Are you really happy?

BraziliaNZ

I'm happy, my job is crap but it pays ok and the people are nice that's all that matters. So I'm single, was married once when very young, still only 28, probably will see divorce papers soon, don't care about that, the only thing I care about are my parents, and I'm sure they want grandchildren and will be upset if they never have any. I don't like kids and never want any and my brother is even more determined never to settle down or have kids. So that's my only concern is my parents, apart from that everything is sweet, doing your own thing around the world is really the good life for me, wouldnt' do it any other way.

Gone West

RealEstateKing wrote: »

One of the few
thoughtful and interesting posts Ive ever read on boards.

The reality is this:

In any given economy, the vast majority of jobs do not provide people with any sense of satisfaction or even interest

Was linked to this last page just now.
Thats very true. Most people are totally unsatisfied in their work, but their discontent is dulled by sheer force of habit.

Thankfully, I am still young enough and my job is still interesting enough that I still enjoy it.

MJOR

Absolutely totally completely and utterly ( i'd like to lose 2 stone though)

LouOB

Nope
Im a woman
Therefore its my purpose in life never to be happy

0ubliette

Its a hard fact of life that in order to have an enjoyable life, you need money, and to get money, you need to work.
your only other options are:

Win the lotto
Large inheritance

And neither are particularly likely. So unless you prefer drinking dutch gold out of tramps pocket and soiling yourself on a street corner, then working is one of the only ways to have an acceptable quality of life.
Lets face it, nobody WANTS to spend 8 hours a day in an office or wherever, but its either that or be a bum clogging up the dole queue. Once you get older and realise that yes, you have to work for a living, and no, youre probably not going to win the lotto, it gets easier to resign yourself to your fate.

ntlbell

0ubliette wrote: »

Lets face it, nobody WANTS to spend 8 hours a day in an office or wherever, but its either that or be a bum clogging up the dole queue. Once you get older and realise that yes, you have to work for a living, and no, youre probably not going to win the lotto, it gets easier to resign yourself to your fate.

The biggest problem is accountability which has nothing to do with your age once you decide to be accountable for your own happiness/job satisfaction etc you don't have to leave anything to "fate".

No one WANTS to spend 8 hours a day in the office but surely everyone would love to be paid to do something they're passionate about that they actually get up in the morning and look forward to the day ahead and there's very few people that couldn't achieve this but procrastination kicks in and silly excuses come out like "but it's too hard to get there" or "there's just no jobs in the field"

People who do have the dream job, which I'm lucky enough to be one of them don't get their by "luck" "fate" didn't throw it into their lap's, it can sometimes take years of hard work and effort and determination but if you're not accountable and think it's only "luck" that people find the dream job then you deserve to do nothing but rot away in a dead end job IMO.

marco murphy

This is the gospel according to FuzzyLogic.

Andrewf20

Heres a twist. Does happiness come from pain. Think about it a little. The happiest time of the week for most of us is probably Friday evening when work is finished. But you may not be that happy if you had been sitting around all day off work.

One of the happiest days of my life? Finishing the leaving cert and final college exams. Sometimes the best satisfaction is getting thru hardships like doing the brakes on the car, the driving test, whatever.

I reckon a little hardship is needed.

Joe Cool

Nope.

needhelpguy

Nope. Desperately unhappy. For a variety of reasons. But that's life.

nyarlothothep

ntlbell wrote: »

The biggest problem is accountability which has nothing to do with your age once you decide to be accountable for your own happiness/job satisfaction etc you don't have to leave anything to "fate".

No one WANTS to spend 8 hours a day in the office but surely everyone would love to be paid to do something they're passionate about that they actually get up in the morning and look forward to the day ahead and there's very few people that couldn't achieve this but procrastination kicks in and silly excuses come out like "but it's too hard to get there" or "there's just no jobs in the field"

People who do have the dream job, which I'm lucky enough to be one of them don't get their by "luck" "fate" didn't throw it into their lap's, it can sometimes take years of hard work and effort and determination but if you're not accountable and think it's only "luck" that people find the dream job then you deserve to do nothing but rot away in a dead end job IMO.

Confuscias said that if you enjoy your job you never have to work, something like that.

Call Me Jimmy

ntlbell wrote: »

The biggest problem is accountability which has nothing to do with your age once you decide to be accountable for your own happiness/job satisfaction etc you don't have to leave anything to "fate".

No one WANTS to spend 8 hours a day in the office but surely everyone would love to be paid to do something they're passionate about that they actually get up in the morning and look forward to the day ahead and there's very few people that couldn't achieve this but procrastination kicks in and silly excuses come out like "but it's too hard to get there" or "there's just no jobs in the field"

People who do have the dream job, which I'm lucky enough to be one of them don't get their by "luck" "fate" didn't throw it into their lap's, it can sometimes take years of hard work and effort and determination but if you're not accountable and think it's only "luck" that people find the dream job then you deserve to do nothing but rot away in a dead end job IMO.

Care to share? What are ye? Pussy taster?

ntlbell

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Care to share? What are ye? Pussy taster?

yeah and yorema's is minging

DenMan

Up and down at the moment. Have to (try) to stay positive.:rolleyes:

Call Me Jimmy

ntlbell wrote: »

yeah and yorema's is minging

Correction: was minging. She died 2 weeks ago you insensitive prick.

ntlbell

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Correction: was minging. She died 2 weeks ago you insensitive prick.

insult the post not the poster..

Call Me Jimmy

ntlbell wrote: »

insult the post not the poster..

Sorry, your post was an insensitive prick.

ntlbell

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Sorry, your post was an insensitive prick.

+1

Dudess

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Correction: was minging. She died 2 weeks ago you insensitive prick.

No personal abuse. Infracted.

ntlbell wrote: »

No one WANTS to spend 8 hours a day in the office

Exactly. But some people have to.

but surely everyone would love to be paid to do something they're passionate about that they actually get up in the morning and look forward to the day ahead and there's very few people that couldn't achieve this but procrastination kicks in and silly excuses come out like "but it's too hard to get there" or "there's just no jobs in the field"

Bollocks. Those excuses are perfectly legitimate when it comes to some fields. I busted my ass trying to get full-time work in the area I wanted. I got plenty of freelance but it wasn't full-time so I would spend days without work and was absolutely broke. I was also feeling frustrated and quite unhappy all the time but I stuck it out. Eventually though, there comes a point when you have to stop being broke and just go for something less exciting but which will at least keep the money rolling in. That's not giving up or being lazy or procrastinating, that's just being sensible. You can't survive on barely any money indefinitely. And the lack of structure, not knowing what you're gonna be doing from one day to the next, the inability to make plans, missing out on holidays and social occasions, the lack of security, benefits etc, not seeing your friends/partner/family - no career is worth that in my opinion. Getting a part-time job while freelancing isn't an option either as you have to be free all the time, otherwise if you turn down any work at all, you take a huge risk of being shoved off their radar and someone else will replace you.

People who do have the dream job, which I'm lucky enough to be one of them don't get their by "luck" "fate" didn't throw it into their lap's, it can sometimes take years of hard work and effort and determination but if you're not accountable and think it's only "luck" that people find the dream job then you deserve to do nothing but rot away in a dead end job IMO.

Being broke just isn't an option indefinitely though. And while a 9 to 5 might seem mundane, it has its attractions too: namely that any of the stuff I mentioned above no longer becomes an issue.

Caoimhín

Dudess, i like your new sig.

ntlbell

Dudess wrote: »

no career is worth that in my opinion. Getting a part-time job while freelancing isn't an option either as you have to be free all the time, otherwise if you turn down any work at all, you take a huge risk of being shoved off their radar and someone else will replace you.

Being broke just isn't an option indefinitely though. And while a 9 to 5 might seem mundane, it has its attractions too: namely that any of the stuff I mentioned above no longer becomes an issue.

Not bollocks at all, everything you have said there are all just excuses as someone said earlier where there's a will there's a way you gave up before you found a way.

With so much money in the country (or was) they're are lots of ways you could of made money in your spare time while also going to events, networking getting your name out there.

You wanted to be a music journo/presenter right?

You could of started a music blog, reviewing gigs/new releases new irish bands.

Started a podcast to get your voice out there and know with the right marketing this doesn't take very long..especially if you have built up a good social network in the area

started a musical videocast this would get people "seeing" you and hearing you, your style, your knowledge etc drove people to the sites made cash from google adverts even just covering the irish music scene ( i dont claim to know much about but i don't think there's anyone doing anything like this)

Tried to orgaise some events even for charity, gets you talking to people and mingling with people in the industry

Did you try different counries? a stint in scotland? london?

this is me just pulling things out of my arse but I'm sure if i put a few weeks into thinking about it the ideas and opportunities would be endless..

We now see people on RTE's primtime and they're brought on because they're "bloggers" our own Damien mully for example as you know broke into a national newspaper from gettig his name out there..

When money is needed it can be found in so many different places and it doesn't mean being tied to a company or tied to certain hours

The fact is people are lazy and usually can't see the wood through the tree's they find a way not to do instead of to do

they're excuses, nothing else.

Dudess

Being broke is more than an excuse - it's a reason to have to get a job with regular hours. I wasn't lazy at all - I spent all my free time trying to figure out what to do and eventually it got too much. I'd prefer to be happy, frankly.

You really can't work part-time if you're a freelancer and on call at all times. You can send random articles to newspapers and magazines, some of which get published, most of which don't. Dublin is an expensive city to live in if that's what you're relying on - it would be a lot easier for a person from Dublin. So lack of money really is a good excuse.

But I'm working on bits and bobs on the side.

Sarky

Good show, Fuzzy, good show.

I've never subscribed to the idea that you just have to grit your teeth and get on with doing a job you don't enjoy. I thought it was daft to see people in secondary school apply for a given course because the jobs in that area paid well. I just shook my head in disbelief and applied for courses that interested me, that sounded like fun. I spent four years in college doing a science degree for good old-fashioned love of learning.

I got stuck in a rut once, about a year after I left college. I was foolish enough to take a job I didn't like for the sake of some extra money, all the while telling myself it was only for a little while until I could afford to take a break. Just six to eight months, a year at most.

For three bloody years I got up at 06:30, walked the hour into work, walked the hour back home, and maybe watch tv or surf the net for an hour before heading to bed. The next day would be almost exactly the same. In fact most of those three years have just blurred together into one big soul-destroying lump of futility. That job was slowly killing me. Actually, I'm honestly pretty sure I'd be dead by now if I hadn't quit.

But quit I did. In February '07 I left that job, I registered for college a second time, and as luck would have it I got me a part time job doing something I absolutely loved to keep things ticking over for the rest of the year.

My health still hasn't recovered from that old job. In fact I was left so vulnerable to stress that simply going back to college for a course I enjoyed almost broke me. But Here I am at the end of it, more qualified than ever to do the sort of work I genuinely enjoy. It'll probably take a few more months until my health is back to normal.

Unpleasant as that experience was, it's taught me a lot about myself and the world. It taught me that your place in the world is there to be carved out. I will never let myself get drawn into the rat-race on anything besides my own terms (Why is it called a race? There's no prize at the end for anyone). I will never dig myself into a rut like I did back then, and I will never again be found doing a job that I don't enjoy. There is more to life than 9-5, and I'm damn well going to find it. Maybe I'll end up in a 9-5 job, but it'll be one I love. There probably will be bad days, but without those to compare to the good how would anyone know how great the job is?

I feel sorry for anyone who thinks it's the only way to live and that it must be endured. People like that have truly failed at life. Go on, take a chance. Don't worry what the neighbours will think. They'll be dead in 30-40 years and you might be too. And by then you'll never know.

ntlbell

Sarky wrote: »

I feel sorry for anyone who thinks it's the only way to live and that it must be endured. People like that have truly failed at life. Go on, take a chance. Don't worry what the neighbours will think. They'll be dead in 30-40 years and you might be too. And by then you'll never know.

bravo aul chap...

ntlbell

Dudess wrote: »

Being broke is more than an excuse - it's a reason to have to get a job with regular hours.


You really can't work part-time if you're a freelancer and on call at all times. You can send random articles to newspapers and magazines, some of which get published, most of which don't. Dublin is an expensive city to live in if that's what you're relying on - it would be a lot easier for a person from Dublin. So lack of money really is a good excuse.

But I'm working on bits and bobs on the side.

You don't _have_ to get a job with regular hours as I said there's thousands of ways to make money _without_ a regular job with regular hours you just have to get creative and "think outside the box"

lack of money is an excuse to make some, there's no rules to how you make it...the only thing that limited you to getting a 9-5 job was yourself

Dudess

Well we're all different. I know I'm not lazy and making excuses and I also know about the industry and the very limited niche within it in which I wanted to work - sorry but you don't know about it. It'd be a shame if I regretted giving up being a freelancer and starting an administrative job, but considering I don't regret it - in fact I'm very glad I made that decision - it could only have been the right decision. And I'm a LOT happier. Initially I worked in a receptionist job that had zero prospects but it was nice to be working regular hours again and then I got into administrative work in a university where there are loads of prospects, the money is really good and the hours are sweet, so I may be in a 9 to 5 but I love it.

Sorry to piss on your parades but sometimes you just don't have a choice. Look at people working sh1tty café, bar, shop jobs? Do you think that's the end of their rainbow? You have to make ends meet, simple as. Now I'm not saying you have to resign yourself to working in crap jobs at all - certainly not. But it's naive to say or think you'll NEVER work in a crap job - sometimes it's necessary as a means to an end.

Sarky, yeah, I went back to college a few years after dropping out too and it was wonderful - it gave me a major lease of life. But that feeling doesn't continue on after you graduate and start working.

MissHoneyBun

College ftw

phenomenon

Workers today are no different from slaves with the DART as their over-packed slave ship. No amount of money can buy you time or freedom. We have created a society where you must earn money just to exist. Do you think Amazonian Indians need currency for food or shelter, life's most basic neccesities? No they have it all for free in their natural environment. So why are you letting some scumbag estate agent charge you artificially high prices for you're "concrete box" in the centre of the noisy, polluted and violent Dublin city??

This thread reminds me of a George Orwell novel, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, about a man who becomes fed up with his unfulfilling life in general and so takes a short vacation out into the countryside away form his wife and job. It spelt out clearly how I feel about the whole rat-race lifestyle.

There is only one solution: Dole life ftw.

ntlbell

Dudess wrote: »

Sorry to piss on your parades but sometimes you just don't have a choice. Look at people working sh1tty café, bar, shop jobs? Do you think that's the end of their rainbow? You have to make ends meet, simple as. Now I'm not saying you have to resign yourself to working in crap jobs at all - certainly not. But it's naive to say or think you'll NEVER work in a crap job - sometimes it's necessary as a means to an end.

There's no harm in working dead end jobs as long as that's not the end of "their rainbow" that's not the point i'm making

the point is some people resign themselves to working 9-5 and dead end jobs for life instead of making things happen...

Dudess

Oh yeah I definitely agree with that. But sometimes you have to give up on your ultimate dream (lack of jobs in the field is not a lame excuse) but that doesn't mean you won't find something that's second best.

Of course you have to push yourself hard to get your dream job, but luck, timing, contacts etc are very valuable too.

Black Swan

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

Are you genuinely happy in your work right now?

Reminds me of an old film, Bridge on the River Kawi (sp?). Something the Japanese concentration camp colonel said to the Brit prisoners of war that were gradually dying from overwork, war wounds, and disease while they were forced to build the bridge... "Be happy in your work!"

Call Me Jimmy

Well I'm at a pretty wierd place in my life right now but one thing I do know is that if working in a regular office 9-5 was my future I would honestly rather be dead. The idea of working all day at something that doesn't interest me, coming home for a couple hours, cooking a pizza, watching 2 or 3 hours of dvds and then rinsing and repeating the next dayis absolutely disgusting to me.

I'm sure other people like dudess have enough of a good thing going outside of their job to make the job worthwhile and to be able to enjoy it for what it is but I definately don't, so if I was working it would have to be something I really want to do.

Dudess

Dudess wrote: »

Bollocks. Those excuses are perfectly legitimate when it comes to some fields.

Spot on. I know what I want to do but there's only one company doing it in this country and they're not taking anyone on - they haven't done so for the last 2-3 years either.

I'm out of work at the moment but from what I see I'll probably have to take some job I'll hate just to avoid becoming broke.

tech77

phenomenon wrote: »

There is only one solution: Dole life ftw.

LOL.
I don't detect sarcasm in that last line funnily enough.

kowloon

I find the idea that someone working in a regular job, who considers themselves contributing to society, can point the finger at someone else they don't think is contributing to be delicious.

Gone West

tech77 wrote: »

LOL.
I don't detect sarcasm in that last line funnily enough.

I'll play devils advocate for that side just as an example to open a few minds:

If a person had a free hobby, a passion. Lets say its mountain climbing, mountain biking, surfing, kayaking, swimming, or a combination of them all. This hobby could take up all of their time, or most of it. Lets say that they enjoy it so much that they would rather spend 80% of their time doing it with their friends etc, and 20% doing normal day to day things.
That 20% isn't as good, because they are skint as they would be on the dole. But they get by. The fact that they enjoy themselves as much as it is possible for 80% of the time makes it good

As opposed to a worker who spends about 80% of their time working and fitting their "20%" of a life around their work. In work, they are doing something for the sake of the money, just to enjoy that 20% a lot better.

So whats better? Spend almost all your time enjoying yourself, doing what you enjoy doing with only the money thing/not a nice house as the downside. Or spend very little % wise of your time enjoying yourself, with the money and nice house making those 2 or 3 hours in the evenings and the sat/sun much more pleasant.

ntlbell

Karsini wrote: »

Spot on. I know what I want to do but there's only one company doing it in this country and they're not taking anyone on - they haven't done so for the last 2-3 years either.

I'm out of work at the moment but from what I see I'll probably have to take some job I'll hate just to avoid becoming broke.

Are they only company doing it in the world?

I am back in work after two weeks.

No I am not ****ing happy at all. RAGE ANGER HATE

IvaBigWun

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

See you on the water.

Did you write the first post Fuzzy or paste it from somewhere? If its your own work then kudos! Great post.

MissHoneyBun

Um Fuzzy Logic I think most people *do* just spend enough time at work that they need to and they *do* spend the rest of their time doing things they like. Certainly most people I know do anyway. It's called living. You paint a nice ideal of utopic escapism but unfortunately that way of living is too detached from reality to implement successfully. Love the life you live!

ntlbell

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

Um Fuzzy Logic I think most people *do* just spend enough time at work that they need to and they *do* spend the rest of their time doing things they like. Certainly most people I know do anyway. It's called living. You paint a nice ideal of utopic escapism but unfortunately that way of living is too detachd from reality to implement successfully. Love the life you live.

Most people are doing what fuzzy says's get up have long commute's (Just look at the current bunch of moron's driving to dublin from gorey for an exmple of the current Irish canny genius's out there "living") to work, work crazy hours to pay for over priced houses and stupid looking SUV's so they can ponce around with their brown Thomas bag's.

Who's reality is this? people are doing it because most of them don't know any different or haven't got the imagination/creativity/willingness to do something else.

Choose the life you want to live or you'll end up living some other idiots.

It wasn't me!

Am I happy? Could be worse. However, I'm currently in college, procrastinating to try free up my plans for afterwards. I may be doing history this year (have to decide in the next two weeks), and then I'll get a degree in it, but to be honest, after that, I want to do something a tad more active. I'll probably join the army. I'd love to work as a ranger too, though the more academic side of doing ecology or zoology in college appeals far less, but those jobs are tough to get and quite closed, especially with recruitment for the military closing up at the moment, so I'm a tad worried about ending up pigeon-holed somehow.

MissHoneyBun

ntlbell wrote: »

Most people are doing what fuzzy says's get up have long commute's (Just look at the current bunch of moron's driving to dublin from gorey for an exmple of the current Irish canny genius's out there "living") to work, work crazy hours to pay for over priced houses and stupid looking SUV's so they can ponce around with their brown Thomas bag's.

To be honest ntlbell most people I know are not driving SUV's and popping into Brown Thomas for socks. It's merely these kind of people who shout the loudest about their neverending dissatisfaction with their daily lives. They are not a genuine reflection of the true majority of people in this country. To be honest most people I know are happy with their lot. They are working "normal" jobs, some nine to fives some work weekends. They do this beause unless you win the lotto or are incredibly wealthy the majority of people have to work. That's just how things are. And just because you don't skip into work with a beaming smile every morning shouldn't make you feel inadequate. The real problem is that people are feeling under increasing pressure to be so 'happy'. To be practicing yoga at 5am on Monday, making organic gourmet cuisine for lunch and whitewater rafting at the weekend. Not to mention the numerous holidays to far flung corners of the world we should all be taking in order to be 'happy'. For the majority of us this is just unrealisitic and unobtainable. If people were allowed to feel comfortable for living normal lives that involve 9-5's and traffic then they wouldnt experience such feelings of inadequacy for not fulfilling dreams in their every waking hour. The problem is not life but people's astronomical expectations of it. To paraphrase that quote, if you put things on pedestals then they can only fall..

ntlbell

I guess the point I'm badly trying to make is for the people _not_ happy with their lot fuzzy has a goal in mind and he's working towards it he doesn't want to be stuck in the rat race and is doing something about getting out of it and doing something that he enjoys or putting himself in a position where he can do what he enjoys to do for the majority of his time..without a lotto win

this is not unrealistic and is very obtainable if you're willing to put the effort in to get there. I'm not saying everyone should aim for this sort of lifestyle. If you're in a 9-5 average job average lifestyle and you're happy then fair due's rock on but for people who are not, it's not unrealistic for them to think that their's more to life and to go about obtaining it.

6th

5 years married today and happier than I've ever been. Moving to a great new office in Templebar in the morning too ... so long Northside!

Poccington

I'm currently quite happy in my place of work.

Doing the job I do gives me a big sense of pride in myself. I busted my bollox for 6 months just to be recognised as someone fit to wear the uniform, something many have tried to do and failed. I'm part of an organisation with a long and very proud history at the heart of Irish society as well as a proud history of serving Overseas. The money is decent, I get to wear our countries flag on my arm and my family are proud of what I'm doing. It's also a job that gives me an opportunity to genuinely make a difference in some peoples lives. There's a very good opportunity to really setup myself and any future family very well financially, there's very good promotion opportunities and a large range of courses and challenges to undertake. As well as keeping me very much in shape, soldiering is something I genuinely enjoy doing and find ridiculously interesting. Sure there's bull**** at times but that's just the way things go.

Life is good

BroomBurner

Poccington, respect for being a soldier, if I wasn't such a weak fart, I'd have signed up.

I'm fairly happy in my job. Used to work in something related to college, but it just neve felt good. Now I work in something totally different, have no commute, the work itself suits my temperment more and I have more free time.

On people wanting to live their lives for enjoyment, if everyone went on the dole to spend 80% of their time taking part in hobbies, there would be no dole. Simple economics. All those people should be thankful to the rest of us that work hard and pay our taxes so they can swan off and do what they want, they shouldn't be putting other people down for choosing to want to afford their own house, car, etc.

IvaBigWun

Thread of the year so far on AH.

Fair play Fuzzy.

IvaBigWun

Poblachtach wrote: »

This is the gospel according to FuzzyLogic.

For he speaketh the truth.