free·dom
ˈfrēdəm/Submit
noun
the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
"we do have some freedom of choice"
source
From the age of 13 I've always had a job of some description. My first was walking dogs for $5 an hour, from there I did everything from laboring on building sites to managing the produce section of a local supermarket.
I wanted to buy things and my family were poor so it was either steal or earn, I chose the latter.
When I was 15 and had completed year 10 at high school I left and did a pre-apprenticeship in plumbing and then began working full-time.
I now realise that was the beginning of the death of my spirit, I was 16 working 40 hour weeks making $9 an hour. At the time all my friends were at school so I was basically rich in comparison.
Skip forward 5 years, I'm 21, I'm working in construction and I like it, I'm making good money. I actually have aspirations of starting a labor based business, I'm keeping my social life, my relationship and everything else in order and life is just chugging along.
But as the years went on I began to realise I was doing a lot more working than living. Weekdays were 7.30-5 with the occasional Saturday. If not working Saturday was spent doing chores, cleaning the house doing washing doing shopping running errands etc, maybe a few drinks sat night and then Sunday is just relaxing getting ready for work.
Nights were spent doing paperwork and cooking dinner, looking after the animals and doing quotes.
When my partner and me split I was just working, Monday to Saturday, doing chores on Sunday. Work all day go to sleep get up do it again. Life was no life worth having. Unless you love your job being at work is mediocre at best.
I was unhappy and I was sick of it. Life doesn't change unless you make the changes, you get out what you put in.
Last September I told my boss (who I was quite close with) that I was going to be leaving at Christmas. I wanted him to have plenty of notice as after 5 years he relied on me a lot for a small business. I would do everything from quotes to building to collecting funds and helping clients with designs so I wanted him to be able to train someone else up before I left. That was the hardest part, knowing I was leaving but having to force myself to work everyday was torturous at best but just the same way you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.
The day I left was like a weight was lifted. I was 28 and had been working 50-60 hour weeks for the best part of my adult life, I had had one holiday in a decade and I was in debt, so why was I doing it? I thought I would be worried about money but I wasn't. I moved up north to my family's wildlife rescue, I got a new much more casual job which I don't plan on keeping for long and my lifestyle is just...better. I have more time for me, more time for the things I want to do and more time to just, Live.
We weren't born to be slaves, we are as every other animal on the planet, we are meant to be free, we are meant to live. However you choose to do it make sure it makes you happy.
You can always earn money, you can never earn time.