Like us, if you’re one of those folks lucky enough to be able to follow your passion, you’ll often be found saying wonderful things like “I love my job” and “I’m sure I don’t want to be doing anything else”. But that said, you know it comes at a price. You see, because we love our job, we also end up spending more hours at our workplace. We go for it, taking on new assignments and pushing the envelope. We invariably bite off more than we can chew and try to chew it up anyway. We start off the day early and before we even get to brushing our teeth, we lunge at our phones (Yes, plural. We are so busy that one phone per person is just not enough anymore apparently!).
Well, here’s the deal. No matter how much you love your job, all work and no play is (for the lack of a better term) the worst habit one can have. A surefire way to kill work life blend!
Pursuing hobbies as an adult is just as important as when you were a kid. Really! Do you play the guitar, do you write poetry, do you sing (and not just in the shower)? Do you draw or create things? Well, even if you don’t, you know you’ve always wanted to do at least one of these. Well, maybe it’s time. You see, it’s important for one to strike a balance between work, home, relaxation and things we love to do (other than your work!). Having hobbies and activities incorporated in our lives provides the much-needed respite that (admit it or not) every working professional needs. A good work-life blend is what lends meaning to the madness and without it, no matter how much in love you are with your job, you are bound to feel the pressure weigh you down and lose any sort of happiness at work.
As children, we would love the trips to the toy store. Those few minutes spent admiring a G.I.Joe, for instance, was something we could just not break away from. The scale models of tanks, weapons and action figures with detailed story-lines (Transformers, anyone?) left us spellbound. Even if we didn’t have enough money to buy most of the things we longed for, just standing there and looking at it all was a thrilling experience, wasn’t it? Ah, magical days!
As things stand today, we find our work life blend dying a slow death. As we grow older, we tend to lose our youthful ability to get excited about the little things. Perhaps the daily rut of our lives takes a toll. Somehow, in the adult world, growing up implies saying goodbye to the magic in our lives. Think about it, would you be okay with being seen in the kids’ section at a store checking out new toy arrivals? Or would you end up giving the usual excuses of how it’s for your child or nephew? Exactly. This is why we need to preserve the child in each one of us and not be in a hurry to “grow up”.
Work life blend or balancing work and life beyond work is not an impossible dream. At the end of the day, it is up to you to blend or balance the two! Why not go back to your hobbies? Or take the time to find new ones? They need not even be expensive or time consuming. You’ll find that the joy you get out of them is worth taking out the time for. There are so many interesting and fascinating things to do out there that no one should have a problem finding something to engage in and enjoy. Dancing, yoga, playing a musical instrument, pottery, art, you name it! All you need to do is take a moment to smell the roses and pursue your hobbies. After all, life is not just about work. Really!
Have you kept any of your hobbies alive to find the right work-life blend? Tell us all about it at info@willnevergrowup.com
