Net Gains, or Net Losses?

I have to admit that time management and discipline was never one of my strong traits. I wish it weren't true. Though I am improving, I'm not where I want to be yet, and I get pissed at myself for not being better about it.

After all, I'm in the worst situation possible: I have a job.

Sounds strange, but here's why. Having a job is kind of a safety net. We walk the tightrope knowing that if we fall, the net is there, and that net becomes our comfortable minimum. So naturally, we aren't afraid to keep walking that rope. Put us out there with the comfort of such a net, and let us chase our dreams to make things different. Better different. I agree completely with that logic -- our safety net should allow us to venture further with a "homeland" security -- but I'm somehow doing the exact opposite.

We can always "come home" to the 9-to-5 if our ventures out there don't work, right? But instead, what do we do? We don't venture. We say we're too tired from our jobs to do anything else. The Job takes up too much time. The Job makes us depressed, and we need to rest at night to recupe for The Job in the morning.

It's clear that that Job isn't a safety net. It's a net that we bump our heads into. We're not above that Job net; we're beneath it. And that is the problem. We should be mentally (and motivationally) be climbing on the net to use it as safety.

That's why I say that having The Job is worse than, say, not having That Job. Because you have to risk something to gain something: true of investments, true of love, true of almost anything. So, what are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to sacrifice The Job? Most of us, much as we say we are, aren't. And we become entrapped by the very Job that we should be trying to escape.

But I see the light now. This all changes very soon. Soon, things will be very changed. And today, as I swap for an upper decade, I see that pieces are in place.