It’s a strange question to ask; “is your working life, your life?” I ask it because in many cultures and countries we are led to believe that the right thing to do is to go to work and spend all day in a “job”. Then go home, recover, sleep and do it all again the next day; we do this for five days a week, 20 days per month and approximately 220 days per year for 40 years; sure we get weekends and some holidays off work, but is that really a way to live?
I’m writing this from Malta where I spent a couple of hours today chatting to a local Maltese who said his day finished at 2pm, he had stopped for a coffee, then was going to the beach for a swim and then a snooze later, before heading back out again for the evening.
This got me thinking; why, in the corporate world are people rewarded with a job that means their whole day is taken up by work? Is this what working hard to get an education and working hard at work gets you? More work?!
The modern world is changing; why do we need to conform to working in a job that robs you of the best years of your life? In the future, the concept of a job may be non-existent. Think about how much we use the internet these days. You have a global market at the end of your fingertips and this will mean a complete change to working in the future. By being empowered, you can make this type of work a reality for yourself now.
I challenge you to question the status quo and think, is this really what life is meant to be about? How about incorporating your life into your work day instead of your life consisting of only your work day!
Just imagine the type of day you want to have; from the moment you wake to when you go to sleep; what would be your ideal day and what would it take to make this a reality?
To make something a reality, you really need to have a compelling goal that will drive you to make the changes you need to reach that goal. Some people may think they need all the answers before taking the first step towards this and so this keeps them stuck in the rut they are in because they don’t know where to start, what to do next and how to complete it.
Empowerment is something that may be scary to some; the idea that you can take control and change your life to the way you want it to be. How about instead of thinking in terms of a job, where you have to play by someone else’s rules, think of other options that may be available to you. Have you ever had a niggling idea at the back of your mind of something that you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t had the guts to make a change? Instead of keeping it at the back of your mind, how about bringing it to the forefront and really imagine what you would need to do to make this a reality!
Let me tell you now; that bringing this idea into reality is possible if you take action each day towards your goals. Each day, each small change you make will bring you closer to what you want. The reason that I know that turning this into reality is possible, as I too was once a corporate professional, living the non-existent life of working all day in the big city. The reason I was in the terrace of a tea/coffee shop today was I was finally working for myself on a laptop, in Malta, in the sunshine, overlooking the beach, deciding my own timescales and my own day. This was the dream that I had this time just six months ago, to be anywhere in the world and working for myself; I had made this my own reality. It made me feel so inspired to write this as I feel like I am now living the dream; and you can have that type of lifestyle too, if that’s what you want.
My suggestion to you is to find an expert in change, who knows how to help you find the answers. Discuss the idea with a personal development coach who is objective will help you find the clarity you need, as you yourself may not see the wood for the trees, especially when you feel like you’re stuck in a rut. Discuss this with the right type of person and it will help you get clarity on your goal and enable you to define the action steps you need to take to get there. There are so many possibilities of the goals you may want, so ensure the person you choose to coach you takes the time to understand your goal and is an expert at making change happen and bringing that into your reality.
This is such a huge step to getting your life back and creating the life that you want to live.