Make your 9 to 5 a Breeding Ground for Success

Is it just me, or does it feel like every time I go on my phone, there’s this cacophony of hatred toward the 9 to 5 career?

When I searched the phrase 9 to 5 on Google, the first 5 results were:

 “Breaking Free to 9 to 5 Culture” – Harvard Business Review

“Why Working the 9 to 5 is Not Ideal for Efficient Work Today”- Life Hack

“4 Signs You’re Not Cut Out for the 9 to 5 Life”– The Muse

“Why 9 to 5 May be a Thing of the Past”- Flex Jobs

Working 9-to-5 is an Antiquated Relic from the Past and Should be Stopped Right Now”- Forbes

These are pretty generalistic, clear-cut cases for why the 9 to 5 is satanic. Not only are reputable news outlets rolling out slick headlines like this, but the trend is extra pertinent on social media. Instagram and TikTok have opened their floodgates to digital creators, and the hottest thing now is digital courses. Otherwise known as “the freedom plan” from “the 9 to 5 rat race”.

Although I dislike the 9 to 5 framework, read here for my reasons,  I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t play devil’s advocate with myself.

Having a 9 to 5 gave empowered me with a couple of things that people don’t always think about when they’re busy complaining about their day jobs.

1. Stabilization (financial, mental, psychological)
2. Clarity – Space to reflect on what I actually want to do
3. Work/Life Balance (shocker!)

I will go into each of these points briefly before I jump into how you can make your 9 to 5 your playground for success.

• Stabilization and clarity kind of go hand in hand. As I said before, I am not a cliffhanger, I’ll save that kick for the thrillers I so love indulging in. I do not perform well under immense economic stress, and I am more sensitive to mental and emotional ebb and flows. A 9 to 5 gives me a routine. It gave me a reason to wake up in the morning, forced me to interact with people physically, and gave me clear tasks to work on. It gave me financial stabilization – the ability to pay rent, invest, and save money.

A few months into getting my 9 to 5, there was an odd shift in my personality. It’s like the hard and resentful shell I built over the previous six months while trying to start an agency, started to dissipate. Trying to start a business was anything but fun. It was like I was crumbling under the weight of my own self-inflicted pressure – I was a ticking pressure cooker, so the complete opposite of stable. How I communicated in my sales efforts came off as pushy, and I think people could sense this. But more so than that, I was in survival mode – which meant I carried little to no empathy. (Cut to psychopath Naomi).  I had lost a critical part of myself (emphathy and kindness) while trying to survive. It’s ironic because the moment I got a 9 to 5 was when I actually started to gain more traction in my business. I was more calm, more collected, and not desperate. I appeared more confident, experienced, and knowledgeable, and this was confirmed in how people described me. In most cases, people prefer working with someone who is not desperate for their business. 

• The most important shift I experienced was that I started having a lot more space to think. Before, my concerns were fixated on making money. With that immediate need eradicated, I could shift my energy toward thinking about larger-picture goals, like purpose, giving back, and values in my career. This perspective is critical, and it feels like a crack in the ice that’s long slept over my conscious. 
• Having the mental capacity to be creative, not only in my work- but in my personal pursuits, like this blog!
• Work-life balance: Able to eat properly, take paid vacations, and work on the weekend on things I genuinely love and am passionate about, instead of “work work”.

I’ve always been so focused on always meeting the expectations of others. First, my partner, who’s always dreamed of me starting my own business. Then, my employers, who well, expect me to do my job. My parents expect me to take a fairly safe route in terms of career and life decisions. As a result, I’ve never had too much time to think about what “I” want.

The last time I could think deeply and clearly about my life choices was during COVID. Despite the global meltdown unfolding outside, I found solace in my jogs across the quiet lake, instead of taking that wretched 99 B line to school. No longer distracted by a job I despised or the financial repercussions of not having one, I reflected on what Naomi wanted out of her life. Quiet periods are the perfect opportunity to plan and strategize your next move.

Careers: In the Age of Entrepreneurialism and Influencing

I have never thought of starting a business with the exception of maybe having a passion project later in life. Even when I had the inkling of starting a firm in my thirties— I always imagined myself having a traditional career in my twenties.

Choosing a career can be difficult because you’re not only managing your own expectations but also balancing the opinions and “advice” of others. A generous chunk of the inbound generation wants to monetize their social media. And you may think— why not? It’s absolutely free to start!

However, with the delicious promise of leaving the 9 to 5 as a “relic of the past,” as per Forbes, we’re also creating a new societal standard of what work is or isn’t. Influencing is work, contrary to popular belief. It’s not just taking hot girl walks, getting iced oat lattes, and buying yourself flowers. It takes months and years to find your way around the algorithms, stay relevant, pump out content, find an audience, and behind the scenes: work out numbers and deals with brands and sponsors. It’s not a glamorous smorgasbord of free stuff and money.

And so everyone, including your young niece or colleague, might want to quit their 9 to 5s to become a TikTok star— but the majority of the time, this career path is not a viable one.

It’s not great for people who value their personal life and privacy. People that don’t want their livelihoods hinging on an algorithm. People who are sensitive to hurtful and disrespectful comments. 

I am not going to go too deep into social media, as it’s not an area of expertise. I will talk a bit about entrepreneurship, everyone’s favourite topic (rolls eyes). The entrepreneurialism game is strong, and we can hear, see, taste, and smell it from all angles of our lives. In a way, entrepreneurialism is spiking not by demand but by necessity. I can only speak as a Canadian, but our income-to-expense ratio in Canada is lower than in other developed countries (we make less compared to how much we spend). These disadvantages are razor sharpened during economic downturns like the one we’re currently experiencing.

I believe entrepreneurs fall into two camps of people:

The other day I decided to go down for a swim. On the 5th floor of my apartment, there’s a 10-meter pool, and a 1-meter chunk of concrete separates it from a beautiful jacuzzi – aka my happy place. I started in the hot tub by instinct. I like the water so hot it scorches my skin. After a couple of minutes, I made my way over to the pool. As I dunked my toes in the water, I felt adrenaline pulse through my entire body. It was f r e e z I n g. In a way, that reflected the dreary and rather dismal day outside. Immediately, I pulled back and scattered my way back to the comforting sensation of warmth that the hot tub provided.

I repeated this ritual several times until the cold water wasn’t as unbearable and I could put my whole body in.

I see an odd familiarity with the cold/hot dunking routine and entrepreneurship. The ones that go balls in are the ones that never return to the hot tub. They stay in the icy pool until their body adapts to the temperature.. but they also risk getting hypothermia down the line.

The entrepreneur that oscillates between hot/cold knows that their survivability is limited. This is why they pace themselves, giving themselves a bit of comfort to come back to after the painful conditions induced by the cold water. However, they’ll take much longer to adapt to the conditions of the pool than the first type of entrepreneur.

Starting a business is a lot like standing in the cold water. It feels lonely, odd, and at many times painful. There is nothing more you want than to retreat back into safety. But there’s a difference between an entrepreneur and a professional side hustler. The latter, hasn’t fully let go of the stability (the warmth) of a career. 

And look— you either like cold plunges or you don’t. There’s no reason for you to become an entrepreneur unless it feels right in your bones and to your core. Don’t pursue it out of external pressure because, trust me, it won’t last. 

A 9 to 5 career is not a one-and-done like a bad Tinder date. There’s a reason why it’s called the rat race. However, I don’t find that to be true. If you want to ascend quicker..drum roll. Don’t work a corporate job. Work for an upcoming (FUNDED) startup or a mid-sized biz (like I do!). You’ll skip years and years of hustling in terms of career progression. And although I advise previously to *always* have a side hustle— I’ve also been vocal about how I do this for necessity’s sake, not because I think it’s cool to have three jobs.

If you find a good stride in your career, I encourage you to go full in on it—achieve as much as you can while you’re there. If you put your focus and energy into one thing, there’s no way that thing won’t pay you back in one way or another. You’ll find yourself much less frustrated and more confident in your abilities. More importantly, your confidence will start to skyrocket when you begin to consistently meet your own expectations. A type of burnout that most people don’t think about is the type that occurs when you consistently fall short of either your own expectations or of others. You know when you set that goal two years ago and still haven’t made any headway? Progressively, this starts to chip away at your self-confidence. In time, it can lead to a type of emotional burnout.

Start Becoming An Inspector, Instead of a FireFighter

There are certain days, and even weeks, where you feel like you constantly putting out little fires. Those fires can range from serious problems (like a website crashing) to micro ones like rapid email exchanges (the ones that go on for an hour). Most people don’t realize that when they’re “busy” putting out fires, they’re not actually moving the needle forward in terms of their career goals or the company’s overall goal. Of course, putting out fires is necessary so the whole place doesn’t crash and burn, but we shouldn’t spend ALL our time being a firefighter. Deep, reflective, and strategic work is necessary for any organization. Regardless of how established or unestablished, every company has areas of optimization that go overlooked because it’s not perceived as “immediately important.” Think of it like a leaky pipe, it might not lead to a flood in the first month, but gradually it can lead to a full-blown disaster with mold growth and evacuations involved.

The reason why I bring this up is that work can oscillate between three modes:

Stable and slow periods

Fast and chaotic periods

Moderate and peaceful

Rarely is a busy organization going to feel moderate and peaceful—you’re going endure waves of chaos followed by a down period.  During those slow periods, you will start to feel boredom creep in. Boredom is really the worst curse if you don’t know how to manage it. It is the gateway to underperformance, demotivation, and even burnout. 

The way you can effectively combat boredom in the workplace is to find a problem in the system, fixate on it, and try to solve it. This might mean restructuring an entire process, rewriting an SOP, or tackling a bottleneck issue that no one wants to touch. The hardest part is always starting. No one wants to do the things that aren’t marked as “urgent.” People much rather tatter away at their “to-do” lists —because there’s a safe answer at the end of that tick, and it gives them a sense of immediate gratification. More obscure and most complex problems are the ones people refrain from starting on. And this can end up biting them and their organization back in magnitudes later. Think of it like internal housekeeping, the more regularly this is done, the less often you have to do a grimy deep clean later on.

Beginning to tackle those sticky problems will differentiate you from being an inspector,  rather than staying a firefighter (not that I have anything against firefighters). Working away at a problem reminds me of high school math class. At first, it’s so obscure, and you’re scratching your hair out trying to solve a problem. But when you finally solve it, a click goes off in your brain, followed by a beautiful stream of dopamine. Accomplishment. Introducing accomplishment and self-validation (not external) into your work life is a key part of success. 

Gather your Cards for the Grand Play

As you move through your career, try to rack up those cards. And by cards, I mean skill cards. There will be things you didn’t think were useful to learn, but you’ll end up thanking yourself later. For me, simple things like learning how to use different software (Notion, Ahrefs, LinkedIn Helper, Zapier) have served me nicely at work, even as I shifted industries. You should always aim to stay above the curve—which means challenging and applying yourself— even when it’s not requested. Be the one that brings fresh ideas and solutions to old problems.

Get extremely efficient: The art of doing things efficiently is a skill set. Aim to be a water conductor, not a cog. 

Stay curious. Just because your job description is one thing doesn’t mean you have to be limited by it. Whenever you have time, make an effort to pursue your own small projects within your organization. If you can explain to your boss why the project you’re pursuing would lead to more efficiency or revenue, there’s little reason why they would object. Observe how others operate in other departments. It’s not uncommon for people to enter a company in one position and leave with another, especially if their management team encourages cross-departmental learning. 

Most of the time, when you’re emerging from college, there are limitations to the type of positions you can get. You end up starting at some company in a junior position and working your way up. This has advantages because you can shift industries but transfer the skills you gained from the first or second years of real work experience.

Get out of your box. You might have convinced yourself that you’re only good at specific things, but don’t let that limit you from trying to learn other skills. It’s so tempting to outsource or delegate the tasks you don’t feel comfortable doing, but you might really surprise yourself when you take it on yourself. These days, you can learn most things from Google and Youtube or ask a colleague or a friend for advice. It takes a little more concerted effort—but when you solve that problem, learn that new skill, or complete your own mini-project, that’s the part that makes work fulfilling.

Similar to university, you’re in the driver’s seat. What you get out of your work is what you put in. You are in control of your competency, advancement, and, ultimately, enjoyment.

Make work your playground.

One Lifetime, Multiple Dreams

Not many of us are fortunate enough to make a quantum leap from high school or college right into our dream careers. I believe most of us know deep down what we want to be doing but have trouble navigating there. I went for the lowest hanging fruit when I got out of college because I’m the type of person who learns by doing it, fucking up a few times along the way, and then getting better at it. I also learn quickly if I like or don’t like something.

While in transit, sometimes you think to yourself, “Am I making the right choice?” Am I not deviating from the path I should be on? And the truth is, I’ll never have an answer for you. You need to look at your decisions pragmatically, why you’ve made them, and if it’s because it made sense for you at this time in place.

For me – it was a matter of survival. I had to find a job where I could use my existing skills and experience to make ends meet. Is it my dream job—? No. Do I regret my decisions? Absolutely not.

I’ve learned quite a lot about myself over the last six months. And just the number of improvements I need to make motivates me to stay and give my best shot at this. I truly believe that becoming a better communicator, marketer, leader, and strategic thinker will serve me well in my next endeavour. Even though I have yet to know what that next thing will be.

I jumped between wanting to become a diplomat, to an NYT journalist, to an entrepreneur, and frankly at this point in time, I still really don’t know what I want. But I think in this lifetime, it’s possible to hit at least a few of those career goals. I now see a career as something malleable, not firm. It can be a blend of interests and pursuits. Each new project, job, or startup can teach you different skills and let you have an insider scoop on fresh perspectives. Attempting to start my own company has served me in my current position—eased things, actually. The job I have right now forced me to be a better project manager, something I didn’t even think I had an issue with. My journalism chapter opened me to many beautiful stories and individuals, raising my interviewing skills by a few notches. I am really proud of the stories I’m able to tell. Working with kids even— has taught me I have a talent for teaching and educating.

At the end of the day, I have many flaws. There are things I am not innately good at. But I also believe I have my little gifts. And that in itself is enough for me to build on, to gravitate, to lift me up, and to provide me with a lifetime of career options to pursue. We all have something unique to us, but unfortunately, we spend most of our lives chasing a dream that isn’t even our own. I only wish it took us less time to wake up from the false delusion.

And sometimes, you need to pull away from everything, like a self-induced COVID lockdown. Remember that? There was a reason why that long, agonizing, passport-barricading time was followed by what is now called The Great Resignation. When we’re not always pushing the gas pedal at full speed, we can think. By thinking, I don’t mean overthinking, which is unproductive, but I mean literally letting your thoughts catch up to the present reality. Not thinking in 2030 or about the past. But about, “Hey, does this feel right to me?” Have I been brushing off something for the past couple of years?  That itch is always going to be there like the stormy man that got away. It doesn’t leave you with a fancy new title or another zero to the end of your paycheck. The itch is prevalent and real, and it might just follow you into the grave like a little resistant pest. That is until you do something about it.

Live your life in the cave, and you shall only see shadows.

Meanwhile…while you’re here, you might as well make the best of it. You are certainly not alone in feeling this way.
I know the self-doubt, the fear, the worries of tomorrow. But today, you can choose to be inquisitive, explorative, and free. Let’s have some fun now.