“My day job is getting in the way of what I WANT to do, but I need it to pay my bills!” What should I do?
By: Francis Fung, Career Change Coach
Tags: Work Life Balance, Job Hunting, Career Advice, Career Development, Career Change

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

“It feels like this day job is getting in the way of what I really want to be doing, but I need this job to pay the bills.”

This is something I hear all the time as a Career Coach.

And the answer to that is, unfortunately, if you do need to pay the bills, then you do have to do this job. But go towards what you want outside of the job.

Let’s start by accepting the reality as it is. You know you need this job to pay the bills, to cover the expenses, your mortgage, your rent, your living etc.

So let’s agree to keep doing it.

Outside of this job, though, there is no reason why you can’t work towards what it is that you really want to be doing. The thing you want to do in order to earn money to pay the bills. You shouldn’t use this current job as an excuse to stop you from going towards your ideal career or goals.

As an example, I’ve done so many jobs in my past lives. Some with completely no future at all and absolutely wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. I’ve done office temp jobs, photocopying jobs where I would stand there and photocopy for four hours a day, which was not what I wanted to be doing. But I needed the money to pay the bills.

After work was finished though, my best friend and I would go and learn about animation (from books and videos). We would learn the required software or programs by ourselves. We would do graphic design stuff (which was what I was into at that time), anything, as long as it was guiding me towards my goal of what I wanted to do to earn money.

But you might already be saying say,

- “OK, yeah, but after work, I don’t really have time.”

- “I don’t really have energy to do anything else.”

- “I’m tired and need to relax / chill.”

In that case, you can’t really have both. You can’t really complain that the job’s blocking you, and yet saying there’s no time outside of work to improve. It really might sound harsh, but it is a very simple truth. Do the job to pay your bills and outside of work hours, do what you can, even if it does mean cutting into your Netflix time or wind down / chilling time.

Take some time to do it, even if it’s a little bit, step by step towards a career that you’d be happy doing and that you can earn money to pay the bills.

Don’t try to blame the job because it’s not the job’s fault.

In fact, you should look at the job as something to be grateful for, that you can pay the bills and that it gives you hours outside of work to do what you want to do.

Now, getting clear on what you want to do, the steps towards getting that ideal job that can help pay the bills, that’s another topic. But if you have questions and comments, of course, leave them any time below.

So to summarise.. When you feel “My job is getting in the way of what I want to do. But I need to pay the bills”, accept it, keep that job, pay the bills. But outside of hours, do what you can to improve.

Because if you don’t change and if you don’t learn what is needed to get that better or happier job for you, then nothing’s going to change. Work isn’t going to get better and work isn’t going to suddenly be more suited to you or make you happier while paying the bills. So do what you need to do to change whilst keeping this job.

As I mentioned, any questions, comments, leave them below. And thank you for reading! Have a great day!

Francis

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