Sometimes it pays to take your eye off the ball

Les Holland

A job makes you happy. More specifically, a recognised role makes you happy. You might be a plumber, a doctor or an Internet trader but with luck you are a mum or dad, a loving partner, a good friend, and perhaps you are a golfer, gardner or gymnast too.

Why else would politicians work so hard to keep employment up? Because we riot when there are no jobs, because it gnaws at our sense of self worth. Without work, without roles, we feel worthless, and that increases the chance of our relationships falling apart too.

How can you psychologically protect yourself against losing your main role, whether that's your job or your family? By maintaining a variety of roles in your life. If you are a gardner, chess player, social drinker, big sister, grandfather, lovign partner, eBay trader, if you lose your main role, you'll only have lost one role from a basketful, and those roles will help as you find new work.

The idea is to take stock of your roles and make sure you have balance. You know the sort of thing. You work, then you come home and waiting there is something else you're interested in, whether it's your partner or family, carpentry or guitar, hanging out with your mates or learning to edit videos on your computer, hobbies often turn into new careers when the redundancy cheque appears.

Those engaged in mentally undemanding jobs have developed interesting alternative roles for themselves, in fact, artists of all sorts often take menial work to pay their bills while leaving their heads free to create. One guy even wrote a zine about the characters he met while travelling the world, paying his way as a dishwasher. Perhaps there's a strategy in here. Find yourself something to do that is completely different to your job. Within whatever shortlist you create, you might be able to find something that, while different from your work, complements it, perhaps even gives you the edge when it comes to promotion. That's how I came to learn Spanish.

Alternatively, I've noticed physical workers often have physical hobbies. Perhaps they find themselves fit and able to do great things like water skiing or karate. When I've asked they've often said it's better to be fitter than their job demands, then they don't end their day slumped on the sofa too tired to live. Maybe this is a second strategy: find things that use your skills in different ways. Use your assets to your advantage.

With a bit of design and life massage, you'll find ways to rebalance your life with hobbies and interests that stimulate and interest you, while also moving you forward. It's not always a good thing to concentrate solely on one goal. Sometimes, a little distraction helps.


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About the Author

©2006 All rights reserved
Les Holland is learning Spanish and loving every minute of it. After trying lots of different books and classes, he found something that really worked. And then another. And then he built a system all his own that really really works. And in the end, he brought it all together in www.learnspanishfast.biz so you could benefit too.