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• For years, I’ve always been the one to raise my hand at work and go above and beyond.
• But when I realized it was affecting my health, I “quietly quit” – but I just called it setting limits.
• Having that extra time has allowed me to earn money on YouTube and other hustles.

Even though “silent shutdown” has been a hot topic for the past few months, I had no idea what it was until I dug around a bit. I learned that silent resignation is a tendency among workers to refuse to go above and beyond at work and just do what you were hired to do.

As I continued to read other articles and saw people discussing quietly quitting on TikTok, I thought, “This is nothing new.” I started doing this years ago, and for me it was just about setting boundaries.

Once I realized there was no guarantee I would see the benefits of overworking myself, I was able to find a lot more time for side hustles and avoid burnout by “quietly quitting “. It also didn’t stop me from moving up the ladder at work.

I’ve always been a hard worker – but I took it too far

I’ve been a hard worker all my life, and it has a lot to do with growing up lower middle class. My father always taught me to give more, not less, and I always had to work twice as hard to succeed. We were regularly struggling with money and also receiving eviction threats, so part of my hard work is the anxiety that I will be the weakest link at work and be fired.

I couldn’t afford college, so I dropped out after one semester and started working full time. From the start, I worked myself way beyond anything that would be considered healthy. For years, if the bosses needed someone to work overtime, I volunteered. If they needed someone to do something outside of their job description, I would sign up. I made sure I was always available via my phone when I was away from work, and even let people know they could reach me if I was sick or on vacation.

To be honest, sick days and vacation days were rare because I never wanted to take time off.

After doing this for over a decade, I realized it was a major contributing factor to my addiction. I was constantly stressed and exhausted, and I didn’t take care of my mental health. What’s worse is that although I’ve always been one of the hardest workers, I was regularly passed up for promotions and never got raises to match the extra work I did. have provided.

I finally started setting limits – AKA “quit smoking quietly”

Getting sober in 2012 made me realize that I needed to start setting boundaries, and if the job wasn’t going to pay me what I was worth, I needed time to earn that money somewhere else.

I started learning to just say “no” to people at work, including managers. It was hard because I like to please people, but people were surprisingly okay as long as I wasn’t a jerk. I was still in control but I didn’t realize it. With limits, we teach people how to treat us.

I was honest with people and told them that I had to leave work on time or that I was busy with other projects and couldn’t help them. Once I started leaving the office on time regularly, I had plenty of time at home where I could start hustling. While working in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, I started my YouTube channel and wrote my first book with my extra time.

I was able to take all that extra effort I was giving away for free and use it for myself. Growing up on social media is hard, but I started creating daily content. Eventually I started making thousands of dollars every month from my YouTube channel. In my best month, I made $7,000 from YouTube, and I didn’t even have to sell anything because of the way they pay creators with ad revenue.

How many jobs will give us a raise that will pay as well?

Stopping quietly helping me to develop my side hustle

If I hadn’t had that extra time to quit quietly, I never would have been able to earn that extra money. I needed that extra time to learn how to create quality YouTube videos. I was able to teach myself how to do audio and video editing, which also helped me when I finally started a podcast. This extra time also allowed me to learn how to make extra money through affiliate marketing, which sometimes brought in an extra $500-1000 per month.

The funny thing about all of this is that I always go above and beyond at work. I help others and take on additional projects whenever possible. This year I started working in the best job I’ve ever had, and in my first six months I’ve earned an excellent reputation with everyone from management to CEO. The main difference is that I now do the extra work on my terms. I set limits early on, so they know I’m happy to help, but I’ll also let them know when I can’t.

I like to work and I like to create. Above all, I like having financial security. While working full time, I still manage my YouTube channel, host a podcast, and flip Lego sets on eBay. I even have time to earn extra money by freelance writing about personal finance, like this article you just read.