When the job you go to throughout the week isn’t something that you find any enjoyment in, you can begin to develop something of a double life – with a duality emerging between your professional and personal existence.
It might be that your personal existence is more important to you in this case, but the sheer amount of time that you spend in work means that the two end up in a sort of balancing act whether you like it or not.
However, when so much of your time is going towards it, you should be able to at least say that you like or enjoy your professional life. So, for that reason, it’s worth your time to investigate how you can achieve a stronger balance between the two and the satisfaction that comes with that.
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Something That You Care About
While not everyone has a professional ambition so close to their heart, finding something that you can truly enjoy on some level – or at least get some sort of satisfaction out of – can completely change your perception of the work/life balance. Suddenly, you’re not just funding your personal life by doing something that you dislike most of the week, but your whole week is now something that you find yourself focused and engaged in.
Even if your initial job with this new mentality isn’t completely ideal, but at least serves to get you closer to where you want to be, you have a reason to care other than simply waiting for the end of the day and the weekend to follow.
That being said, if this approach is somewhat new to you, it can be difficult to think of what you truly want to do with your life. This might be especially true if you follow a certain career path because it requires a skill that you’re good at.
If that is the case, you at least have a way to use this skill in order to break into this department of another industry. For example, IT is an incredibly transferrable skill, and if you find yourself fortunate enough to be literate in said skill, you have a great degree of versatility in how you plan your next move. Unfortunately, though, you might not always have such a skill, and perhaps what you want to do has a barrier of entry in this regard that you feel you simply can’t match. In this instance, perhaps you could look into what’s required of you, and investigate how easy it would be to get the relevant qualifications. It might require you to stay at your job while you study around it for a period of time, but having a goal in mind could make a world of difference.
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Hours That Suit You
Just because your current job is one that has you going into a working environment throughout most of the week, that doesn’t mean that every job will do that. It’s incredibly easy to feel that once you’ve invested a certain amount of time into a job, you’ve got no choice but to stay there – as to leave would invalidate all the time you’ve already spent there. However, this might be an example of falling prey to the sunk-cost fallacy, as if you have no interest in continuing along the same line of work that you currently find yourself in, you only threaten to waste much more of your time in the future. Instead, if you feel as though you’re the kind of person who would much rather find a job in which the hours better suit their own needs and are more flexible as a result, some research might illuminate several other paths forward for you.
One of these that you might be more familiar with due to the conditions around the height of the coronavirus pandemic, is that of working from home. While this has been an option for many jobs before that certain global event, many people not being able to go to their regular work environments popularized it as an option and something that many people are still being offered with the knowledge that it’s preferable in some cases. While this might not necessarily change your hours, it does mean that you avoid the time spent on the commute, and being able to relax in your own home has its advantages, though some would argue that there are negatives too. Remote working from your own home is a preferred choice by many workers now, but not everyone’s home is ready for remote work. However, it does allow you to move wherever you want, whenever you want. Should you choose to relocate for work, you can seek help from professional moving companies and shipping companies, such as https://www.shiply.com/us/furniture-shipping, to move with ease.
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Starting Your Own Business
This might sound somewhat extreme and is likely to be an option that some people find themselves more interested in than others, but a successful attempt could mean that your professional and personal lives become essentially merged. Again, that might not initially appeal to you, and without a good idea for a business straight off the bat, it might feel like you’re grasping at straws – but that’s why you get like-minded friends of yours on board.
Of course, when it comes to something like this, you need to ensure that everyone on board has the necessary skills to contribute something and push your business forward towards success, but still, taking part in something like this with people you like spending time with could be an incredibly rewarding and productive experience.
Much like studying for something while you work, this might be something that takes a while to get off the ground, and you shouldn’t expect anything otherwise when you get into this.
However, if you manage to avoid becoming de-motivated by the lack of immediate progress in the early days, you might find this to be the right path for you, especially with how easy technology makes it to communicate across distances – removing the cost needed for an office or meeting room.
