Simplicity
I have just uploaded some photo taken during my One-day Charity Trip. As I looked at them, it gave me a kind of joy seeing the simplicity of life those villagers have. Life goes on in a simple way...
Back to myself... what kind of life do I want to lead?
At times I feel a little ambitious in my career, based on my personal accomplishments so far and all the compliments I received during almost all interviews I attended (that I am a "high flyer"). Yet where will that leads me to? The sky is the limit, so the saying goes. But will that make me happy? Perhaps for a little while only.
Sometimes I feel I just want to do a simple job, earn a little income and spend my free time to do what I enjoy doing. But well, I have realized that whichever position of work I take (from executive to director), or whatever salary I received, the stress level seems to be the same. Guess this is the Singapore culture of works. :( Perhaps the only way is to work oversea? I am quite tempted to try... let's see...
posted at 3/09/2006 05:11:00 PM |
Name: Bee
6 Comments:
Just curious.. Indonesia? Uban in Bintan?
Looks familiar...hmmm.
I can empathize with you. I too often feel there is more to life than working. In fact whenever people ask what I want to do with my life, I always answer, “Play.”
People just don’t seem to understand. I never make it a secret that I would be happier not working if I were independently wealthy. But, how do must people respond? Something like, “I’d get bored at home.”, “How much TV can you watch?”
I find it sad that people define themselves and find meaning in being a drone.
I recognize there is work that needs to be done, but to be honest, once the work is done, why can’t we better spend our time elevating ourselves?
There is a philosophy book by Josef Pieper called “Leisure: The Basis of Culture.” In which he argues that we have elevated work over leisure (the process of self-discovery and enlightenment). An interesting observation he makes (which I noticed before reading his book) is that our time off is not so much for ourselves, as it is recovery time. So we go through this cycle of work, recover, go back to work. When a better cycle would be: work, recover, self-enlightenment, go back to work. At one point in my life, I wasn’t even able to fully recover from work over the weekend before heading back to work.
I don’t know what the work culture is like in Singapore. I have two Japanese friends, who did not like the Japanese work culture. The first (with whom I’ve lost touch) came to Canada to study French so she could go to teach in Africa (she had spent two years teaching in Kenya) – because, in her words, “Africans know how to live.” The other immigrated to Canada 11 years ago or so, because she did not enjoy her 16+ hour days – she worked for a while in Canada, but now spends her time at home raising her 3 kids).
Well, actually I suspect somtimes the stress level has more to do with a person's personality than with a job. That could be why for some people, no matter what job he or she does, it'll always feel stressful. For example, as we know there're expectations we have to meet when we work. Not only do we have to deal with the expectation from our superiors, but we have to deal with the expectations from ourselves too. Some people expect a lot from themselves when it comes to work so they may be giving themselves stress without realising it. I used to be working in a field which I've no interest in and I felt stressful. Now I'm working in another field which I'm passionate about and yet I still feel stressful. But I do notice that the satisfaction level I get from doing these two jobs are different. I feel more satisfied and contented even though I'm working almost 12 to 15 hours daily at the current job. But the potential danger is I get so absorbed in the job till I'm willing to spend that amount of time to do it that I haven't been able to have much room in my life for other things. Sometimes I wish I can do a simple job too, those 9 to 5 job with little stress. But then I know soon I'd be feeling uncontented and restless if stuck in a job like that.
As for working overseas, I think if you do that you may have to deal with more problems, like adjusting to the culture, people etc. And it can be bad if you're there just all aone and start missing your friends and family back here. This may cause another diferent set of stress even though your job may not be as stressful over there. So I guess a more effective way would be to learn how to manage stress.
luvphobia, u r right. :)
Richard, I guess most developed asian countries have very stressful working culture... always maximizing ans stretching workers' time.
Soulgiver has a point in saying that "the stress level has more to do with a person's personality than with a job". With people who takes life and work easy, they never feel any stress and can simply leave their workplace on the dot, regardless of the job position their are in. But well, such people are always on the 'firing squad' list. :P
As for me, since regardless of my work position I still work very hard and feel the stress, then I figure out I should go for high-paying jobs within my knowledge and skills to do well. If not, I should have a change of environment, such as working in countries where the pace of life and work is slower... that might help me slow down my momentum and learn to relax. :)
Bee, you might try working in Australia. The working hours are much shorter and life more relaxing. And I can take care of you. :)
I totally agree with Soulgiver. I was caught in the same situation for the last 10 years at least. I was in a job that I really like, but my stress level only seemed to increase. I took on more and more responsibilities because it gave me great satisfaction, but yet the rewarding feeling somehow could not make up for the intense stress I was feeling.
Same feeling I have now with my new job. I am now handling some of the most high profile projects - and they are all fun to do. The stress I feel is incredible.
My boss used to tell me, being efficient is a double edged sword. You get recognized, your boss and colleagues respects you. But at the same time, you will get most of the work because they trust you more than anyone to complete it. In Chinese, they call it "Neng Zhe Duo Lao" (Translation: The capable works harder).
Coincidentally, when I was having tea with my colleague yesterday, she commented that she feels I am giving myself too much stress. She said I should take it easy and don't have to be so serious in every single aspect of my work. Sometimes, it's all about time mgmt, knowing what's impt to pursue, and what could be put off. If I go on pushing myself to make everything perfect, even the non-impt tasks, I am only going to burn out.
I feel there's some truth in there. Sometimes, stress is not brought about by anyone but yourself. Just that we are too engrossed in getting it done and making it good, that we forgot to rest and realise there are more impt things in life that we have overlooked.
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