How Our Career Impacts Our Personal Life

Our career can impact our personal life in two ways: it can either enrich or ruin it. Which one happens to you depends on your career / job choice and whether it is compatible with your personality and talents. In other words, if you get to do something you enjoy, something that allows you to use your unique gifts and talents - your life will be full and enriched. But if you have a job that you dislike or even hate, you will feel like your personal life is stolen from you.

Unfortunately, most people have to go to work because they need to pay their bills; they do not really like what they are doing. Getting a decent job becomes increasingly more difficult, so if we manage to land something that pays relatively well, we don't even look at the fact whether the job is something we would enjoy doing or not. Having a job you love seems to be a luxury that not many of us can afford.

"It's a job; it pays the bills." I have heard that line so many times. People who say it usually do not have a sparkle in their eyes, because the job also does something else: it eats up their life. They end up living from weekend to weekend, vacation to vacation... I have been there myself; it is not fun. You just keep going and try not to think about it, because if you do you may slide into depression.

What happened to all those aspirations we had as teens? They are buried. The kid who wanted to be an artist works as a bean counter and prefers not to look back at those days when he still thought that making his living through art was possible; it hurts too much. What happened to all those hobbies we used to have and spend hours enjoying? They are forgotten. We have neither time nor energy. The job eats our days and housework / kids / errands take care of the weekend.

It there a solution? Is there anything we can do to pay the bills and yet still have a fulfilled personal life? The answer, to me, is doing something you like anyway, whenever you can. Painting, gardening, writing stories, doing crafts - even if all you can afford is fifteen minutes a day or one hour during the weekend, you will not believe the difference it will make. You will feel alive again.