Advice / Life Lessons

12 hours ago, JKL33 said:

I've been getting versions of the same message from the ether this week, related to happiness, self esteem, sense of worth, being optimist vs. pessimist, appreciating what I have vs. complaining vs. looking for solutions.

My current work is very challenging and fulfilling. But I only arrived here after spending about 5 years getting angrier and angrier about nursing, developing a hatred of large employers of nurses (as some may have noticed ?) and just refusing to walk away from poor treatment and things I despised.

So I have some advice. I will try to keep it succinct.

- We can be more in control than we think. Even as individual people. A lot of what limits us is ourselves. Even when we have restrictions that are out of our control or that are within our control but are non-negotiable preferences, there is often still a way to make choices that are self-respecting and fulfilling.

- If we know we truly despise what we are doing, the balance is automatically tipped in favor of changing something; trying something different. We often hear someone say that the grass isn't always greener. No, it isn't. But that saying is meant for people who are already standing in green grass.

- Life is actually very short. Specifically as it relates to  work and employers, time spent fighting against people who don't value you and don't care about the things you care about is minutes, hours, days, months and years of your life straight up wasted. The time to do something different is right now.

That is all.

Add your own advice/life lessons below if you wish.

Well said! 

20 hours ago, JKL33 said:

We often hear someone say that the grass isn't always greener. No, it isn't. But that saying is meant for people who are already standing in green grass.

Some very good thoughts in your words. I think that many times people become unhappy in situations, but "the devil you know...." keeps people rooted in the familiar rather than risk the something worse that could be out there. 

But you're absolutely right that life is short and remaining stuck in an awful situation that negatively impacts your overall quality of life isn't worth it for any job. A good reminder and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Overall quality of life isn't that great in the USA, comparatively. 

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/quality-of-life

https://www.worlddata.info/quality-of-life.php

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world

No one in ANY business works for anything but a paycheck. With that in mind, if your employer needed to lay you off - for whatever reason - they would do it in a heartbeat without feeling bad about it. Therefore, if an opportunity comes up that will benefit you, take it and don't feel bad about it. But do give a full 30 days notice!