How I Created a Life That Doesn’t Revolve Around Work

Do you want to live a life that doesn’t revolve around work?

For most of my life, I followed the normal plan.

Go to school. Get good grades. Find a job. Put away a little money each month. Maybe one day, after decades of hard work, I’d finally get to enjoy life.

That was the dream, right?

However, even when I was doing everything “right,” I felt burned out. I was always on. I’d come home at the end of the day tired, still thinking about work and deadlines. Weekends were short and didn’t feel like real freedom.

I also did not enjoy my day job at all or the work that I did.

That’s when I realized something had to change.

Why I Didn’t Want Work To Be the Center of My Life

We all get the same 168 hours each week, but when you add up a full-time job (40 to 50 hours), commuting, sleeping, and other responsibilities, it doesn’t leave much left over. For a lot of people, the majority of their hours are spent at work, and life outside of that is squeezed into evenings and weekends.

So, no wonder so many people feel like they’re always waiting for Friday or counting down to their next vacation – it often feels like there’s barely any time left for the things that make life truly enjoyable.

For me, I wasn’t just tired, I was unfulfilled and also bored and stressed by the work at the same time.

I started noticing other things like:

• I was constantly looking at the time.
• I absolutely dreaded Sundays (because it meant the start of the workweek was right around the corner).
• I had no energy for hobbies or travel, and I always felt so tired.

I started to question the idea that we’re supposed to work 40+ hours a week for 40+ years and then finally enjoy retirement.

I thought: What if I could enjoy life now? What if I didn’t have to wait decades to feel free?

That’s when I made a decision – I didn’t want to build a life around my work. I wanted to build my work around the life I actually wanted.

The Steps That Changed Everything

This change didn’t happen all at once. I didn’t inherit money or win the lottery.

Here’s what I did, and you can do it too.

1. I started side hustles

One of the best decisions I ever made was starting side hustling.

At the time, I didn’t think it would turn into anything big. I just wanted a little extra money to pay off student loans and maybe build some savings.

I started many, many side hustles, like selling items online, mystery shopping, freelance writing, and more, which you can read about at I’ve Done Over 20 Side Hustles in My Life: Here’s What I Think of Each. I also started blogging, but when I first started, I didn’t actually know that you could make money with it. I wrote about what I was already learning, like budgeting, saving, and paying off debt. I didn’t have any expensive equipment or experience – I just got started.

Soon, I was earning from affiliate marketing, freelance writing, sponsored posts, and display ads.

Eventually, those small side gigs added up to real income, and then, enough income that I could leave my day job completely.

Even if blogging hadn’t turned into a full-time job, it still gave me breathing room. It gave me choices. And that’s something I wish more people realized – side hustles aren’t just about money. They can help you pay off debt and stop living paycheck to paycheck.

Note: Blogging was one of the biggest steps I made toward creating a life that didn’t revolve around a 9-5 job (or 8-5, like I had). If you’re thinking of starting your own blog, I have a free email course that teaches you exactly how to do it and how to start making money from it. You can sign up for it here: Free Blogging Course

Recommended reading: 14 Side Hustles You Can Start With No Money

Here’s a screenshot I took back when I was paying off my student loans. As soon as I received income, I would put it toward my debt so that I would not miss it. I was also working a lot – many weeks were around 100 hours of work between my day job and all of my side hustles. Also, the smaller amounts like $1.00 or $0.29 were from what was left over after a debt was paid off (but I still owed interest for that day). 2. I paid off my debt

Debt was a huge stress for me.

Every month, I was living paycheck to paycheck. Even when I was earning more, most of it went right back out the door. It felt like I was working just to stay afloat.

So I got serious and I created a plan. I cut expenses, picked up a lot of freelance work and side hustles, and put every extra penny toward debt.

The day I made my final student loan payment was one of the most freeing days of my life.

Without debt, I didn’t feel trapped. I could finally focus on building a life that made me happy and not just a life that paid the bills.

Recommended reading: How I Paid Off $40,000 In Student Loans in 7 Months

3. I lived below my means

Even as my income grew, I didn’t change my lifestyle to match it.

I skipped the upgrades, I meal-planned, I ate leftovers, I used coupons, I said no to things that didn’t align with my long-term goals, and more (I still do all of these things, too).

By living below my means, I was able to save and invest more. There were many months when I was saving 90% of my income, in fact.

Keeping expenses low helped me feel more secure and less dependent on any one job or client. Plus, I knew spending more money wasn’t my dream life anyway, or what I truly cared about.

4. I focused on building semi-passive income streams

Semi-passive and passive income streams are my favorite way to earn a living. So, I’m always asking myself what kind of work I could do that doesn’t require me to actually work every single day.

That’s when I worked hard on semi-passive income – things like:

• Affiliate marketing (which I teach in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing)
• Creating digital products (like printables and courses)
• Earning from blog traffic and display ad revenue
• Putting my savings in high-yield savings accounts
• Investing in dividend-paying stocks

These income streams still required at least some effort to get started, but they weren’t tied directly to my time. I could earn while I was traveling, sleeping, or spending time with my family.

Recommended reading: 18 Passive Income Ideas To Earn $1,000+ Each Month

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Sign Up Here 5. I found work that fit the life I wanted

Not everyone wants to start a blog or become self-employed, and that’s completely fine. That’s not what this article is about.

Another way to build a life that feels better is by finding a job that gives you more freedom outside of work. That might mean switching to a position with:

• Flexible hours
• Better pay
• Less stress
• A better work-life balance
• The ability to work remotely
• Coworkers or a work environment that you enjoy
• A job or company that you are passionate about
• Or even just a job where you leave work at work (so that when you’re off from work, you’re not thinking about it the whole time!)

You don’t have to love every second of your job, but I do think it helps when your work doesn’t completely drain you. For me, work used to shape everything else in my life.

Now, I’ve built a career that gives me the kind of life I want to live, not one that takes over every hour of the day. I also love what I do and look forward to working, so that’s a huge plus as well.

Even if you’re not ready to quit your job or start a business, you can still look for work that gives you more energy and time for the things you care about.

A recent trip we took to the Exumas. I took the week off from work