Life can be draining. Being a young adult is exhausting. There, I said it. Trying to maintain a solid professional, social, mental, and physical life is an extremely difficult task, and I didn’t even mention all of the roles we have to balance. Americans seem to operate on a “live to work” mantra, and I’m starting to think that is entirely nonsense.
After spending a summer interning in Corporate America, I realized how depressing working a 9-5 office job really can be. All the weeks leading up to my start date, I looked forward to being a business professional baddie. Eventually, I realized a 9-5 is actually more of an 8-6. Just four weeks in, I was worn out.
My entire young adult life I had craved a comfortable 9-5 job. Benefits, steady income, a 401k plan, the whole 9-yards- this all sounded ideal to me. It took me two months of full-time office work to realize that it was unhealthy for me to be spending this much of my day at a desk. I was not giving priority to the things that bring me joy like hanging out with friends and going to the gym. I had completely lost myself in the chaos. I found myself spending most of my time thinking about work, even off the clock. Honestly, it was overwhelming to spend 40+ hours of my week sitting in a cubicle while trying to be a 20-something-year-old at the same time.
Don’t get me wrong, I was working a job I really liked. Corporate events were fun and had tons of free food. The company I was with treated me really well, especially since I was the youngest in the office. Ultimately though, it was extremely difficult for me to balance all the other external factors of my life.
So, how did I combat this?
The first step was addressing that this was an issue for me. After that, I tried my best to schedule things like friend dinners and going to the gym, and to actually stick with it. There were definitely ups and downs to this method, but over time, I became pretty rigid with sticking to my calendar. This is a system that works for me, and I was able to make time for all of the things that really matter to me.
I also allowed myself to have rest days. This was crucial! This included things like using PTO from work. I allowed myself to stay-in some nights to rest and recharge. Giving myself breaks let me spend time learning more about myself and let me figure out what I really enjoy spending my time doing.
This is definitely a work-in-progress for me. I predict this will be an ongoing adventure and journey for me to figure out what type of work/life balance I want for myself. For now, I’m going to continue working to learn what I personally want from a career, and I encourage you to do the same. I’m beginning to accept that it’s okay to not have it all figured out, but I’m actively working towards getting there.