The holiday is over. Back to reality, home. Reality sucks? That one is for me to decide.
I have just returned from five weeks travelling alone in Vietnam and Cambodia. It was an opportunity to relax, refocus, and reassess options and opportunities. Time out, no matter how full-on, is a great and much needed thing. I kept this journey all this on the down low from friends and acquaintances back home so I could get the most out of the experience as well. No interference, no criticism, no judgment, no fear by me.
It’s so important to let the soul out to breathe every now and again, don’t you think?
So where to now? This was a question I asked myself numerous times throughout my travelling – what was I to do upon returning? Soon I realised that this wasn’t helping me at all and thankfully my friend who lives in Saigon gave me a copy of her book, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and told me to read it: NOW.
Learning to live in the present when you’ve spent most of your life living in the past or future, worrying about both, well it’s a hard thing to adapt to. Initially I couldn’t get into the book at all, but then it was like a light bulb suddenly lit up above my head (funnily while I was being thrown around on a bus between Phnom Penh and Saigon) – I must persevere with this book, I must learn to live in the NOW, the PRESENT, or I’m never going to be happy. I thought I’d given self help books a flick a while ago, but if you can gain something from it, then who cares what happened in the past, this is the NOW. This book combined with my travels and spending time with my friend who sees life in a more peaceful standpoint than I ever have, it’s made me reassess everything. And it’s at that point that I return home with more determination in my heart and soul to live a life more pure, with more meaning and purpose, and most importantly, with less stress. I’ve decided that in 2011, these are the things that are going to be most important to me:
- Happiness in myself
- More time with family
- Happiness in my career / job
- Better control of my financials
- Better health
- Helping of others (and animals) in need
- Being more environmentally conscious
Life is much more than materialistic selfish things … it’s simply LIVING. I want to LIVE. I choose LIFE.
Most urgently, I must find a new job now that I’m back. So as Barney Stinson loves to say, I’m going to “Suit Up!” this week and find myself the right job for me (that’s a ‘How I Met Your Mother’ reference – bought the whole TV series on DVD in Vietnam lol).
Once I was stuck on staying in one location, but now I’m open to any opportunities – as long as the job is right and pays appropriately. This year, I’m aiming higher than ever before and it’s time to get paid what I deserve, instead of with previous roles. So watch this space as I seek my dream job, my right job, and happiness …
Have you found your dream job? How did you find it? And what makes you happy in your job?
The year after turning 30 