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This is my warning to all of you:
If you have freshly post-grad acquaintances, for the love of god don’t add them on Facebook.
Learn from my mistakes. One of my best friends from college recently started dating a girl who is not even 22. On one hand, props to him because she’s still been able to reap the benefits of a free gym membership and her hope hasn’t been crushed by a cubicle quite yet. But on the other… it’s my opinion that her hope needs to be crushed a little bit.
I made the huge mistake of clicking “friend” when said new girlfriend and her shiny hair and shiny smile added me on Facebook. And then, I was promptly subjected to all of the pictures she shares of her posing with a skinny arm at various concerts, the Instagrams she links to of her attempts to being a foodie, and all the events she’s “interested” in.
But worst of all? Oh, worst of all are the articles she shares.
Recently, Elite Daily (the vortex for every special snowflake with wanderlust and an entitlement complex) published this piece about how if your job doesn’t ~ inspire ~ you, you absolutely need to quit. It’s filled with advice like, “Would you rather stay in your job based on fear or based on the desire and passion you have growing inside you for it?” and, “The reality with this is, if you’re no longer passionate about your work and stay simply because you’re comfortable, then you won’t be challenged in the right ways.”
And, of course, this girl shared it with a caption along the lines of, “What I’m telling myself every day in the real world!! Love you all!!”
Here’s the thing. This is all very idealistic and seemingly good advice for the life we should aspire to have. Of course, in a dream scenario, we’d all wake up every morning with a spring in our step while a chorus of Wham! singing “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” provided a musical background on our picture-perfect commute montage. Those 8+ hours we spend at work would fly by every single day and we’d always feel appreciated and never overworked and appropriately challenged but never overwhelmed. I get it. I get the dream.
But we don’t live in a dream. We live in reality.
The problem with this Elite Daily piece is that while it aims to keep people away from failure, it’s actually setting them towards it. Your goal shouldn’t be, “All inspiration all the time!” Your goal should be some semblance of balance between being fiscally responsible and still happy.
I have my quote unquote dream job, and there are still days where the idea of reading one more marketing pitch and having one more conference call with a particularly high-maintenance client makes me seriously consider Into the Wild-ing myself. I love what I do but still have tasks (like overseeing our social media for example) that I don’t feel particularly challenged or “inspired” by. But my feelings? My feelings don’t matter when it comes to work. If your main priority for a career is how it makes you “feel” you’re going to end up FEELING disappointed more often than not.
The reality is, even a dream job is still a job. It will have days that are amazing and filled with #blessed and humble brag “Look what I get to do and call it work!!” moments, and it will have days where you feel like pulling a Peter Gibbons and just saying “Screw ALL of this.” There will be parts of your job you love, and parts that you absolutely loathe. But inspiration isn’t synonymous with “loving every minute of every day” and if that’s what you’re waiting for? You’re going to be waiting forever.
So to all of the people with bright and shiny, “I’m going to live this life!!” hope out there:
A) Good for you.
B) Let me know when you get over it.
Because when you get over it, that’s when you’ll be hirable.
And until you get over it? Do me a solid and don’t add me on Facebook. .
Image via YouTube
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Happy Monday, fuckers!
“Elite Daily: the vortex for every special snowflake with wanderlust and an entitlement complex” Make T-Shirts of this quote and you’ll rake in some side cash in a heartbeat. Next to writing PGP articles as well.
No this is bullshit. I’m not sure when people decided that hating your life is normal, but it’s not. You only get one chance at this and life is too damn short to spend 40 years in a cubicle staring at a screen. Yeah, there’s times where life gets hard and you just have to grind it out, but don’t ever think that life is supposed to be unfulfilling and so boring you’d rather jump off a bridge on Monday morning than walk through that door. Keep your head up kids, where all going to make it.
I’ve changed jobs a couple times and have even been fired once, and here’s what I found… Every single job has good days. Every single job has bad days. And for the majority of the time, they’re neither good or bad. Just kinda “typical.” But when you find yourself staring at the wall; tackling extra duties and still being done before lunch; hearing rumors of downsizing, then take the plunge and look for something else. Anyone who says their job is ~inspiring~ every single day deserves a punch in the teeth. Be realistic with your expectations, but also don’t be afraid to seek greener pastures.
Agreed, if you ever feel like you’re sleepwalking through life cause work is just that damn boring, make a change
Find a job you can stand, but pays you enough to do what you want to do in life.
I was so excited to change the world with my policy degree. I now sling used medical equipment for commission. Stare into the abyss.
Not the worst thing. Still respectable.
That scared me because my medical devices are implanted
MRI machines and the such. Don’t worry Big Hoss.
You know what’s worse than having a job that doesn’t inspire you? Not having a job at all and living in mom and dad’s basement.
Actually that doesn’t sound so bad…
10 reasons why millennials are choosing to stay home with Mom and Dad
@Emily i think you and Nived should talk.
For the record, I enjoy my life, guys. I don’t like society and some of the fucked up people in it but after reading this article, Emily has brought me down. She’s killed my will to work like an indentured slave for the next 35 years to pay off arbitrary debts to a faceless conglomerate that decides things for me and spies on me. Emily, work isn’t so bad you know. I’ve come up with some of my best work and ideas while being bored out of my fucking mind to the point of zombification. It allows you to free up your mind and find your imagination. I agree that we as a species need to get our heads together and be able to leave this planet but don’t sit here and tell me that like is uninspiring. Take a hike, eat some fruit, drink water, kill someone’s confidence, deflate some egos, and punch some faces into the back of skulls. Life is a beautiful train wreck and luckily for all of us, the train is really close to the cliff edge!
As my dad always says, “There is a reason they call it work”
I love seeing the looks/attitudes change of the recent college grads who come to the realization that adulthood and professional life arent all its cracked up to be. Its not “changing the world” or “pursuing your passion”, its more so grinding out the daily, monotonous 8-5 like everyone else.
I’ve heard he is absolutely terrible with money, so there’s that.
You should be ok with what you do because doing what you love and not making money from it is a total bummer. Also if you dont hate what you a do a little bit then you’d never truly enjoy the weekend, three day weekends, and occasional bullshit sick day.
I almost didn’t read this article because of the Anne Hathaway photo…god she’s the worst
If you want some schadenfraude her husband in The Intern cheats on her. So there’s that.
Yeah I watched The Intern.
I unfortunately saw it too and now I can’t unsee it. WHY ROBERT DENIRO WHY?!?!?
Look man, I don’t know what to tell you. Robert Deniro reached the “DGAF” stage of his career years ago, and if you were expecting anything from that movie other than an old-school, Nora Ephron-era romcom that makes Baby Boomers feel the right amount of nostalgia and smugness over Millennials, then that’s on you.
Yea, by Ders.