This is another post which is more a reflection of something I did or thought of recently rather than something that could be "taught" and explored in an article. Consider this some sort of a "journal entry", even though I do not keep a journal.
As I already told you, I work in a kitchen in Germany, and I'll be there until November. The schedule we have is quite busy. We're at work most of our time. Depending on when we wake up, we have around 4 hours of free time, if we also want to sleep a decent amount of hours.
Despite having so little free time, some of my colleagues find ways in which to do interesting things in their little breaks. Recently, one of those things was going to a party. Our chef went, with another 2 guys. It was quite a bit party from what I understood, with a lot of drinks and a lot of people.
They had fun, got drunk, did a bunch of stupid things, and today they came at work and laughed about everything. It was entertaining for the rest of us who didn't go.
Now, completely unrelated to that, today I was invited to go with my girlfriend and a friend of her to a place nearby to get into water for a bit to refresh ourselves, since it's been extremely hot this week, especially in the kitchen / bar.
I was a bit hesitant, because I didn't want to waste my break. I am also not a huge fan of sitting in water for no reason for long periods of time. I also wanted to post an article. So, I refused.
After a bit of thinking however, I decided that I should go. I changed my mind because of my colleagues and their party.
Despite having such limited free time, they decided to do something fun, regardless of whether they would be tired the next day, or unable to focus on their job. They decided to do something absolutely normal, but that I do less than I'd wish - to focus more on their life, and to keep their job as just a part of that life.
That sounds normal, and it might be for a lot of people. For me however, this idea never really came to mind. I spent my days waking up, going to work, coming home during my break, working on these articles, taking a nap, going to work again, coming home at night, working a bit more, maybe play a video game, sleep, and then repeat the same routine the next day.
I did this for 3 months, and although everything went well, things became a bit too... repetitive. I felt like a robot just following a set of tasks without even considering that there's an alternative. And because of that, I was a bit jealous of my colleagues. They could leave work behind for a few hours, have fun, drink, dance, or whatever, and then come to work again in the morning, to a job that is just a small part of their life, not the most important thing in it.
So, with that in mind, I chose to actually go and swim for a bit with my girlfriend and her friend. We ended up having a good time, feeling refreshed after spending 1 hour in the cold water. And because we did that in our break, once it was over, we went back to work much more refreshed and relaxed then before. For today, work became just a part of our lives, not the entirety of it.
Work is great. It helps you live a good life. And it can help you achieve amazing things. But because work can be so great, or so demanding, it can swallow your whole life, to the point where you cannot think of and do anything other than your job.
So, this is a good reminder to take a break, even a short one, and to put work in its place - as a small part of your life, not as the center of it.