Quit your job! Don't be a Sheep!

How do you measure happiness?
How do you measure success?
Are you happy if you're with your partner?
Are you successful if you have money?

Honestly I don't know why we think about this so much.
Don't get me wrong I think about this all the time and get myself into slumps where I believe I am just a failure.
My job is stressful, I get paid peanuts and the only thing I really enjoy doing is escaping reality.
I obviously love going on holiday and going to theme parks and stuff like that. Yet, these are almost just a yearly treat... Or never.
Due to having no money, ever.

Do you ever sit there and think, "is this really it?"
Your whole life consists of...
Being a baby - useless (no one remembers that)
Nursery - useless (not a clue)
School - 7 years! (7 years of your life just preparing you for the next school.)
Secondary school - 5 years! (The best years of your life, this is where the peak is. So many friends, so many opportunities to do things on a daily basis. No bills, no job, nothing.)
College - 2 years! (I wish college was longer, I loved college)
Work - FOREVER! (Work is a joke. You have next to no time on this planet and you have to spend most of it working!
Dead.

You spend around 180 days a year at school, 7 hours a day amounting to a staggering 52.5 whole DAYS at school a year.
So over the 12 years of school That amounts to 367.5 Days... Over a year of your life is spent solidly in school! This doesn't include detentions, after school clubs, extra curricular activities etc.
Nor does this number incorporate homework into the scenario!
On average you are meant to sleep 8 hours a day. So 7 hours at school, 8 hours asleep, leaving 9 hours being awake and able to relax right? Wrong. If you're walking to school, could be upwards of an hour to get there, and an hour back.
Let's do a timeline...

7am - wake up
7:10am - Shower/toilet
7:30 - Breakfast
7:45 - teeth brush/do hair
8:00 - sprint out door to get to school
9:00 - Arrive at school
16:00 - Leave school (no after school club)
17:00 - arrive home
17:10 - Free time, after talking to family
18:00 - Dinner
18:20 - Washing Up/Bins/Clean sides
18:55 - Watch TV
20:00 - Shower/Shave/toilet
20:30 - Pack bag for next day
20:40 - Homework
21:40 - Brush teeth
21:45 - relax in bed until sleep
23:00 - asleep

So really, you get just over 3 hours a day to be you!

Now onto work. I work 43 hours a week sometimes more. So I will round up to 45 hours a week. I also do 2 sleep in shifts which amount to 18 hours, so I am at work for a total of 63 hours a week!
That amounts to 126 days a year, solidly at work!
Going on the 8 hours sleep average also, you are asleep for 112 solid days of the year.
So 238 DAYS of your YEAR, every year is spent at work or asleep!
This does not even take into consideration, overtime or over sleeping!
It leaves only 127 DAYS of your year to spend on things you actually enjoy, but let's break that down.

Cooking and eating dinner = 1 hour (average) makes it just over 15 solid days...

Traveling too and from work (obviously some people are closer to work, have a car etc etc. I am just using my own experience as an example) It takes me half an hour to walk to work and half an hour to walk back so that is an hour a day = 15 solid days again...

Shower, morning and night - let's say 15mins each so 30 mins a day = 7.5 solid days

Getting ready to go to work, getting up early, ironing, breakfast, coffee, choosing clothes etc. I normally take around an hour in the morning (after my shower) to sort myself out so - 15 solid days again.

Going to the toilet! It all adds up, so going for a wee on average around 6/7 times a day at about a minute per pee. A poo on average 1/2 times a day (sometimes more) at around 10-15 minutes per poo (in my case) so 37 minutes a day. Can't be asked to math but it's around 8.5 solid days...

So...

15+15+15+7.5+8.5 = 66 days...

Leaving you with only 61 days in which to enjoy and live your life...

That is why everyone is getting depressed and anxious and all these other horrible things!
People believe that their job is their life because they spend most of their life at their job!
And the most messed up part is, that we have to if we want to survive...
We as a world would rather let people die on the streets because some choose not to spend their entire life slaving away for a job that couldn't give two shits about you!

You drop dead right now, the boss will say "what a terrible loss, they were so lovely, but hey ho, back to work" and the next day they have replaced you!

Try not to stress over work, it's not worth it. You can always find a new job.
Money is not everything, it's just helpful.
Don't take overtime, don't take and extra hours, ever. Do your contracted hours (or less where possible).
Strategically book your annual leave around your days off. Book Thursday, Friday off, then your weekend is off anyway , then book Monday Tuesday off.
That is nearly a week off for only 4 of your annual leave days!
Most places have 28 days annual leave meaning you can actually get 7 weeks off using this method. So you turn 28 days into 42.
Grab what you can, and never feel bad about it!

Look out for you. I'm not saying be a complete tool around your work colleagues but stop trying so hard to please everyone, the only person you need to please is you!

And I know my maths above is probably WAAAAAAAY off as I was always shit at maths!
And I realise there are literally 100s/1000s of different variations of life styles.
But you understand the point I'm trying to make!

The absolute second you start hating your job, for whatever reason. It's time to leave. Find something else, don't wait it out. You will just talk yourself out of it or become too comfortable in your surroundings to leave!
Which leads me to my favourite quote of all time "Never have any regrets, because at that moment of time, it was exactly what you wanted!"

Don't be afraid to spend money.

If it brings you happiness, spend it! Hey, you miss an electric bill or water bill, what's the worst that can happen? You get no electric or water for a few weeks until it is paid... Take yourself back to when you were having the time of your life at a music festival, living in a damn tent, with no water, and barely even a toilet. Did you care that much? No. So why care at home?
Do what makes YOU happy.
 NO ONE has the right to tell you what you enjoy is lame, or stupid or pointless.

We are a world of sheep!

We follow the leader because that is what we have been brought up to do!
We have been made to feel like we have to follow a certain path to be included, to be cool...
This is propaganda from big companies like Apple who have drilled it into our heads that we MUST have the latest iPhone to be accepted.
This is one of the major causes of anxiety! Feeling like you don't fit in because you have different interests to everyone around you. You have less money than those around you. You're sense of humour is different and all this builds up inside you making you feel like you're the outcast, you're the odd one out.
Not true..
Look at the zombies queuing up to buy the latest iPhone XS for £1000, a grand for a phone!?

Please don't ever be ashamed or afraid to break the "norm". The world can only get better with people breaking off from the pack to think up new ideas.
If your friend gets a new iPhone, you go out there and pick your self up a Nokia 3310 if that's what you want!
Your mate put themselves into debt to buy a huge car, go get yourself a Micra and live happy!
You want to dance on a table in public... Do it!
You want to sing right there in the middle of a packed room ... Do it!
You want to wear a yeti outfit every single day... do it!

There is no need for leaders in this world. We should be considered equal in every way.
How can the American president have the power to destroy countries, continents, the whole planet, at the push of a button?
How is it that every year the president promises change and yet, every year is the exact same?
Elected, Go back on what they promised, pick a country to go to war with, threaten nuclear war with some small time dictator, leave the country in a mess/get assassinated/Become a national disgrace.
Rinse and repeat. The world will never change with leaders.
The UK is exactly the same. Conservative or Labour, it doesn't matter. They are all exactly the same every single election. Promise you the world then take it all away and blame each other.
People should try voting for some of the independent parties, see if they have something new to offer. We don't though, as their campaign is smeared or made to look like idiots.
We have it drilled into our heads that it's pretty much labour or conservative. Nothing else.
How is that democracy?
Why would we want to continue to follow these 2 governments that have done nothing but shit on the country for years?
Madness.

Rant over!
Apologies for the long winded rant but felt it was needed. Don't be a sheep people! Love yourself!

Kieren x