Is it just me, or do people complain way too much about their work life? It makes sense when you work 40/50/60+ hours a week for someone else. No amount of “work/life balance” solves this problem. Around a third of our entire life is spent “at work,” with zero ownership of that time. Doesn’t it sound completely insane to work on something you don’t love? Or work with people that don’t inspire you to be the best version of yourself? I’m here to remind you that you’re capable of much more; sometimes, it just takes a random blog post like this one to be a catalyst.
Most of us don’t have the luxury to do whatever we want; without making a stable income, so we trade some of what we love for what we have to do. It’s a commendable trade-off; it allows us to build our careers, get paid, and get health benefits for our family if it’s a good workplace.
When we start trading off more and more of what we love, and the scale becomes more imbalanced and skewed towards work we PRIMARILY do because we have to, it starts to affect our mental state; we become regretful, we feel pressure, we burn out, and we let it bleed into our everyday lives.
No matter what your situation is, we are all capable of eliciting change. We’re capable of becoming elite at anything we put our minds to. Life is way too short to sit around and “get by” or work on things because we’re told to do so or have the “Sunday scaries.”
Making the best of the one life we get, setting goals that push our limits, and expanding our minds will allow us to “never work a day in our life.”
Let’s acknowledge the obvious: none of this is easy. It’s hard to pivot, and you can’t just quit your job on a whim. Returning to school and learning something entirely new from scratch is challenging. Whether you opt for drastic changes or incremental, it’s an arduous journey but well worth it. The most valuable thing you can do for yourself is to get into a habit of building new behaviors.
It takes practice and a lot of self-accountability. Start with something basic, like introducing a new habit you’ve wanted to pick up and do it for a few months. Setting yourself up for success requires you to have this foundational skill of creating new habits. It’s a non-negotiable and is an important stepping stone to any change in your life.
Another non-negotiable: be comfortable being uncomfortable. Learning is uncomfortable, it tests our mental fortitude, self-confidence, our ability to endure, and it’s humbling.
These are all good things. The faster we start mentally framing learning with positive emotion, we stop shying away and begin to embrace it. When forced to learn something, learning becomes a chore, but learning becomes a passion when you learn as a consequence of genuine curiosity. As kids, so much of our learning was forced, so it’s even more critical to start retraining our mindset when it comes to learning. We’re in the golden age of knowledge and resources. You could spend a few months on YouTube and entirely change your career. There are no excuses. Don’t let your insecurities or doubts hold you back and leave you feeling less than your capabilities. If all this still feels beyond your reach, blame your surroundings. Your motivation and goals are driven by the people you’re around and the culture you’ve built for yourself. Change that first. Surround yourself with absolute badasses. Who will help push you to your limits and help you on the way up? We’re not in the business of settling for mediocrity. If you’re around others who are also not settling, you WILL be elite and inspire others around you to be elite. Remember that you’re the average of the people you surround yourself with. Find your Kobe. You motivated yet? Remember that taking risks and betting on yourself is never a risk. You will likely fail, but that’s where you want to be. Failing is you pushing your boundaries; growth happens between the lines and incrementally. You should be more scared of not having an opportunity to fail than failing itself. Quitting is the only non-negotiable here. It might also help reframe the language used to define failure: check out this video. I’ll leave you with this. Remember that we’re just a collection of atoms being hurled around a giant fireball. Don’t take life too seriously.
Enjoy the process of getting better every day for yourself and the people around you.
The only people you should be comparing yourself is to your past and future self, never others. Now go be awesome, inspire others with your work ethic, stay curious and conquer some shit.
Much love.
- Sunny Vempati