My restart took 9 months and it made me achieve the lifestyle I always wanted. I came from studying for a masters degree while being employed and thus working 70 hours a week. I restarted my life after I physically broke down because couldn’t stand the lifestyle I chose for myself.
I dropped out of the master studies without a degree and started building a business that would allow me to quit my job one day. From that special day on I knew that I’d be the happiest man on our beautiful Earth, getting paid to do what I love!
Do you need to restart your life as well? Do you find yourself thinking „this can’t be it?“, being frustrated about your job and not enjoying your time to the fullest?
We only have one life, more time is the only thing we can’t buy with money. That’s why we have absolutely no reason to a life different from what we truly want for ourselves! The only thing that you’ll regret shortly before you die is the chances you missed. Life is a gift and we all should enjoy it to the fullest.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. - Steve Jobs
Maybe you’re caught up in a job that is exhausting, just like I was for 5 years. There’s no reason why you have to stay in that job, if you really want to quit.
Instead of working for your employer and helping him to achieve his goals, you can start working on your own to achieve YOUR goals - on the side. You’ll learn how to do this by following my blog and subscribing to my free email list.
Most of us learned that having a job and receiving a paycheck is the only save way to build up an income. But what happens if you get laid off for whatever reason? Your total life is dependent on your boss not letting you go. Is that called security?
If you are like me, you like being in control about your income and not being dependent on someone else. I’d rather earn my own money than keep hoping not to be laid off next month.
That’s what financial security means to me. Getting a paycheck just because your boss didn’t fire you isn’t secure at all. In fact I want the stability to build my income streams myself.
I want to be able to serve my loved ones and to save up money to buy a house in the future. To have kids and raise them in a nice environment. To travel the world and explore life.
There’s no way I can achieve those goals by being employed.
This epiphany came to me as I broke down from working 70 hours for 6 months. Call me not stressable, working that hard isn’t what I want for my everyday life. I needed to restart and that’s why I started my online business on the side while being employed.
There were several alarm signals I simply ignored, before I decided to switch my life for the better. I don’t want you to go through the experiences I went through, that’s why I ask you to please pay close attention now.
Your Jobsituation
How are you feeling in your job? Does it make you happy, so that you enjoy going to work, being around your coworkers, working with your clients and completing your tasks? Or does it feel exhausting, are you frustrated when Monday has come and do you feel hesitant to get out of bed early to go to work?
You’ll never enjoy your life when you’re working in a job that isn’t aligned with your passion and that doesn’t make you happy. Spending 40 hours a week in an exhausting situation and still enjoying your time is just not possible.
When I started my job I was really enthusiastic. I got my degree in Business Informatics and started working on projects, being in charge for some of them. But soon I realized that following principles my employer laid out for me wouldn’t make me truly happy. Things I had to do made no sense to me, coworkers were competing instead of collaborating and the work became a burden.
It lead to not being happy in my spare time, because I knew I would have to go to work the next day. This leads me to my second alarm signal.
Joy and Inspiration
Do you enjoy your free time? Are you happy when you’re spending time with your loved ones and friends? Do you pursue a bobby or try to reach personal goals outside your job?
For me, my job was eating up my free time. Before my master studies began I was feeling frustrated and stuck. I annoyed my girlfriend and my family being unfriendly and rude, just because I had to go to work the next day.
When the master studies and the 70-hour work weeks began, it all became worse. I saw my girlfriend 2 times a week and even then I was only worrying about the studies and my job. Fun was for the others, I had to study.
Time is meant to be enjoyed! Life should be fun and inspiring and not just working until you retire, hopefully having enough savings. It’s a journey we all have to go and we won’t get a single day back. What happens if you get diagnosed with cancer tomorrow or are involved in a bad car accident? Then you’ll regret the missed opportunities and the time wasted doing things you didn’t truly want to do.
Health
Do you feel healthy? Do you have time for sports? Are you eating healthy?
Health is crucial to enjoy your life. I got up with headaches for years, because I was so hesitant to drive to work. And still I did. I got a mental collapse, having to go to the hospital so that they’d give me medicine to calm down and get back on track. Please don’t ignore the signals your body sends you.
If something doesn’t feel right or makes you sick, dig deeper. Explore why you’re feeling what you’re feeling and get clear about the root cause. Find alternatives to avoid bad feelings and choose a path that allows you to remain healthy.
Deep inside me I knew that I’d have to quit my job, because I wouldn’t be happy working for an employer instead of making my own dreams come true. But instead of searching for ways to become independent I ignored that feeling for too long. I kept going to work until my body told me, that I needed to change my life.
You might ask yourself what life looks like when you are restarting and when you successfully did the restart. So let me tell you how I structured my restart.
Most importantly is how my feelings changed. Instead of being frustrated I felt highly energized and motivated. I knew that I was working towards my own goals now and that changed my life drastically. Since I started working on my self employment, I couldn’t wait to get out of bed to make progress. I literally couldn’t go to sleep at night, because I wanted to grow a business that allows me to quit my job.
As soon as I realized that I had to quit my job I knew there were only two ways to go. I could either get a new job in a different company or I could become self employed. I chose self employment because I knew that working for someone else wouldn’t have changed my frustration about building someone else’s dreams instead of my own.
I started to educate myself about launching an online business. That was a good option because I could work in the evening when I came home from work and because online business can be highly automated. Over time I gathered knowledge about topics like target audience, personal branding, creating products and online marketing. I learned everything that I needed to build an online business that can generate income in both active and passive ways.
As you can see in my income reports, active income works better in the beginning. Freelancing, coaching and selling your skills in general is a fast way to make money on the side, creating and selling products to earn passive income usually takes more time.
I grew that business until it could replace my paycheck, working mostly a few hours in the evening. As I said before, the goal of being self employed kept me motivated and thus sleeping became less relevant. You have to want it bad enough, because the restart isn’t easy. It’s a challenging process, but it’s worth it!
I quit my job by December 1st 2013. Since then I’m living the lifestyle I was dreaming of. I’m working completely location independent, I run my business from my laptop only. I’m helping others to restart their lives, which is the most fulfilling experience I EVER had in my entire life. I’m setting higher goals now than before and everyday I wake up excited to achieve them.
So, do you need a restart in your life? If your answer is yes, I highly recommend to sign up for my newsletter. This allows you to get more detailed information, stay in touch with me directly and learn more about your own restart!
