HONEYED BLISS
When you start working from home, like I just recently did, you feel some sense of awkwardness at first. You feel guilty spending your entire day in pajamas, waking up at noon, and feeling so calm about everything else that used to turn you into a nasty ticking bomb.
I work into the early morning hours, so I get to sleep around 6.00 AM and wake up at noon, but I still felt like I was offending someone by my new routine. Working from home is awesome, unless you’re the extrovert type then I’m sorry to say this but you are doomed. You have no one to talk to unless it’s your computer or that phone call you get when a friend wants to find out if you are still alive because you haven’t made any appearance anywhere for a while.
The most interesting stage of working from home is when people you used to work with start asking you how you like your new set up. They insist on how lucky you are that you don’t have to commute to work daily, and how you have it easier than them because you don’t have to worry about your appearance, the whole struggle of putting make up and having to choose which outfit is perfect for which day of the week.
The amusing part is that as much as they try to outline all these apparent benefits of working from home, they do it in a malicious way that you are left contemplating on whether you are actually satisfied or not. Whether you made the right decision or not.
Such kind of conversations spiral your thoughts and can affect your entire attitude. Some people decide to work from home out of their own reasons, while some are forced into that situation. After having the same weird conversation with countless number of people, I realized that I am indeed happy with working from home. I would like to work from the office again, but until that happens I’m going to enjoy every bit of what I have now.
When people get stuck in traffic rushing to work I’m in bed dreaming, when people get rained on I’m warm in the house sipping my blood orange flavored tea, and when people eat fast food because they got home late and are way too exhausted to cook, I’m enjoying my mashed potatoes and braised lamb, and when the tired souls come home and sleep early, I’m on the sofa with my computer getting my work done. I love this new set up I have and I’m happy with it.
Whichever reason one has, it is important to realize that as long as whatever you are doing makes you happy then it’s alright to be proud that you spend your days in pj’s, or in the nude if that’s your cup of tea. As long as you get to end your day having accomplished something, then whatever people say does not necessarily matter. You might find that working from home is actually more satisfying that having to work from the office.
Own your happiness at the moment, don’t wait until things get better for you to enjoy the moment. If it means spending your day curled up in the sofa while you struggle starting your own company, then relish that experience, don’t wait until you get an office space to do so. Don’t press the pause button on your happiness for any reason, because there is never going to be an ideal moment to be happy. It is disheartening to see people put off their moment to be happy for certain reasons. For some they believe they will be happy when they finally get married, for some it’s when they graduate college, or get a great job, or get a child, or buy a new car, own a home, travel the world. Whatever reason anyone might have, none has the surety that they will wake up tomorrow.
What if today is all you will ever have, do you really want to spend your day feeling sorry for yourself, upset because something didn’t work out the way you want, and ashamed that you don’t have a job, or depressed that you didn’t go to college. What use is it to be alive and live like you are waiting for a miraculous breakthrough for you to be finally happy?
If today is all we have, then it’s important we make it count, smile, laugh, and be happy. Own your present happiness because you have no guarantee that your happiness 5 or even 2 years from now will be as genuine as you have it now.
*This is for all you beautiful souls finding it hard to smile today.*
