Perhaps more than ever before...I am looking at whether something is not only a good use of my time...but also whether it is something that I actually ENJOY doing.
Of course...it's not always easy to balance both against earning an income to survive on...but I firmly believe that, unless I am actually focusing on what I REALLY want to do - then the money side becomes much less important.
Why?
Well...I used to be paid a fair amount of money as a consultant - yet it almost cost me my marriage and sent me spiraling down towards depression.
A 'good' position with all the material things that go with it (as well as bigger time constraints on my free time) didn't do much for my sanity - I can tell you!
The thing is...because it is almost EXPECTED of you to leave school, get a good job, carve out a career, work hard until retirement...and THEN enjoy life - then when I talk about doing things a different way around - people just don't get it!
Now - you may well not be working for yourself like I am - and are therefore more able to have more CHOICE in terms of what you DECIDE to do.
But, you do STILL have a choice about whether you stay in a job you hate - or whether you push yourself that bit harder to get that position you REALLY want - yet always complain that you don't get.
Even if you are working in a factory or McDonald's - there are ALWAYS ways that you can either -
1) Make more of what you do
2) Show yourself to be someone who is 'going places'
When I used to work in a mind-numbing check-processing 'machine room' in a bank from the age of 16 to 18 - I used to challenge both myself and my colleagues to see who could 'code' the most cheques (with the amount of the cheque on the bottom).
I can tell you - the process of doing so was like tapping away at a calculator whilst picking up a cheque and inserting into the machine every few seconds.
It could EASILY have been soul-destroying - especially around Christmas when we would work 14-hour days just processing checks all day long.
Except it wasn't.
One year I broke the bank record (unofficial because we'd made it up the year before!) for check processing.
Something like 9,185 checks. That is a LOT of checks!
I can tell you...at the time...it was perhaps my finest hour of my then-short working life!
But...didn't I (and my competing colleagues) have FUN doing it!
It IS possible to make ANYTHING more exciting - just be making it more of a challenge.
And...if you ARE in a position to have more control over what you do during your working day - then PLEASE make sure that you try to do stuff that you actually ENJOY doing and find CHALLENGING.
I've often said that 'life's too short'.
Well...as you're spending a massive chunk of it working - why not try at least to make that time something that, on the whole, is a POSITIVE experience?
Isn't it worth a try?
Posted by vurnumg
