Before I go on with what I envisioned to be an eye-opener, hope-giving article, I would like to ask you one question. Are you truly, madly, passionately in love with your day job, the work-life balance it gives you, the monetary benefits you get from it, the social benefits that comes along with it and the co-workers you interact with everyday? If yes, you may skip this article. If not, the darling, by all means, proceed.
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job. If you feel so grumpy on mornings, especially on Monday mornings, that you literally drag yourself into the shower. If you just got in your office and wished it was 5pm already. If lunch is only the time when you are alive in the office. If you dread your boss and your job and you feel you can’t do work for another day anymore. If you keep on dreaming of leaving your current job and pulling up the wittiest I-resign video which you plan to upload on 9Gag.
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job. If you consistently shrug the feeling of guilt for not being there for your wife. Or husband. If you are becoming more intimate with your computer than with your loved ones. When your puppy’s happy, delighted mood is replaced by a sad barking moan when you just walk away after saying hi to him as soon as you got home. When you’d rather do overtime work on the weekends.When you have exactly no idea what your teenage child is doing in school. When you’re just completely unattached with a bunch of people whom you call family.
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job when you feel like you are supposed to have a different job, way way different from your current one. When you think that your college course was a huge mistake. When you feel like a trapped artist in a left-brainers’ world. If you feel like life is unfair because you cannot just do what you love to do. When you feel like changing career or planning on doing so.
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job when you can’t recall the last time you had fun with friends. When the only people you have been talking to were either clients, sponsors, customers, superiors, suppliers and co-workers. When you felt embarrassed that you didn’t know your closest friend already has a baby and you asked her whose baby was she carrying when you bumped into her while on your way to the bank. When the only connection that you have with your friends is Facebook.
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job because what will become of you if right there and then you are stripped off of your day job title? Do you have other things that you can do to keep you busy? Will you still have friends that you can depend on, those who still really care? Do you have other means of acquiring income? How about your health? Did you get a personal long-term healthcare aside from the company health insurance?
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job because what if years have passed you by and life left you old? Can you still do the things that you wanted to do while you were young? Did you get to kiss in Paris or soak up some sun in the Philippines? Did you get to play that Ultimate Frisbee your office friends were raving about? Would you have adventures to tell your grandchildren aside from how you managed to debug a test program during your working days?
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job because life is not revolving on our work alone even though it eats up a third of our day on all weekdays of our lives. We ought to see the world our Creator has made for us to enjoy. We have to nurture relationships and not just start-ups. We have dreams of our own that we have to work on.
I urge you to have a life outside of your day job. You just owe that one to yourself.
The Lust Manifesto 