How do you "Live a little" and step back from work?

[Hey]

I heard this term recently and it got me thinking.

In the last 4 years I have barely taken a break, any breaks that have come have been from work and travelling to nice locations work wise.

How do you step back and look at the bigger picture of life?

Work seems to be getting ever more competitive with money getting reduced more and more while I am demanded to know and apply more and more. Employers don't seem to be interested in developing talent and want a finished package (full-time). Now doing contracting the concept of taking time off means losing money, and any free time does mean learning new things and doing all the chores that have been put off because of lack of time.

They say you should do something you are passionate about, well I am one of those people who cannot do what their passion is because of responsibilities so I turn what I can do which makes me money into my passion and try to be the best at it.

I was wondering if anyone has or had similar experience and worked out something that works for them.

[PermieToContractorAndBack]

A lot of that depends on the responsibilities you are referring to.

The first time I was hit by this was back in 2004. I had been in the UK by then for over 10 years, working full time, while studying for a degree part-time, buying property and doing it up in my spare time after work, getting married and divorced.
I did have nice holidays but otherwise just worked and studied for years, had no hobbies really apart from going out with friends.

Then back in 2004 I decided to move in with friends, rent out the property I owned and start saving more money to go traveling properly for a while. I went away to South Asia, spent months among people I had nothing in common with (well, initially) and that completely reset my mindset but it still took years to realise the changes I wanted to my life.

Your solution will be different, it will largely depend on the degree of freedom you have or can create but this initial discomfort is necessary because it drives you to find the answer.

I'm doing something similar again, not going away but completely rearranging my finances and living arrangements to make a big change. I'm also pursuing an ambitious certification as well as setting up a business on the side. Again, finding ways of supporting myself outside 9-5.

You need to get out of your comfort zone. Hope it helps.

[fatboyslim]

Travelling mostly.
Nice thread OP.

[WTFH]

I live a little by looking for trolls and banning them.

[fatboyslim]

I live a little by looking for trolls and banning them.

oohhh.... looks like I had a nice run till now...

[fatboyslim]

A lot of that depends on the responsibilities you are referring to.

The first time I was hit by this was back in 2004. I had been in the UK by then for over 10 years, working full time, while studying for a degree part-time, buying property and doing it up in my spare time after work, getting married and divorced.
I did have nice holidays but otherwise just worked and studied for years, had no hobbies really apart from going out with friends.

Then back in 2004 I decided to move in with friends, rent out the property I owned and start saving more money to go traveling properly for a while. I went away to South Asia, spent months among people I had nothing in common with (well, initially) and that completely reset my mindset but it still took years to realise the changes I wanted to my life.

Your solution will be different, it will largely depend on the degree of freedom you have or can create but this initial discomfort is necessary because it drives you to find the answer.

I'm doing something similar again, not going away but completely rearranging my finances and living arrangements to make a big change. I'm also pursuing an ambitious certification as well as setting up a business on the side. Again, finding ways of supporting myself outside 9-5.

You need to get out of your comfort zone. Hope it helps.

Wow. And here I am wasting my time on a forum. Makes me feel like sh*t.

[PermieToContractorAndBack]

Wow. And here I am wasting my time on a forum. Makes me feel like sh*t.

I've easily "wasted" a couple of years like that, you can't have one without the other. You can't always be "on", the same way you can't always be happy.

[Lance]

I live a little by looking for trolls and banning them.

75

[tiggat]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bonjour-Par.../dp/2841862313


Sometimes referred to as the Ten Commandments for the Idle, these counterproposals have been widely reproduced on the Web in a shortened form:

1 You are a modern-day slave. There is no scope for personal fulfilment. You work for your pay-check at the end of the month, full stop.
2 It's pointless to try to change the system. Opposing it simply makes it stronger.
3 What you do is pointless. You can be replaced from one day to the next by any cretin sitting next to you. So work as little as possible and spend time (not too much, if you can help it) cultivating your personal network so that you're untouchable when the next restructuring comes around.
5 You're not judged on merit, but on whether you look and sound the part. Speak lots of leaden jargon: people will suspect you have an inside track
6 Never accept a position of responsibility for any reason. You'll only have to work harder for what amounts to peanuts.
7 Make a beeline for the most useless positions, (research, strategy and business development), where it is impossible to assess your 'contribution to the wealth of the firm'. Avoid 'on the ground' operational roles like the plague.
8 Once you've found one of these plum jobs, never move. It is only the most exposed who get fired. Learn to identify kindred spirits who, like you, believe the system is absurd through discreet signs (quirks in clothing, peculiar jokes, warm smiles).
9 Be nice to people on short-term contracts. They are the only people who do any real work.
10 Tell yourself that the absurd ideology underpinning this corporate bulltulip cannot last for ever. It will go the same way as the dialectical materialism of the communist system. The problem is knowing when...

[Hobosapien]

Alternatively read books such as "How to be Idle" and "How to be Free" *, for inspiration on what really matters in life, which isn't a 'career' or 'working for the man'.

Or wait until you have a heart attack or a cancer scare, and if lucky enough to survive, re-evaluate when tulip stops getting too real.

* Have received them as presents so not had chance to read them yet. I half expect the last page to read "now write a book full of tulip so you can live off the proceeds and not need a real job".

I do sometimes wonder, when travelling around the countryside on foot or motorbike or car, if the wild animals have it better than us. Self sufficient and no tax slavery to worry about. Just happy eating and shagging. It was all so simple when we were cavemen.

Travelling to 'find oneself' is a cliche. For those too lazy, just let your mind wander. Thinking is free.