This is something my dear sweet hunk of a spunk boyf said to me before he and I started going out. It has stuck with me since.
"Don't let work define your day"
Can be interpreted in as range of ways, and I feel is quite important because something I have often waffled on about is how sometimes what we do becomes the main defining thing of who we are. At the moment, what I am mostly doing for work is working in a forensic mental health hospital teaching yoga and fitness- yet I will always say I am a performer before saying anything else.... and yes, the nature of that or many artistic vocations does mean our occupations and identities intertwine, but it's not all.
I'm a performer, I'm also a daughter, a sister, an aunty, a bike enthusiast, a hopeless house plant owner, a lover of journals, avocado and Leonardo Di Caprio. So by choosing these things to define my day rather than what I do for 8 hours of it that I'm being paid for.
Because my routine is actually becoming a routine (wake up, gym, breakfast, work, teach, come home) I'm trying to add other little things into the pockets of my day so that it feels like I am doing much more than what I HAVE to do, I'm also doing things I CHOOSE to do.
Like today, I made a different cooked breakfast, watched some comedy and sat in the park (I woke up 3 hrs before needing to go to work)
Some days I meet someone for coffee, even a 45 minute one
Some days I sleep in
Some days I play the guitar
Some days I drink gin*
* not true
** well, actually true, sometimes, but not before work....after.
It has been as simple as taking a different route to work, listening to a different podcast, speaking to someone on the phone en route, or leaving 30 mins early to sit in the park to read....or write this. If you have a nice scented candle, don't save it for guests, light that thing up and smell the different spin on the morning- you don't even have to wake up any earlier.
Sure, some people are not morning people at all. The would rather eat their pillow than get out of bed in the morning, and the idea of thinking about whether to have breakfast or not, let alone thinking of something different to do to spice up the workday is all too much. That's ok.
Maybe if this is you, as you are loving your late night scroll sesh, or whatever, you could cue up a podcast or pop a book or even a scrap of the newspaper in your bag...
Or, even spend a minute more to think about what you are wearing and add a splash of colour or that hat you have wanted to wear but are unsure if it's cool or not. (FYI, if "That hat" is a fedora, it is NOT cool, unless you are a drummer in a latino band or Matt Lee judging So You Think You Can Dance Australia in 2010.
But why?
Because, as they say, change is as good as a holiday. Why not make your world this colourful wonderful place that you enjoy or that people want to be a part of. Also because I hear my friends who work the usual 9-5 Monday-Friday get sick of eworkplace chat being only about what you did in the weekend, what you had for dinner and what you watched on TV.
Change it up with some crochet
Mix it up with some Monet
Be different with some birdwatching
Whatever- you're clever.
Jj
"Don't let work define your day"
Can be interpreted in as range of ways, and I feel is quite important because something I have often waffled on about is how sometimes what we do becomes the main defining thing of who we are. At the moment, what I am mostly doing for work is working in a forensic mental health hospital teaching yoga and fitness- yet I will always say I am a performer before saying anything else.... and yes, the nature of that or many artistic vocations does mean our occupations and identities intertwine, but it's not all.
I'm a performer, I'm also a daughter, a sister, an aunty, a bike enthusiast, a hopeless house plant owner, a lover of journals, avocado and Leonardo Di Caprio. So by choosing these things to define my day rather than what I do for 8 hours of it that I'm being paid for.
Because my routine is actually becoming a routine (wake up, gym, breakfast, work, teach, come home) I'm trying to add other little things into the pockets of my day so that it feels like I am doing much more than what I HAVE to do, I'm also doing things I CHOOSE to do.
Some days I meet someone for coffee, even a 45 minute one
Some days I sleep in
Some days I play the guitar
Some days I drink gin*
* not true
** well, actually true, sometimes, but not before work....after.
It has been as simple as taking a different route to work, listening to a different podcast, speaking to someone on the phone en route, or leaving 30 mins early to sit in the park to read....or write this. If you have a nice scented candle, don't save it for guests, light that thing up and smell the different spin on the morning- you don't even have to wake up any earlier.
Sure, some people are not morning people at all. The would rather eat their pillow than get out of bed in the morning, and the idea of thinking about whether to have breakfast or not, let alone thinking of something different to do to spice up the workday is all too much. That's ok.
Maybe if this is you, as you are loving your late night scroll sesh, or whatever, you could cue up a podcast or pop a book or even a scrap of the newspaper in your bag...
Or, even spend a minute more to think about what you are wearing and add a splash of colour or that hat you have wanted to wear but are unsure if it's cool or not. (FYI, if "That hat" is a fedora, it is NOT cool, unless you are a drummer in a latino band or Matt Lee judging So You Think You Can Dance Australia in 2010.
But why?
Because, as they say, change is as good as a holiday. Why not make your world this colourful wonderful place that you enjoy or that people want to be a part of. Also because I hear my friends who work the usual 9-5 Monday-Friday get sick of eworkplace chat being only about what you did in the weekend, what you had for dinner and what you watched on TV.
Change it up with some crochet
Mix it up with some Monet
Be different with some birdwatching
Whatever- you're clever.
Jj
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