The Most Important Job you have is to Live
Another title with the implications of freedom and narrow-mindedness at the realities of life. I can see why this is the impression a lot of people will get and at a certain point, not so long ago, I would have definitely shared these viewpoints.
If you're anything like me, the first thing your mind will do at this point is analyse why that is. Could it be the digital world of social media and the types of ‘real’ people who project these views out there? Almost saying ‘well if you really wanna be happy and fulfilled, you can be’, whilst sitting on a beach in the Caribbean or on a rooftop in Singapore with a group of friends, seamlessly not worrying about costs or work. Maybe at its simplest form, jealousy is what creates hostility towards such a lifestyle.
Maybe this isn’t you, maybe you read this and simply want to try and enjoy life or feel like you're not alone in thinking ‘isn't there more to life’ and the answer is yes. Yes, there is.
Who am I to say this, I’m not a life coach or an expert on the mind. I’m simply a person that one day wondered about the purpose of it all, and why I'm doing the things I'm doing with my life. It all led me to want to make some changes, be it little ones, and also to share some of this in aid of others that may have had the same thoughts.
What can you do? What changes can you make?
The bills won’t suddenly go away & the job doesn’t suddenly let you take a few extra hours off of work every week.
For me, it was simply understanding the parts of my day I enjoyed. If you don’t enjoy work, find the parts you do like (even if it is just lunch) and suddenly it isn't 10 hours of something you don't enjoy, it’s 9 hours. You just gained an hour back! I also had another big area of life which for me was my band. It’s my biggest passion but the workload, (which is a lot more than people think), was a lot, the travel was tiring and I still had all this other stuff going on. I took a step back and re-evaluated the situation, made changes to make it something I enjoyed because if you enjoy what you are doing, it feels like your time.
You begin to feel a sense of relief and enjoyment in other areas of your life too (I did anyway), you can then dive a little deeper…consider things you may now want to do, in the little spare time you may have. Be it relaxation, seeing family or friends, fitness goals, or a new hobby; whatever the case may be, you may just achieve something you always wanted.
For a long time, I was mistaking doing nothing as my time. Even hanging out with friends, my mind would register this as an inconvenience to ‘my time’. The enjoyment really drove this ideology away for me. I then had the will to want to fill ‘my time’ fulfilling some of my goals.
Do I still have more that I want to get out of life? Sure I do, and the little steps I can take each day, week, or month will surely help me get there. A little closer today than yesterday is always a day well spent in my eyes. Find enjoyment in the small things, allow time for doing what you want to, be it something or nothing, and break down a bad chunk of the day and if you can, pick out the good points. That helped me anyway, but I’ve got to run, the drinks have arrived at our table...in Singapore.
Callum Richards, Cohort 31
