Julie awoke with a start. What was that noise? Oh yeah, the sound of the alarm application on her phone shouting ‘Hello’ at her – definitely sufficient to wake the dead! Sluggishly, she pulled herself out of bed, overcome by that horrible feeling she got every morning as she contemplated another day doing pointless things in a pointless job – A pointless job that she required to keep the payments up on this wonderful ‘apartment’ in which she lived. Apartment!, huh?! More like a studio flat with a fancy name but hey, it was what everyone did so no point complaining about it. “Come on! Julie!” she said to herself. “Lets get on with it”.
So off to the shower she drags herself, passing by the Kitchen to put on the coffee maker, she stops to look out the window at the dark, overcast dawn. She pulls her dressing gown a bit closer as she contemplates stepping out of the cool apartment into an even cooler day. Oh well, off to the shower, she goes. After a quick shower and a teeth brushing session, she returns to her room, puts on her super professional clothes, admires herself in the mirror and goes into the kitchen again. The smell of coffee is comforting as always and she knows the caffeine will do her mood no end of good so she fills her flask, picks up a banana and starts to make for the door. Thankfully she had the foresight to prepack her bag for the day so quickly she bundles herself in to the car and off she goes.
On the trip, Julie wonders again how she fell into this life. Where were her dreams gone? Once upon a time, she had thought she would never settle in a job that she no longer enjoyed and yet here she was, day after day, doing exactly the same as the day before. No matter how she sugar-coated it, at some point on the road to this day, she had chosen to settle. It all seemed too much like hard work to actually go after something new. What if she did not get it? What if she got it and then was no good at it? The country was in the middle of a recession,for goodness sake, she must count herself lucky to have a job at all. Lots of her friends had found themselves suddenly jobless and were now really struggling to hold everything together. She knew because some had told her but most others were trying to pretend that things were alright but she could see the tension in their eyes as they said repeatedly “We are not worried!” . She wished it were true that they actually were not worried but she knew the truth because she was not too far from that point herself. If for whatever reason, her job suddenly went up in the air, her life as she knew it would be over within a matter of days. Everything was tightly held in place with the steady influx of cash she got from her job on the 26th of each month. It almost seemed like something of a life sentence. She may as well be in prison for all the freedom she had.
Does this sound like anyone you know? I know I have lived this way myself. Can I recommend you pack in your job now and decide to ‘find yourself’? Definitely not! Are you going to get rich tomorrow because of something I say? Again, no!
Life is a journey of discovery, it is a marathon. There are no quick fixes but there are little steps that we all take that get us right to this exact moment in our life. Why not take some time to ask yourself a few questions and take the time to write the answers down :-
- Are you where you want to be today, right now?
- What has brought you to this moment?
These are really broad questions so I want you to dig deep, no surface meaningless answers here. Try to really connect with what you are writing or tear it up and start again.
For some of you, life is amazing, exhilarating and you are excited about the possibilities. For others, there is no doubt that something is amiss. That is ok, that is a start. Personal growth starts with taking responsibility for yourself and really being in tune with your life. No more lies! So truthfully, is Life good?
Julie’s story will carry on…
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