I'm especially talking to 30 year-olds. Listen up. This is where many of us are. Retirees couldn't retire, so they took the jobs we would have. And then the young took some of them, too. Unemployment is still too damn high. Sure, things are turning around. But we are still working shitty jobs.
The jobs available to most of us are shitty retail jobs. The kind of job that you used to get through college. The kind of job that you were suppose to go to college to avoid.
I am a rambling man, it seems. My editor, Sir Huffinpuff McSockSocks has pawed angrily at me as if to say "get to the goddamn point." So here it is.
5 reasons a downturned economy is AWESOME for Self-Improvement.
1) Adversity breeds creativity.
This is becoming an old rag, but I want to say it. Creativity is strengthened with a little adversity. true, disasters and soul-crushing ennui don't help much. But when pressed gently, by deadlines, by limited funds. And in solving these problems, you become stronger, and better. A perfect example is an old friend Greg. He had a problem reading (dyslexia, to be specific). To solve this, he learned to not see letters, but word shapes. Honestly, having never had a problem reading, I can only vaguely understand it. Suffice to say he realized that word shape, even reversed, can tell you a lot about the word. And so he's now one of the fastest readers I know, with better retention.
Also, Star Wars. (Is that a Law yet? Any internet argument of sufficient length will reference Star Wars? Can that be Ungart's Law?**). Due to the constraints placed on technology, the writing, drama, and characterization of the first 3 movies is vastly superior.
Gym membership is 10-30 dollars a month. Or you can use Youtube to make your own DIY gym. I'll send you pics as soon as I can get a hold of a camera. So far I have an entire gym, and I have spent about 3 months of memberships for it. And it's a lot more fun than grunting around meatheads.
2) No one holds your time but you.
Sure, your boss at the Stop-n-gulp may ask you take an extra shift 'cause Jenny decided to take off to go see the newest, coolest band. (that bitch!), but when you aren't at work, nothing is stopping you. They can't really make you do anything except you. Sure, money's tight. But you work 30 hours a week and then you are done. That leaves a solid 138 hours for important things.
So spend a few hours watching TV, or go for a walk. Hunt down fun things to do. Next week I am hitting the Art Museum, because it's Free Admission day. Then one of these weekends I'm off to the zoo. Sure, it's a racket. I'll have to pay for parking. But still. Beats working.
3) It forces you to think on what you can actually control.
This sort of dovetails with number 1. I wrote these off-the-cuff, and mostly just to see pictures of kittens. But it stands. As a broke-as-shit third-lifer, sometimes you have to decide between beer and insurance payments. Well, you need insurance. You can't really control your job too much. Unless you get creative. Do you choose the 9 dollar/hour McD's job or the 9 dollar/hour Starbucks job? Fuck it. Who cares. You are not, nor will you ever be, your job.
To reiterate. Nobody cares what you do when you’re a slave to the man. Use it as a way to explore something you love. Take a Martial Art. Join a gym (or build your own) . Start a blog about self-improvement that inexplicably turns political. Learn a language. The point is, information is nearly free (thanks hacker-gen!) and all that's required is time and determination. And believe me, you've got the time. And if schlepping coffee to (or with) overweight, angry baby-boomers and gen-exers doesn't motivate you to find something better, then you don't need this. You are a corporate slave. Go clackity-clack on your keyboard, greyface.
You can’t control your job, you can’t control aging. So don’t bother. Do what you want. Go your own way.
4) It's highly leveragable.
Ok, for once my advice for the corporate lifestyle. The world is becoming chock-full of interns and people doing projects. But you've been serving burgers or coffee or selling books. Or god help you,. worked in a call center. Let's face it, though we bust our asses, we can't successfully answer the question "what did you actually do?"
Well, uh, I guess I served coffee. I tool 55 calls a day. And, how did that help improve the company? Uh... it... uh... Lowered call times? (It didn't, we were understaffed as
They want to know that you built a more produvtive "whosit", or that you worked with a team of bulgarian midget engineers and the Gnomes of Zurich*** to increase toaster efficiency by point-oh-four-four percent. And let's be honest, working retail or service, you probably don't have the authority to even actually explore the possibilities, much less actualize and implement them.
So don't. Your resume - your project resume, should read about things you did. Learned a language. Lost weight. Travel. Show them that, despite a failing economy, you did things considered very difficult. That way you can leverage your free time activities should you decide you hate yourself, and are a whore to the corporate world.
5) You’ll find your Element.
A friend of mine dropped a book called The Element in my lap. It’s an alright read. More heat than light, really. He writes that the leaders in different fields found their “element”. Basically they found their passion, niche, and support group to become the best at “whatever.” If you are slogging away as an intern AND working at Bob’;s Chicken Shack, you don’t have a lot of time to find your element. So chuck the internship. In a year, it may make you a ton of cash, but in that same year, you may just find something that makes you actually happy and creative.. And if that’s sitting and watching TV, well, that’s ok. Relevance is for suckers.
The best thing about miserable circumstances is that you can find out how to be actually happy. I know, it’s weird for me to say that. But Sun Tzu wrote that “To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape.”. Because if you give them hope they will run to it, and rout. But if they have no other option, they will fight like lions. Well, here’s your mistake. They have left an “way of escape” from your poverty. You think that internship in Corporate America (tm) is going to lead to something better. And so you put off doing the things you love for a golden parachute. And by the time you get, you’ll break your hip using it.
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