Browsing through the net a couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a really interesting article and I really think it is worth sharing.
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The article:
WHEN I was young (I mean younger, after all, I’m still young!), I remember taking it for granted that my parents would be back from work by 5.30pm. I got to see a lot of them because, although they both held regular jobs, they were also back for lunch every day. It was something so simple that I never even thought about it. Today, many of us don’t even have the chance to see our children before they go to bed and sometimes, even over weekends. What used to be family time is now taken up with work, meetings, after-work networking and weekend games of squash and futsal with business associates. You know how it goes. And remember the whole concept of extended family? When I was growing up, all my uncles and aunts, to say nothing of cousins, were very much a part of my life. Now I hardly see them, except for major celebrations. With my frenetic schedule, any time I have is for immediate family and close friends. In fact, the people I see most now are my colleagues. I sometimes stop and wonder about the trade-off. When did work take precedence over life? In fact, when did work become life? Isn’t it ironic that we make so much more today, more than our parents could probably have dreamed of, but have so much less? We live longer but our days are filled with petty matters — meetings about meetings, reports about reports, things that eat up time but don’t really go anywhere or accomplish anything. How did it come to this? I was sitting with a few of my close friends the other day and discussing life at warp speed. One of them asked whether things were the way they were because we had no choice or because this is the way we wanted it to be. And I wondered. In today’s working environment, it is not enough to do a good job from 9 to 5. You have to contend with employer expectations and peer pressure. You have to exercise a constant vigilance: You never know who will stab your back, undermine your position or steal your job when you’re not looking. There was one school of thought among my mover and shaker friends who maintained we do have a choice. After all, we were all doing this because there was so much we wanted to achieve and there was so little time to do it all. We were racing against time, so to speak. There were others who thought that we keep this crazy pace because we felt compelled to. There were bills to pay, Joneses to keep up with and beautiful girls to impress. They are running to remain where they are, getting nowhere fast. Funny thing is, while one option may seem more attractive than the other, they’re both the same. In either case, you cannot leave your office at 5 (and even if you were crazy enough to do, you’d probably be stuck in a traffic jam anyway). You don’t get to hang out with your kids. And as for extended family, what’s that again? There are all kinds of slavery and time slavery is probably one of the most insidious, mainly because you’re not even aware of it. But one day, your kid is ready to go off to Harvard (you told yourself you were working so hard to afford the tuition) and you realise that this attractive young woman who looks a little like you is practically a stranger. No, I’m not suggesting you quit your job. Apart from everything else, that would be idiotic. After a while, you’ll get bored, depressed, out of it and then you’ll be counting your sen to see if you can even afford a pirated DVD. Not an attractive prospect. Besides, where’s the satisfaction in that? The real solution seems to be striking out on your own. After all, we Malaysians are encouraged to be entrepreneurs, to sell our services to fools who are willing to pay us premium prices. Maybe this is why we’re seeing more and more young professionals turn to freelancing. They want control of their time and destiny. They are sick of corporate politics and the energy it takes to survive in the corporate jungle. Some of my friends have left the dog-eat-dog world of investment banking to set up their own boutique investment advisories. They tell me that stress levels have dropped considerably because they are no longer dealing with unreasonably demanding clients and get to pick and choose their jobs. I sometimes see them having coffee at Starbucks when I’m rushing off for a meeting. In case you didn’t know, I’m one of the poor sods still climbing up the food chain. I also have friends in the media who left their respective newspapers or magazines to be on their own. Some write speeches for very important people and succeed in making them sound intelligent. Others write articles for a variety of newspapers and magazines. (If you’re a good writer, your work is always in demand.) And some offer freelance PR services to companies who haven’t got a clue about how to deal with the media. And then we have the freelance photographers, eBay entrepreneurs, you name it. They gave up a regular pay cheque and reclaimed their time — for family, for sport, creative hobbies and, most importantly, themselves.So maybe you should ask yourself what you really want. Are you happy? Is your life fulfilling? Is this what you imagined for yourself when you were watching Knight Rider all those years ago? Whatever they’ve brainwashed you into thinking, you do have a choice. It’s never too late.If you think you don’t know what you really want (and I’m not talking material stuff here), it’s only because you have never taken the trouble to find out. Do so! Learn to recognise where your actual strengths are, what makes you happy and move in that general direction. Believe me; you don’t want to keep running to get nowhere.
After all, who wants a gravestone that reads:"Here lies a man in a hurry. He had to leave early."
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