That's what licensing a patent is. People pay you to use your intellectual property (i.e. the patent). You don't have to work at the company that licenses the patent, you can license it to multiple companies, and you don't have to sell the patent. Think about it as, instead of selling the patent, you're just letting people use it. If your patent were a carnival it would be like selling admission to the carnival versus selling the entire carnival.

In order to know more you should really talk to a lawyer about it. I assume there are intellectual property lawyers in your jurisdiction. You could try looking for an intellectual property lawyer who has done work in a similar area as your patent. If you can't find any by searching yourself, you could ask the lawyers you do know to help you. Once you have a good intellectual property lawyer talk to them and ask them for guidance and next steps.

I think what you're asking about is really more complicated and important than what should be settled by forum comments. You need to bring in a professional if you're talking about amounts of money that would be meaningful for you.