Do you feel like you’re losing motivation for your side hustle? Like you’ll never be able to quit your full-time job and finally get to turn your side hustle into your full-time business?
(updated 2/24/2020)
You feel so passionate about your business and all you want to do is focus every bit of your extra time on it.
But you have to keep working your job either due to financial reasons or you feel you just can’t quite yet.
I totally get it. This was me. I found myself day after day leaving my son with someone else all day just so I can drag myself into a job I no longer cared for. All I wanted was to be able to work from home so I could see my son more, have more control over my time and grow my business to change my family’s financial situation.
How hating your job affects your side hustle
While not being content in your current situation is important for initiating change toward a better life in the first place, doing this day in and day out can really start to wear on you.
Your motivation will start to wane for both your side hustle and your full-time job.
You may not want that career anymore, but you still have a good work ethic and you want to show up and do a good job.
The daily angst of going into a job you no longer like can start to cause anxiety and even feel like depression.
This will ultimately impact how much energy and motivation you have for your side hustle, and it basically turns in to a self fulfilling prophecy.
You’re upset about having to work your job and not your side hustle, but that constant thought brings you down to where you can’t work on your side hustle like you want and therefore, you stay in your job longer.
Crazy how that works, isn’t it?
To get you out of this mental funk and back on track so you can regain motivation for your side hustle and feel better about going into your 9-5 job every day, here are the 4 strategies that I used to start feeling more positive even though my passion was just my side hustle.
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How to Stay Motivated and Positive When Your Passion is Only a Side Hustle
Meditation
This is something I started doing by accident but it turns out to have a name.
One of the things I noticed about my attitude going into work everyday was that I was filling my thoughts with so much negativity about my job, and this was translating into having a really bad work day and feeding those feelings of discontent.
Then I did something that helped me a lot.
Every morning when I woke up, I would say 3 gratitude statements about my job.
Things like:
- I am so grateful that I have a job where I get to impact kid’s in a positive way.
- I am so grateful that my boss is a person I enjoy working for and being around.
- I am so grateful to have this job to support me while I am working on my side hustle.
This would often put me in a gratitude mindset. It’s hard to feel discontent when you’re literally thinking of how grateful you are for the way things are right now.
If I found my thoughts starting to slip again (which would happen), then I would practice this again and again. For some tips and positive affirmation examples, get this free printable.
Be efficient at work
One thing that can really get in the way of working your side hustle as much as you’d like is having to bring work home.
To avoid this, make sure that when you’re at work, you’re focusing on getting the tasks done there so you don’t have to take that home with you.
That way when you leave for the day, you can shift your focus 100% to your side hustle business with any spare time you have the rest of the night.
Use Your Commute Time Wisely
Another trigger for feeling frustrated with having a 9-5 still can be the commute.
I would often feel myself start to grumble and complain that if I was working from home already I wouldn’t have to sit in this traffic!
To help mitigate these thoughts, I started to tell myself that I was grateful to have this time to learn and grow personally for my business.
Somethings you can do to make the commute time work in your favor:
- Listen to business or personal development podcasts
- Listen to audio books to learn something that will help you in your business
- Try to solve a problem in your business by just letting your mind wander a bit
For more ideas on how to make the commute be time put toward your business, check out this article.
Knowing where you are is exactly where you’re supposed to be.
I’ve heard this on James Wedmore’s podcast a million times and every time, I love it.
The biggest reason we feel discontent or anxious with our situation is because we feel like it’s not what we want and that we wish it’d be different.
I did this for a long time.
Have you ever noticed that the more you think about it like this, the more you long so deeply for change? Then this longing turns into frustration with your current situation to where you can’t really work on your business and make the progress you need to to actually make your side hustle successful.
If you just embrace the concept that whatever is happening in your business and your life is supposed to be happening.
You know how you can be sure of that? Because it’s happening.
What you choose to do with what is happening is what’s going to dictate the next step.
You can choose to complain day in and day out about having a 9-5 and how it’s preventing you from your true passion.
Choosing this route can result in poor work performance and being let go so then you’d lose that income and created a situation for yourself where now that side hustle HAS to make money.
Talk about stressful if it (or you) wasn’t ready.
Of you could embrace where you are right now.
Choose to use this time while you have a full-time income to really work on your business without worrying about the money it’s bringing in (Trust me. This is a HUGE blessing).
You can even take some of your full time income and invest in your business.
Maybe you and your business need this time to develop skills that will allow you to be successful when the time comes.
But until then. Be hopeful and inspired to move forward, but enjoy the season you’re in because you know it’ll make the next season that much better.
Final Thoughts
Working your full time job while pursuing a side hustle can be challenging in a bunch of different ways.
It’s hard on your time, energy and family but it will only be for a season.
When you feel like you are overcome with feelings of discontent and all you want is to be able to work your side hustle business full time, then use these tactics:
- Meditation
- Be efficient at work
- Use your commute time wisely
- Know that where you are is exactly where you’re supposed to be
I’d love to hear your tips and strategies for fighting discontentment while working your side hustle and full time job.
Share in the comments below.
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About The Liberated Mommy
As a mom wanting to work from home, figuring out which business to start and how to transition smoothly can seem overwhelming. At The Liberated Mommy, we cover everything to help you on your journey to working from home, including side hustles, starting and running an online business, budgeting and finances, parenting tips, reducing stress and overwhelm, and more.
Alexia Carrillo, the main author, has been writing about helping moms leave their 9-5 jobs since 2017. In 2018, she left her job as a scientist/high school teacher to be home with her son in 2018. She works from home as an ebay and Poshmark reseller and blogger and absolutely loves it.
Being a mom entrepreneur is hard and you don't have to go the journey alone. Let us support you on your way to accomplishing your dream life.
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loved the website and article. good work. keep it up. thanks.
Many things in life are challenging but not impossible to manage. Give things time and you will be fine. Nice article.
Thank you for this. This is exactly where I am now. I’m so frustrated and it’s hard to stay motivated. I am going to give your tips a try. It’s so great to see that someone else gets this.
Yes! It can be hard to work on other things when your side hustle business is all your really want to do. I hope these tips help! Thanks for checking out the article and commenting 🙂