We live in a society that often places value on people by what they do. The CEO is valued more than the secretary, the secretary more than the janitor, the janitor more than the person with no job at all. And yet, no matter where you fall in that hierarchy, if you have a job, there’s a high chance that your life revolves around it.
I know when I had a job, that was my routine. I’d get up, do a little Bible Study, get ready for work, go to work, come home, recuperate from the day, go to bed, get up the next morning and do it all again. Anything outside of that routine was hard to squeeze in. I mean a couple of times, I actually went for a walk before I got ready for work, but for the most part, I was hitting that snooze button until I couldn’t anymore. After work, I was usually just too tired to do anything else unless I had to. That’s true of most, if not all the jobs I’ve had.
Yet the older I get, the more I realize that having a life that revolves around work is not the way to go – especially when that job can fire you. It’s almost midnight and since I need to post before that time, I’m just going to get straight to the point. So here are my tips to maximizing life while you work.
- Have hobbies outside of work that have nothing to do with work.
- Get up and do something before work that has nothing to do with work.
- Work in your purpose. Make your purpose your job. When you do something you would do whether or not you get paid, the check becomes a bonus. A very necessary bonus – ‘cause don’t get it twisted, we not out here working for free – but a bonus nonetheless. So even if you lose your job, you can still walk in your purpose. The job is a function of your purpose, instead of you feeling like you have purpose because you have a job.
Now I know some of you might be thinking, she’s just saying that to make herself feel better since she was let go from her job. She’s just saying that because getting fired gave her a broken spirit and she’s just trying to make herself feel better so she can start all over again. And you know what, if that’s what one has to do to get themselves going, I’m all for it. The Bible says call things that are not as though they were.
But the truth is, I had a broken spirit before I even accepted that job, applied for that job. The truth is, it’s because of my broken spirit I applied for that job, accepted that job and even stayed on that job where I was overworked, undervalued, underpaid and disrespected on a regular basis for almost a year. Truth is I was miserable at that job, absolutely miserable. Sometimes I would wake up and dread going to work even on the days that I worked from home. I mean, working from home gave me somewhat of a reprieve, but still. While the job did have some redeeming qualities, for example meeting some of the people, interacting with the kids, a four-day work week and of course I got a paycheck, but overall, it was hell.
Before I got that job, I was unemployed for a long time, a really long time – like over two years long. In addition, over the last ten years I’ve had several stints of unemployment and underemployment. The fact of the matter is when you don’t have a job or when you have a really low-paying one, like one that pays at or around minimum-wage, people judge you, people don’t respect you, don’t want have anything to do with you. So even though I wasn’t walking in my purpose with this job, it served as a façade against those things. It made me more presentable, acceptable than you are when you’re unemployed going after hard-to-reach dreams. Plus, I could tell myself I was making a difference in the world by working at a nonprofit. On the rare occasion when I went places and met new people, I could tell them I had a job. It paid quite a bit more than minimum-wage ( yet it still wasn’t on par with the cost-of-living in these California streets), and of course, it was a means to pay my bills.
I remember watching this show when I was unemployed before I got that job – it was a political show. Speaking about the unemployed, this man was saying that people who had been out of the workforce for the past two years would most likely not be able to hang once they reentered. Admittedly, I was fearful of that. I thought this guy is an “expert” appearing on a show, surely he must know what he’s talking about. But when I reentered, within three months, having never worked at a nonprofit before, I became the top lead-generator on my team (I had a sales job). I remained the top lead-generator up until the day I was fired. Just thought I throw that in there. There are so many prejudgments out there.
But anyway, when I was unemployed before I got that job, it seemed like someone was always asking me what did I do. I never lied. I braved the judgment. Once I got that job, and would finally have an answer, nobody asked me. Funny how that works.
Getting back to my point – did I feel broken after getting fired? Yes. But that brokenness didn’t come primarily from getting fired. Getting fired just took away the façade and returned me back to the brokenness that was already there before I even knew that job existed.
Getting fired, I believe, was God’s way of forcing me back onto the path towards my purpose. Taking me back to where I stopped believing in myself, where I stopped believing in my gifts and my talents, imploring me to believe again.
And so, I said all that to say, this is from whence my advice comes. Your job should never be your life – even if you are walking in your purpose. Even God rested on the seventh day – bless the Lord!
Spend time with your friends, spend time with your family, and you betta spend some time with God. Get some alone time in, travel, have a hobby outside of work, eat good food, take care of yourself – all the things that you want to do.
Know that you matter just because you are.
Just my two cents.
P.S. This is not my fired story.
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