Very few people really love what they do to earn a living. That's not hard to figure out. You hear people complaining about their jobs every day. You see gainfully employed people checking out the classified advertisements for other employment options. You hear the statistics about how often the average person changes their career path during a lifetime. You probably have a friend or relative who goes through jobs faster than you can wear out a pair of tennis shoes.

Things keep looking worse, too. Pay rates aren't increasing with inflation. Benefit cutbacks are common. White-collar criminals raid pensions. It's an ugly situation.

Yet every single day, millions of people make the commute to work again. They hop on mass transit or in their cars and dutifully make their way back to the place they claim to dislike to intensely? At some point, you would expect people to do something else--to seek out an alternative. Instead, most people just grouse and moan, but report for work and clock in on time day after grueling day.

James Baldwin could've been talking about today's employment situation when he wrote, "People can cry much easier than they can change." It really summarizes why the wheels keep turning the way they do. A combination of fear and the fact that complaining is easier than escaping allow things to move along in the same direction.

That doesn't mean they are whiners or that they lack "what it takes." The pressures to remain part of the system are strong and not everyone is ready to make a commitment to find greener personal pastures.

There are a few people, relatively speaking, who have been willing to confront those fears and to take a more challenging path. They have decided that instead of complaining about jobs, pay rates, bosses and hours that they would do something about it! They have stopped punching the time clock and staying in their cubicle until five on the dot.

They've decided that if they must have a boss, they'd prefer to do it themselves. They are home based business owners and they were willing to get out of the traditional workforce and to take control of their own fortunes.

That can be a gutsy decision. Most of us grew up learning that we were supposed to find jobs and work them diligently. That maybe society's expectations, but those who operate their own home based businesses have decided that although crying would be easier, changing and finding a greater joy made the effort worthwhile.

Job dissatisfaction is so common because too many people aren't willing to make real lifestyle changes. Those decisions are understandable, but they are also very regrettable. Working doesn't have to be "prison with a paycheck," it can be a fun, exciting and profitable celebration of freedom instead. All it takes is a willingness to take a chance!

Copyright 2006 www.eliasg.com