Adulthood is basically a routine—you wake up, go to work, come home, sleep, and repeat. There’s not much room for spontaneity when you have duties and responsibilities weighing on your shoulders, especially if you have people depending on you to be the breadwinner. But a life like that can become exhausting really fast.
When you feel like you’re just going through the motions mindlessly, doing what you need to without putting your heart in it, the entire experience can feel lackluster. During such time, you may feel like you have no control over your life because it’s already been laid out for you from the moment you wake up until you close your eyes to sleep.
However, you should know that life isn’t supposed to be this way. You weren’t placed in this world just to earn a paycheck and pay the bills; you were born so that you can enjoy everything that life has to offer. But to do that, you have to regain the control that you’ve lost over your life. And that means you have to make some changes.
It can be difficult to move forward when you want to make some changes but don’t exactly know where to start. That’s okay because everyone needs a little help sometimes. For starters, you can take a step back to look at the life you’ve built and see where you can introduce these changes.
Find a Job That You will Love
There’s an adage that goes, “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” This saying shouldn’t be taken too literally because love isn’t the answer to everything, but it does have some truth to it. If you were to work for a job that you’re passionate about, the task itself wouldn’t prove too burdensome.
That’s because you actually want to do it. You’re not just working to earn some money at the end of the day, but you’re exerting the effort to do a good job because you like what you’re doing. And the work may become stressful or exhausting at times, but it’s worth all your energy because you want to do it.
So, if you have the option to choose between having a job that pays the bills or one that motivates you to come to work, you should choose what will benefit you more. If you’re lucky, you might actually find a job that can pay the bills and increase your drive to do greater things.
Invest in Advancing Your Career
If you dream of climbing the corporate ladder and breaking the glass ceiling, you have to ensure that you’re equipped with the right tools to achieve it. Keep in mind that stagnation is the enemy of progress; if you want to reach greater heights, then you have to move forward and create your own opportunities.
That’s because if you wait for the opportunities to come to you, then you could be waiting for a long time without fruition. Landing a job that you love is only the first step in regaining control over your life. The next step you should take is to invest your time and energy into advancing your career.
To do that, you could take on supplementary courses that are relevant to your industry or pursue lifelong learning in general. You can look into educational institutions such as SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) that offers learning opportunities to busy professionals who want to hone their skills and knowledge.
If you are to pursue SkillsFuture courses that can help you master industry skills and give you comprehensive training in your field of expertise, it can help you make progress in your career faster. Of course, you would have to put in the time and effort, but it can be a worthwhile experience.
Balance Your Work with Lifelong Learning
Once you fall into the habit of working while pursuing knowledge, you will slowly begin to understand how to achieve that elusive work-life balance. You’ll realize that being in control of your life doesn’t mean that you have to plan out every single waking moment until it’s gone.
It just means that you can choose to either mindlessly go through the motions of life or take charge of your circumstances so that you can decide what’s right for you. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to stop providing for the people who depend on you; it only means that you’re going to provide for them in a way that won’t compromise your happiness and aspirations.
All these plans may seem too idealistic from an outsider’s perspective, but if you can pull them off, then you can achieve the kind of life that other people can only dream of having. After all, in the grand scheme of things, your satisfaction and self-fulfillment in the life you’ve built for yourself should be your number one priority.
