From Scracth: day 10
Nowadays to get a job you need to be seen actively, especially in social media. If you want to be hired, you need to have an updated Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin accounts at least. Not to mention the books you read and documentaries you watch. If you can do volunteer work, it's even better. You also need to have time to learn new things, share only the relevant, filter bullshit from others while you do yoga and meditate, sign up for content relevant to you, keep up with your youtube videos and blog notifications, worry about our mental health, workout and still be punctual for work to show that you are up for the job and is reliable.
It’s become a glamorous asset to be a good multitasker. This is something people are putting on their resumes. They feel good to be jammed between personal and professional hours. Maybe not good, but they at least pretend they are comfortable in this skin. But let me tell you something: all these activities cannot be well done in 24h. It’s humanly impossible. The standards are set way too high.
Why should we have to prove ourselves extraordinary to deserve a sit at the table? To deserve a fighting chance? Constantly having to prove yourself worthy is exhausting.
The problem is: no one is even talking about that. Every person I know acts like is normal to be overloaded. Why? Because we are afraid to speak up and lose opportunities. It is expected from us that all runs smoothly with no questions asked. No one is questioning boundaries, expectations and discussing the meaning of success.
Because success may mean different things to different people, but it became a standardized feeling: you need to work or ass off to feel successful. And this means nowadays being able to fit a digital agenda within our workday and personal life. At some point work shifted between a paying 8 hour gig to the love of our lives and we all need to be OK with this.
The marketplace sometimes pretends to care and we try — at least I do — to organize life not only around work, especially when we have kids. But competition is tough and we are always afraid someone will beat us to the punch. So we do it. We embrace whatever it is we don’t feel good about, we overlook the madness of it all and become workaholics freaks with a busy schedule.
This is not something to be proud of. Maybe at my early 20s I would love to be this person, because we need the experience, right? We thrive on it. But at my early 30s, I know that I need more than just work 24/7. I know that is ok to wake up somedays not thrilled to go to work and that expectations will always be to the roof, especially if act as if they were normal.
One thing that I learned throughout the many years of just accepting whatever people had for me is that if I don’t set the limit, no one will do it for me. It is just up to us. Some people get panic attacks (I had once), some are burnout, some eat more, others are just always walking around as zumbis and some are just waiting for the next day. No pay check is worth this.
And believe me, I know that no career is built out of our comfort zones, but we need at least to know and recognize the person pursuing all of these. If you don’t, then reset everything. You lost yourself out there.
To reprogram is not to fail — don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. And to look for what you know you deserve is not unattainable also. It’s fair. We don’t need other people telling we are not good enough. We don’t need jobs that eat up our souls. We need money, yes. And for sometime it’s okay to accept what it comes to pay the bills, but there is going to be a turning point. It has to!
