Break away from the drudgery of a nine to five routine and do things differently

Accepting that you are not happy with your current job is the first big step. But once you have identified the problem, what then? How do you go about creating a work environment that suits your aspiration and allows you to create the life that you want? One way is to think about different ways of working. Below are some ideas that will help you to break away from the nine to five routine and allow you to steer your career in the right direction.

Set goals

Make your life simple. Get away from the heat and pressure and try to put some sanity back into your life. Be sure of what you want, otherwise you may end up doing what you do not want. Take one step at a time and move towards your goal. Your determination to succeed will take you towards your goal. Don’t be daunted by failures. Ask yourself what you want and work towards it. Don’t exert yourself too much, otherwise you may suffer from burnout easily. Take it easy. Too much stress will press you down. Learn to be consistent in your work as it is the key to success. You should never lose sight of your goal. Remember the story about the rabbit and the tortoise? The tortoise won the race as it never lost sight of its goal till the end.

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Many of us believe that a proper job has to be a nine to five one. Most new jobs these days, however, are not full-time at all. See if you can give yourself the required space to try out something else. Try to find out new avenues of employment that might enable you to earn a part of your income from elsewhere.

Globalisation has opened up several job opportunities which were not thought to be lucrative some years ago. Find out whether you have an inclination for any other job. If you have the desire or the inclination to make some money you can work part-time.

Different strokes

Try to do things differently. Allow yourself the freedom to pursue several interests and be as creative as you can. You may find that some of your pursuits may not be lucrative, but are fulfilling at the same time. Try to instil creativity in your work as it helps to beat boredom and stress. You will find that you will enjoy your work much more and your productivity will increase. Doing the same thing every day leads to monotony. Therefore, try to spice up your life by developing interest in a variety of things. You may be a chartered accountant but that should not stop you from having an interest in gardening or paragliding.

Chill out

You don’t have to restrict yourself to self-employment if you choose to freelance. You could work for an employer part-time and freelance the rest of the time. A career break can also give you the chance to step back and re-evaluate your life. It will help you to judge whether you have been able to achieve the goals you have set for yourself or where you have failed.

Such evaluation is necessary to re-assess ourselves. Often we are so busy working that we don’t give ourselves the gift of stepping back and looking at our life and see what is working and what is not. Challenge the work ethic that says we are only useful when we work hard. Discover the values of shirking work.

Eyes wide open

Give yourself the gift of vision and dream about the kind of working life you would like to have that would thrill and inspire you to excel yourself. So many of us limit our ideas to what we think is possible, but we miss the fact that there are so many opportunities open to us. Also, what we would love to do may not exist right now, but we can create it in due time.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)