You’re Never Going To Reach Financial Freedom From A 9-5: How To Take Back Your Time And Build Your Future

I poured some of my best years into building someone else’s empire, only to wake up one day and realise my own dreams were quietly slipping out of reach.

Flashback to where I was this time last year.

I had worked hard to get to the position I was in at my 9-5. I’d learnt and upskilled, I’d gained experience and put in long hours.

I had managed to form a reputation as a “high performer” in my team, known to always do a good job and go above and beyond what my role called me to do.

I’d work far longer than my expected 40 hours each week, pouring time and effort into the work I produced. I made sure that my boss and my coworkers knew the work I was doing.

I was good at my job and, as a result, was rewarded for my performance.

I had good reputations with my boss and work colleagues. I had earned promotions and was earning a very comfortable salary.

I had a clear goal of the next step of my career, and what I needed to do to get there.

If you had asked me what my biggest goals were, I would have told you that it would have been doing anything in my power to get my next promotion, and that the majority of all my effort in a day was going into my 9-5 related work.

Things seemed to be leaning more and more in my favour. I was earning the respect of my company, I was moving towards promotions, and my career was progressing quicker than I’d expected.

But I couldn’t help but get the feeling that something was wrong.

Did I really want to work in this job forever?

Was this really how I wanted my future to play out?

I thought back to my younger self. The dreams I’d once had, the careers I actually wanted to pursue. The massive ambitious goals and crazy aspirations I’d once set out to do.

Those were a distant memory now.

I’d never be able to achieve those now. Those were far too far-fetched. I can’t go and pursue those now, my company is relying on me. How would they survive if I left?

I finally realised.

The further I progressed in my career, the more I was falling into a trap. I was a prisoner of my own excellence. The value I was giving to my company was making it increasingly more difficult for me to escape every day I continued adding to it.

Each year the concept of leaving and doing something else seemed to get steeper and more intimidating.

I didn’t love my job. I didn’t absolutely hate it either. The money was good. It would never be enough for me to become financially independent, but if I stuck at it for long enough I’d be able to live a pretty good life.

It wasn’t anything like what my past self had dreamed of pursuing… but it was comfortable.

“Just a few more paychecks”

“Let’s just make it to the weekend”

I found myself constantly falling into this kind of mentality.

Constantly distracting myself from the larger problem at hand and even allowing myself to think about the concept of making a bigger change.

Just making it through each week. Making it to 5pm. Getting to the weekend. Surely things will sort themselves out in time, right?

The moment that made me sickeningly aware of my situation, was this scene in a film called "Up in the Air".

George Clooney is having this conversation with a guy, and he says the following quote, which hit me in the gut.

“How much did they pay you to give up on your dreams? At what point were you going to stop and go back to what made you happy?"

The guy goes on to explain how he got offered a job with a decent paycheck, decided that he was going to start it for a little while for the money, with the eventual goal of quitting and going back to pursue what he loved.

Around that time, I’d heard of this concept called “Deferred Life Syndrome”.

“There is a strange feeling that one is not yet in real life, but for the time being one is doing this or that, but there is always the fantasy that sometimes in the future the real thing will come about. It's similar to another idea from Gwynda Bogol called “the first happiness syndrome”: the common feeling that your life has not begun, your present reality is a mere prelude to some idyllic future. This idyll is a mirage that will fade as you approach, revealing that the prelude you rushed through was in fact the one to your death.” - Marie-Louise von Franz

The second I read that, I felt so convicted.

I had adopted this subconscious mentality that “at some point” in the future my real life was going to start. At some point, I’d finally begin this journey on a path I actually wanted to pursue.

But when I thought about it logically – when would that ever happen?

What catalyst would ever occur that would move me out of my very real physical position right now, and into this idyllic future?

That’s when it hit me.

My dreams weren’t just going to fall into place on their own.

For years I had been pouring my time, talent, and motivation into making someone else rich instead of working toward my own future.

My ambition was serving the wrong master.

If I wanted a future that matched my true ambitions, I’d need to start making intentional moves toward that today.

So I did.

I made the choice that I was going to start putting time and effort into learning and building things in my spare time that were going to help me in my quest to seek financial freedom, and a career that I genuinely found passion in.

Unfortunately, I quickly came to the realisation that this was easier said than done.

I’d finish a day of work, come home and sit at my desk to focus on learning a new skill or trying to create something - only to find I was completely drained from my day at work.

My job had a way of wringing out every drop of creative energy I had, leaving me running on empty when it came to spending time on this extra workload on top of my day job.

I was giving my best thinking hours to my employers, leaving only the mental scraps for my personal work.

But what else could I do?

For months I continued with this approach.

I dragged my way through evening sessions trying to upskill and learn things I knew would be valuable to building my future. Fighting the inability to focus and the urge to just give up and call it a day.

I worked on a few side projects throughout that time, starting off incredibly inspired by a new groundbreaking idea, only to eventually struggle to find the time and motivation to continue pursuing it as time went on.

No matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t working.

What I wanted was a career that genuinely aligned with what I was interested in and curious about.

I wanted to have freedom over my schedule and surroundings so that I could decide when I worked, and whether it was in my home, from a cafe, or in an office alongside others.

But how could I ever achieve this in an environment where I had such little time and energy to work towards this?

I realised that if I continued down the path I was on, I’d never find real fulfillment. I would never accidentally stumble into a job I genuinely enjoyed, financial freedom would remain a distant dream, and one day I’d be 60, wondering where all the time went.

Something had to change.

I realised that if I really wanted to alter the outcome of my future, I was going to have to stand up and be excruciatingly intentional about what I did from here on out.

I needed a complete reset.

I was going to have to completely reevaluate my core beliefs, the perspective I had on my day job, how I structured the time in my day, and most importantly – establish some non-negotiable boundaries around my work life.

What I’m about to share is the exact strategy I used at my 9-5 to reclaim a time of pure dedicated focus each day, as well as sharing some key mindset shifts that’ll help you set boundaries and regain control over your future.

4 Ways To Take Back Control Of Your Time

What I am about to explain to you may seem intense, and with certainty won’t be what your employers will want you to be reading, but the direction of your life depends on it.

Here’s the reality about your future.

If you don’t intentionally fight for what you want yours to look like, you will be assigned one.

The default is a mediocre career, an average paycheck, and working late on Fridays for no other reason than because your boss asked you to.

The set of steps below are the way that I managed to leverage my time as much as humanly possible to get out of this default future, while still keeping my job.

When I implemented these I was still fully engaged at work, maintaining solid relationships with my boss and coworkers, and even earned a pay raise – all while firmly sticking to the strict boundaries I’d set toward my 9-5.

Here we go.

1) Find Your Sacred Time

The single most important catalyst in being able to seek financial freedom outside of your day job is to find a sacred dedicated time slot that you can do uninterrupted work in - every single day.

60 minutes is all you need.

If your schedule can’t handle 60 minutes, start with 30. If you’re able to get into the habit of doing it at the same time every day, you’ll be surprised by how much you can achieve, and how quickly it compounds.

Do anything in your power to protect this 60 minute chunk.

This is literally the most important period of time in your life right now. This is the only chance you have to work towards getting out of your current situation.

Inform your friends and family how important it is to you, and that you’d appreciate them not disturbing you during that time. Find a secluded environment to work in that is free of distractions. Do not disturb on. Working on a single clearly defined task.

Out of experience, I tried moving this sacred time to every area of my day. I tried mornings, evenings, straight after work, right before bed.

Everybody is different, and is able to focus at different times of day, so the decision of when you do it is ultimately up to you.

I’m going to tell you a hard to swallow pill right now though – the early morning is your best bet.

No matter how much you want to do it after work, the distractions of the day + the fatigue already weighing on you by this time are just too much to fight against. Do it when your mind is at its most fresh.

I wake up at 5.12am daily. I do my morning admin; pray, read the bible, eat breakfast, commute, then at 7am sharp I sit down in a non-distracted environment, and work a purely dedicated 2 hours on building my future.

Then, at 9am I start work.

That non-negotiable 2 hours each morning changed the trajectory of my life within the span of 6 months.

Clearly define when your sacred time will be.

2) Wake Up At A Set Time No Matter What

This is a debatable argument, but hear me out.

Wake up at a set time every single morning, even if it means not getting enough sleep.

This is going to depend on the circumstances of your life right now, but let me draw your attention to the reasons I say this.

Sleep is incredibly important. However, I genuinely believe that prioritising a dedicated time toward upskilling and building your own future takes higher priority.

One thing you’ll find as you begin this journey of allocating dedicated time in your day toward working towards your future is that there are nowhere near enough hours in a day to do everything you want.

As a result of that, you’ll quickly notice that sleep will be one of the first areas to take a hit.

8 hours sleep is good. Financial freedom is better.

If you’re in your 20s reading this, you have no excuse. You’re in a unique period where you can throw your body through anything, and it will be able to bounce back and recover within a day. Leverage it to your advantage before you don’t have the option.

If you’re older, or have a family and larger amounts of responsibility, you’re going to have to make the call depending on your own circumstances and how much you value sleep.

Remember, a 5am wake up means you need to be asleep by 9pm. It can be done. It is possible to work out, spend time with family, do extracurricular activities after work, and still be asleep by then.

Whatever you do though, I am telling you that you need to wake up and get to that 60 minutes of sacred time every morning.

3) Redirect Your Willingness To Excel

If you want to break free of a 9-5 that you find unfulfilling in any way, one of the biggest mindset shifts you’re going to have to do is to redirect where you output your willingness to do good work.

It’s going to be harder than you think to do this.

As a naturally ambitious and competitive person, you’ll find yourself determined to perform at the highest level in anything you do.

Everything in your body screams to take action toward producing high quality work, progressing your career, and constantly striving to improve in your role.

You need to take that energy, and channel it into your personal pursuits outside of work.

Remember, you’re not being sleazy by doing this.

What’s the ultimate goal here? You’re striving for a future you want. You’re seeking the freedom of your time, location and occupation.

Look around you. How many people have the agency necessary to actually do something about the situation they’re in, vs. the people who just accept the life they’ve been given, and settle for it?

Learn to rewire your mind so that instead of excelling at your work, you’re redirecting your energy toward your personal aspirations.

You’re going to be able to provide more value to the world by pursuing something you’re genuinely curious about and willing to solve problems in, than working an unfulfilling job with limited potential to grow and a ceiling on the value you can offer others.

What does this look like practically?

• Don’t actively seek more responsibility - Never volunteer for extra work. Don’t sign up for anything that is going to take away your time, and force you to work longer than you already are. Slowly try to decrease the expectations that your team has for your performance levels. Keep your head down and be out of sight as much as you can.
• Avoid promotions - Striving for promotions usually takes the form of working above and beyond the expectations of your job in the hopes that your higher-ups notice it and reward you. Instead of striving toward this, identify the bare minimum amount of work you need to do in order to maintain a good standing at your work, and redirect all other energy toward your personal projects.
• Set firm boundaries and expectations with arriving and leaving - This is a difficult one, but historically for me, it works. Firmly set the boundaries of when you leave each day. If you aren’t ruthlessly deliberate about this, the natural expectation is that you need to stay later and finish.
  • Firmly set the expectation that you are only going to work between the hours defined in your contract.
  • Arrive at work 10 minutes before your boss. At the end of the day, you could leave 10 minutes earlier, or 2 hours earlier, and they wouldn’t know the difference because they only know that you arrived some time before them.
  • Obviously, there are circumstances where you aren’t going to be able to push back against these sorts of things, I’m just painting the picture of the type of mentality to adopt.

4) Always Have Another Chrome Window Open

No matter what kind of 9-5 you have, there are always small windows of downtime.

Throughout your day there will be pockets of opportunity for you to get a few moments to flick to another chrome window and spend some time learning something or working toward building your future outside of work.

Adopt the mentality of finding as much time throughout your day to do this.

• Go to a meeting room pretending you have a meeting and get 30 minutes of studying in.
• On your lunch break, watch a Youtube video about a topic you want to learn more about.
• Go to the bathroom for 15 minutes and read a medium article.
• On the commute to/from work, force yourself to learn and study rather than listening to music mindlessly scrolling ‘entertaining’ media.

Again, it’s just a matter of reevaluating what your core beliefs are in what you want out of your life, and altering your perspective on how you approach your day as a result of that.

Alter your mindset, and you change your actions.

Change your actions, and you change your outcomes.

—

"The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison." - Fyodor Dostoevsky

For some of us, a 9-5 is an invisible prison, draining our ability to reach our true potential and allowing us to create a future that actually inspires us.

It’s a silent force, slowly but surely twisting our arm into settling for a mediocre life.

You can earn enough to live a comfortable life, but never enough to untether yourself from the dependency of it entirely.

Ambitious, hard-working people have to be the most careful, because it’s so easy to find purpose in a career that is actually building the dreams of somebody else, and end up stunting their own potential and growth.

Genuinely spend some time to ask yourself – what are my underlying motives, what am I actually trying to achieve in the long run? Do I care more about seeking the validation of my coworkers, or am I genuinely seeking the pursuit of my own career and personal journey?

Genuinely take some time to sit down and ask yourself:

• What do I truly desire? (freedom of time, location, finances)
• What would the most fulfilling work look like to me?
• What natural skills, passions or curiosities do I have that I could pursue that I’m currently not leveraging?
• Is my current 9-5 fulfilling these, or is my potential going to waste?
• What’s the worst that could happen if I went all in on trying to truly alter the trajectory of my life by making change?

Be very intentional about where you invest the most productive hours of your day.

The drive and energy you put into your day job come from the same place that could be focused on creating a future you define for yourself.

If you resonate with this, and find yourself in a position you aren’t satisfied with, remember that the way out isn’t as complex or painful as you think.

• Create a non-negotiable 60 minute block within your day to focus purely on learning or building toward your future.
• Develop strict boundaries in your day job around what you say yes to, and the expectations colleagues have for you.
• Take the willingness you have to produce high quality work at your 9-5, and redirect it towards your personal goals and ambitions.
• Adopt a mindset of trying to maximize every pocket of downtime you get during your work day toward pursuing your own endeavors.

Breaking out of an unfulfilling 9-5 and cultivating a career and lifestyle that you genuinely love won’t happen accidently.

You need to be rigorously intentional about making change, purposeful in identifying what’s distracting you from achieving success, and consistent in turning up every day and doing the work you know you need to.

Ultimately, it’s your choice.

Continue investing your best years building someone else's dream, or start building the future you genuinely desire.

- Cole

If you’re interested in escaping from a traditional 9-5, leveraging AI to build a future of your own, and capitalising on the digital renaissance, subscribe to my weekly newsletter.

You can also follow me on twitter @cole_mccon