doing what you love, loving what you do, and building a business out of it. Having multiple streams of income gives you options, the choice to work for money or have money work for you. It gives you the choice to be in the driver’s seat of your finances rather than remain a passenger, and most importantly, the choice to work for love rather than working for money.

Paying your bills should not be your primary motivation for going to work in the morning. Life is about contribution; making your unique contribution which is your primary reason for being on the planet. By investing in personal development and financial education, you acquire the mindset and the skills to take the right actions so as to get your desired results. Everything is created twice, first in the imagination and later in reality. If you do not take control of the first creation, you lose control of the manifestation which becomes your reality.

You need to make up your mind sometime that your days of working to pay the bills are coming to an end. Do what you love, pursue your dreams, and seek ye first why you are here. By the time you discover yourself and your place, other things will fall into place, including the much-dreaded bills.