It's Monday af

Good morning! It's Monday, and I don't usually send out emails on Mondays. Or any day besides Friday tbh. But here I am.

Do you want to know why I'm writing? Because it's Monday, and you're alive to read this. Things can also be much worse.

Getting where you want to be

You are probably following me because you want to get somewhere in your life that hasn't materialized yet. I totally get that.

There is a lot of bad advice floating around about how to make it happen. I am what you might call a slow learner, so most of my life lessons have come out of a painful place in life.

Every Sunday, I sit down with my wife and our six children to go over the upcoming week, talk about strengths and shore up weaknesses within the household. The issue of money came up and my oldest, who is 18, spoke somewhat scornfully about how she couldn't imagine how so few American adults could even cover a $500 unexpected expense with cash.

I had to tell her a few stories about how things were before she started living with us full-time in 2016 (that is a gut-wrenching story for another time). Yes, there were not months but whole years where a $500 expense would have flattened us. I got really good at home repairs and car repairs out of necessity; we couldn't afford to have those repairs done when they came up. There were tons of times when I was using what little money we had on credit card balances to put gas in the car to make it to work, just to start the cycle over again. Yes, we had to be choosy about what groceries we got because we couldn't buy whatever we wanted. Yes, we did end up being that couple that had to take stuff out of our grocery cart because we didn't have enough in our account to cover the bill. It was humiliating.

It also taught me humility.

When we told the kids that we aren't going to start paying down the mortgage early until we have sixty grand in the bank, it wasn't out of arrogance; it was because we'd been at the food pantry before. I know how fast it can all go away.

I build my paid products because I don't want to see other people in the same place as me.. The best way to do this is to create your own income streams. Is this easy to do? No. Is it quick? Also, no.

The best time to get started was five years ago. The second best is now.

You need to get off the sidelines. If there is one thing that we should have all learned in the post-2020 world, it's that all of the woke corporations have no qualms about pushing questionable substances on us. If you don't like, you know where the door is. That is exactly why I resigned when I did; I knew it was coming for federal employees, even though my chain of command PROMISED it wasn't. Then it was.

This isn't about how utterly unethically we were treated, although we who resisted were. It's about shoring up your lines now while you can.

I strongly suggest Upwork as a launchpad for your freelancing career. It's how I got mine and it is a great way to get acquainted with the lifestyle and how to interact with clients, etc., in a controlled way. No, I don't get any kickbacks from Upwork nor am I an affiliate. This is me speaking from experience.

So, go out there are get started today. It's ok that your profile sucks a$$. Make it anyway and tweak it later. Just get it live! As always, follow me @johnmccoywrites on Twitter and IG for advice, and check out my book on getting started on Upwork. It'll save you a lot of time and frustration.