[Music] thank god it's weekend that is probably what you hear a friend or colleague say when you're signing off a friday afternoon on social media people are tagging their posts friday to celebrate that the weekend arrives you get home and say to yourself thank god it's friday but think about it what does that actually mean thank god five out of seven days of your life are over thank god you got through five days of your life so you can enjoy life for two before i got self-employed about the only thing i did was to wait for the weekends i was a stressed student with part-time jobs and i remember the feeling each sunday night when i was done watching my favorite show on tv i entered this mild depression because i knew another week was coming you know the feeling monday morning you wake up to the alarm filled with stress tuesday and wednesday are a struggle thursday is more bearable because you know the weekend is coming and on mid-afternoon and friday you're so excited you want to run out of the office two days free but then you're back another five days to pass by as fast as possible so you can enjoy life for two you always sacrifice five to get two for many of us a large portion of our time is spent at work on average we spend one third of a life at work which is roughly 80 000 hours how we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives and if you're just waiting for the weekends you spend a big part of your life just waiting and if you're miserable at work then you're miserable for a big part of your life it's safe to say that your work has a huge impact on your life and if you every monday morning feel like skipping the next five days of your life you live a life limited by work your life revolves around work as steve jobs simple secret life says when you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world try not to bash into the walls too much try to have a nice family life have fun save a little money but that's a very limited life life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it you can influence it what if you wouldn't have to wait until the weekend to enjoy living your life what if you wouldn't have to wait until vacation to travel what if you could structure your work around life those were the questions that i asked myself a couple of years ago i had just started my first job but the only thing i did was to wait for the weekends i was unhappy because all my life i have been thought that if i stay in school i will get an interesting career and financial security but no matter what i studied i didn't feel excited about the career paths i would end up in you see i was searching for a dream career where i could have time and lifestyle freedom where i could have flexibility in the things i do control over my schedule and be able to work remotely i was inspired by influencers on social media who were living the laptop life and entrepreneurs who built their businesses while traveling the world i knew there was so much more to life than being in an office from nine to five but for a long time i used to think that i'm too busy to make a change and i will wait till the future when the perfect time comes when i can sit down with a cup of coffee and just figure out how to find a better career but the months went by and i was busy constantly busy working studying or working out at the gym and nothing really happened if i freed up one part of my schedule it was immediate to filled up by something else and i realized that the perfect time to make a change will never come unless you decide to create it and i realize that i don't have time of the mean it's not the priority i realize that every second every minute is my choice i decide what i put into my life and what i prioritize so i decided to structure my schedule differently and i decided that i'm going to wake up early so that i get the couple hours to work on my dreams before the day starts and i'm gonna change the late night tv episodes to another hour of focus on my dreams people around me they thought i had gone crazy because i tried all kind of work opportunities remote jobs but unfortunately nothing worked you know the feeling when you do everything you can to get something to work you really will try but it doesn't work out the way you want that was how i felt stuck in a career i never desired about the only thing i was passionate about back then was taking photos i wasn't really good at editing but i was eager learning and i watched a lot of tutorials online then one night when i was scrolling on social media i saw this one post about the guy asking for help to edit his images let's reach out i thought and 20 minutes later i sat on a video call with this person and shared screens and i helped him to edit the images he was amazed because he had spent so many hours struggling and now i happen to be able to help him but right before we close that call he said something that changed my life he said victor you're an expert i want to pay you for this i'm sending you a hundred dollars it wasn't life-changing that he called me an expert it was a great ego boost and it wasn't life-changing that he sent me 100 that was fun what was life-changing was the fact that i realized the possibility of creating your own work opportunities and getting paid for doing something you normally do just for fun so i got excited and i made a plan i wanted to repeat the process i started without knowing what to do what to offer or who to help i had no clue how to get more of these work opportunities and i struggled emotionally and financially but eventually something clicked and i started to get more of these work opportunities than i needed it was exciting not just because i started to make a living doing things i considered fun but because i was in charge i decided when i was working who i was working with and what i was working on and just a short while later my wife annika joined me and implemented the same way of working into her her life and that's when our life changed completely during the last couple of years we've been able to spend the winters in sunny spain we've been able to travel to see our families whenever we want to and we've been able to be in complete control over our schedule i got to a point where i was absolutely loving what i was doing finally and where work didn't feel like work i was never ready to make that change i never felt ready but ready is not a feeling ready is a decision and just because i made the decision to make change i realized that a dream career ain't something you end up in or apply for it's something that you create do you remember when you were a kid and everybody was asking who you wanted to become when you grow up you were told you could be anything but then you started to study you needed to make a lot of tricky choices right first what subjects to read and then what career path to end up in your friends family members or teachers might have influenced you in your decision and do who you wanted to become turn into what will make me enough money to pay the bills it's not a bad thing we get influenced by people around us actually it's essential for a big part of our life when we're infants the only thing we can do is to imitate act and talk like the people around us that's why we learn the languages we learn but many people have a tendency to continue doing that and keep following everybody around them they look how other people are doing their career and they start doing it the exact same way this is the reason many people get stuck in a career they never desire or struggle to find a dream career but it's important to understand that a dream career ain't something you end up in or apply for it's something that you create and you can do that by utilizing skills that you already have today businesses needs shifts faster than what education and traditional jobs can keep up with businesses need help to solve specific and newly emerged problems that's why the online world is booming almost anyone can go out there and help with the specific solutions you know and the specific skills you have you might know something that isn't taught in schools that people out there are craving to get help with do you know how to use the latest update on your favorite social media platform many businesses don't but they need it and they don't have time to figure out that so they want to get in touch with people like you to figure out what these things could be for you you need to think about what you're passionate about what you're skilled at and what there's a demand for because when you do something you love something you're good at and that people want to pay you for you don't have to choose between a financially stable career and a career that you love doing you can have both so first step is to think about what are you passionate about what are the things that you love doing what do you want to prioritize in your life make a list it could be being passionate about animals painting or making videos next step is to think about the things you're good at sometimes the things you're good at come so naturally for you so you don't even realize it yourself that's why it's great to ask a friend or a family member and ask them what they think you're good at come up with a list it could be things like playing a guitar editing videos or cooking when you figure out the things that you love doing and that you are good at you set the foundation for a career where work doesn't feel like work but it will only be a hobby until you combine it with something that there's a demand for you need to figure out how you can contribute how can you help other people and provide value it could be things like helping somebody to solve a problem you can coach them on something or brainstorming on business ideas and consult them or maybe you could see yourself doing something with social media and help them set up a social media presence when you figure out what you're passionate about what you're skilled at and that there's a demand for you find your thing your unique combination for example it could be love making videos being good at editing and helping with social media then you could get paid to create content for somebody's social media channel for most of these unique combinations forget about credentials your motivation will speak for itself and your passion for the thing will shine through that's the ultimate magnet for work opportunities who wouldn't like to collaborate and work with a person who finds work exciting and meaningful in this fast-paced world we need to keep learning about the latest strategies tools and resources studies something that was true yesterday might be updated today and that's why you don't need to know everything to pursue your dream career something you know today needs to be updated tomorrow but if you have the will and motivation to keep learning and keep solving problems you have all that it takes to create your dream career when you combine your passion with your skill and the demand on the market that's when you feel meaning that's when work doesn't feel like work but in order to also have time to do all these other things that you desire in your life it's not it's not just about what things you do it's about how you do it because in order to get more time you need to stop selling it in one of my first jobs i did all kind of assisting admin work social media updates helped with customer support and i was motivated to work because it was one of my first jobs but when i started to work and the better i became the more tasks i got to my table and i started to work harder and harder and harder providing more and more value solving more problems while not getting paid more and i didn't get to leave earlier either i got demotivated and i think this is one of the biggest problems we have when it comes to unmotivated workers because if you think about it it's actually quite funny when you get hired you get hired because of the skills you have and the value you can provide your employer right you can hire to get stuff done but you won't get paid because the stuff you do the problem you solve or the value you provide not directly you get paid for the time you spend on doing all of that which means that the better you become the more problems you will solve the harder you will work while not getting paid more and you won't get to leave earlier either to cover that up you can get bonuses and you can't get an employee of the year title but most of us however don't get rewarded in direct correlation to the value you provide let's assume that you were to write blog posts okay if you're employed the traditional way you get paid based on the time you spend working not the value you provide not directly not number of blog posts so you feel unmotivated a bit lazy and you spend the entire day writing three blog posts that's it if you however would get paid in direct correlation to the value you provide and the number of blog posts you write you would feel motivated and you might end up writing the same blog post the same three blog posts exact same content same quality same words in half the time because you are motivated and you want to work effectively so you get to leave work behind by lunch that day we need to get rewarded in direct correlation to the value we provide to feel motivated to be productive and to feel in control it's important to understand that the quality of your work is not tied to time you need to stop trading time for money to get complete control of your schedule when you create your career you combine it with your unique combination of things and you stop trading time for money that's when you feel meaning that's when work doesn't feel like work and you don't have to wait until the weekend to enjoy living your life the new normal is to take control of your career and create the job that you love doing the new normal is to not get stuck in an old system but to utilize the tools resources and opportunities that the modern world provides you the new normal is to let work revolve around life and not the other way around if you want more freedom and flexibility into your life taking control of your career is a great place to start the opportunities out there thank you