I’ve just had a small amount of spaghetti for lunch too.
It’s a day of relaxation, and celebration. Today marks 3 years since I walked away from Centrelink, the welfare / unemployment office, and I haven’t looked back.
It’s scary stepping away from that particular safety net, with its consistent but limited income with the certainty that my rent will be paid, but with the ever present threat of being cut off.
Paying my rent every week is my main priority. It’s not easy.
I’ve switched to what I call “grind mode”. I cannot say no to shifts nor exclude work anywhere and it’s lead to a strange form of forced personal growth.
It has meant letting go of limiting self beliefs (fears, anxieties, doubts, etc.) and forcing myself to learn new skills. This isn’t a permanent one off thing, but rather an ongoing process.
You can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks.
I started to learn hospitality skills, which are relatively easy to learn but take practice. I do not like managers and supervisors, who enforce ridiculous rules on others, strung along by the false promises of promotion and the occasional “bonus” bribe.
(When they tell you to put your phone away because it “looks bad” but then pull out their phone a few seconds later, it doesn’t particularly impress me).
If you take nothing else from this blog post, learn this:
Whenever you hear yourself or other people say they can’t do something, go ahead and learn that thing, whatever the cost. Those skills will be needed.
I have posted previously that I had found several employers offering part time jobs, many of them had management interstate but they have shown themselves to be useless over time.
One company even tried to ruin my reputation, after I reported a nasty bruise on my arm. I didn’t mention the scratches on my expensive Apple watch.
I did end up working for the same initial company at the same event via a different company, so I got my revenge but I know who I am dealing with now.
Always put your physical and mental health, safety and reputation first.
The reason I came off of unemployment in the first place was that I’d landed a job at a local food factory. I was there for just under a year until a hernia operation I had applied for became available.
The operation was a success but I couldn’t work for 6 weeks while I recovered. The food factory had decided to fire me, but not directly. They chose to string me along for 3 months before cancelling my employment officially.
I was also working as a contractor for Splinterlands until a month after the hernia operation.
Financially, I survived by selling my Splinterlands card collection, lands, totems, unopened packs, SPS and DEC, etc. coupled with the money saved from both jobs.
I reinvested what I could afford into training courses, some of which didn’t pay off and weren’t tax deductible.
The Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate was the main course that paid for itself* immediately* as it turned into paid work, and even the various jobs I do now.
One of the jobs I ended up getting was working for TSA, or Telstra’s inbound call centre.
I had friends warning against me working there, but I didn’t have any other alternatives at the time.
I lasted about 6 weeks before the anxiety attacks became overwhelming. It took 2 weeks after I quit for the tremors to stop. The work culture there was very very toxic and unsupportive.
In my exit interviews, there were two supervisors who tried to convince me to stay. One said that the job was easy, despite my anxiety attacks and lack of recent sales.
Another asked “What will you do for money if you go ?”.
I said “I’ll be OK.”. It was a fear based tactic to get me to stay.
This is why I am still here on the Hive blockchain.
The Hive that I either earn from activity or generate from interest, acts as an unofficial safety net in case things turn really sour.
Make no mistake, Hive is real money because it can be converted to your local FIAT currency.
The Australian Tax Department certainly thinks so, trust me.
But deeper than the financial security and the confidence that comes from that, is YOU, the community of people who read, upvote, comment and interact with whatever I choose to do.
And that is priceless.
Every step forward has meant letting go of things that were never really in alignment with who I actually was or truly am now.
Things and people I shouldn’t have picked up in the first place, but regret is something that needs to be let go of as well.
Everything is temporary, especially our lives.
Be bold and have the courage to let go of whatever you need to.
That’s all from me today. Thank you for reading.
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