Waking Up to No Work

There are jobs, there are freelance gigs, there are serious professions, un-serious professions, businesses, startups and the ever-omni-response ‘ventures’. The one thing that rules them all is job satisfaction, or, for general applicability and neutrality, let’s call it ‘work satisfaction’. This is what drives us to either look for that job, project, business opportunity or startup idea, which touches our heart, even our pheromones, if you really are passionate about it, and shapes our career into the objects of our dreams and imaginations.

This drive is what leads us, at least many of us, to reach a certain stage, an edge of the hill of sorts, and one fine morning, we arrive at a life-altering, creative and lazy realization that – “I am done with this lifestyle, this mundane work routine, may be I was not meant for this job (or business or profession), may be, just maybe, I was meant to completely focus on my creative skills and ideas and have my own flexible hours and peace of mind, instead of passively writing bedtime notes and randomly networking with people.” This, although a profound epiphany indeed, has a major conundrum – “should I, or shouldn’t I”. It’s one thing to consider it, and a whole other ballgame to actually work upon it, and deploy your epiphany in reality. However, all things considered, all said and done, everything remaining constant, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… you decide, you take a deep breath, you are ready to take the plunge.

Day 1, You start brainstorming, you call your best friend and set a meetup with him/her, over drinks of course, and discuss the philosophies of life and livelihood, and touch on the topics of your evolution in your personal and professional lives, and there are pauses, thoughts, acknowledging hums, and eventually your friend caves, because, well, he/she is your best friend, practically your family, and they, generally, always support the decisions you arrive at, which, in this instance, might genuinely sound refreshing, promising, and, to a large extent, ‘badass’, at least the apparent perception of you and your bold move.

Day 2, You plan out your afternoon, evening and night, and start researching, and connecting with more people, analyzing your existing and potential network of people, through LinkedIn, Facebook, even WhatsApp groups, and start talking to them about freelance opportunities or startup collaborations, meanwhile discussing with your best friend about your magnanimous plunge and the ideas of Neverland. You had a nice prequel to your new life, and you decide to go to bed, only to realize you can hear the dawning chirps and the morning ‘Azaan’. You surrender.

It's Day 3, you wake up late, like the last couple of days, feeling invigorated, with an all new fervor, and to execute your new, big life-plans. You continue the work, from the previous day, connecting and talking to a few more people; you seem to be getting a less than 50% response from the number of people you have messaged, but, because of the economies of scale in your networking approach, the number of responses still seem quite a positive aspect, and the fact that a majority of them actually supported and encouraged you, in their responses, while the others have been non-negative, you have a good feeling about all this, at least when you channel your thoughts to look at the big picture.

The first phase of networking seems to be over, you seem to have rounded up all your relevant networks, and, when your curious best friend pings you for an update, you proclaim another successful day, and ask to wait until further updates, because, frankly you didn't have anything else to update on. You retire for the day with a positive focus, and, in exhaustion, decide to leave it to Day 4 for further brain teasers.

There are cute screams of children, sounds of heavy construction machinery, and the vrooms of passing trucks and cars and even two-wheelers, along with the accompanying honks that oh-so-dearly enter your eardrums in the form of daggers. The tired eyes, with mild remembrance of some ideas and aspirations, gradually open, in the still-sleepy, one eye half-winking, slightly blurry yet colorful hues of your cotton curtains above your head with the piercing yet kaleidoscopic daylight in-between. You look at your phone for the alarm, which you deliberately did not set before you crashed, you look at the time, you remember your epiphany, your dreams and imaginations, and it hits you.

You have Awoken, BUT, you have woken up to No Work.

Ultimately, you are the master of your destiny, and you have to decide – whether you NEED this life or you WANT this life, or, in most cases, filled with gray areas, because life is so, whether you CHOOSE to live with this life and make a life out of this life.

When you decide to shake things up in your career, and make a tectonic shift with all your heart and soul, you'll go through a relaxing phase, but a phase wherein you'd be Waking Up to No Work.

Go for it, but also Prepare for it.