Do you wake up in the morning dreading opening your Inbox and starting the first of way too many meetings? Do you get announcements from your CEO that make you ask someone what the heck it means since it seems to be written in some secret code? Have you stopped reading the deluge of emails that come your way because they have nothing to do with what you need to get off your to-do list, apart from the ones that you know impact your own job?
You may have thought that by going to school, getting a degree and a fabulous job that your life would be a happy one. And yet, you wake up in the morning in dread. Wednesday gets you excited because it’s almost Friday and the weekend (is that why they call it hump day?). Then, the weekend finally comes around and “holy shit, it’s Monday” and it all starts all over again. And you feel like you never have time for what you want to do since all your time is caught up with your job and your life commitments. Is that what they mean when they talk about work-life balance? When you think about it, isn’t balance a myth that can never be achieved? Why on earth do we need balance? What we really want is the time to do what matters to us, without everyone else’s agendas.
A friend recently shared with me that ”my job is my life. My everything” and another friend worked until from 7:00 am to midnight yesterday getting a proposal out so her company could make more money. Yes, it’s a job. But why on earth do we make it our lives? And there are so many workers who are waking up wanting more. We want meaning and purpose. We also know that we need to make a living and pay our bills. It’s a catch 22 that is difficult to get out of. It takes determination and hard work to come up with a plan for yourself. But let me tell you, it’s worth it.
Simply know that tomorrow if the company that you love and affiliate with needed to cut expenses, the first thing they will do is look at how to cut costs by cutting their people. It’s ironic because they spend so much time, energy and money to attract the brightest talent. But if it comes down to cutting costs, the precious talent is the first to go. That’s why no one believes executives when they say “people are most important assets.” The talk and the walk rarely align.
What is the hard work you want to do or do you want to always think about the “what if”? I recently asked myself what I am a slave to as a way to help me get unstuck. What’s on your list?
