Your 9–5 Job Is Hurting Your Mental Health And You Don’t Even Know It
If you are reading this you most likely already hate the 9–5 lifestyle.
Were you taught that working a 9–5 job is proof that you made it?
We are taught to graduate college, work a 40-hour week, and to retire at 65 (or even later now) for you to be considered successful.
Believe me when I tell you that I believed that garbage advice at one point in my life. I was taught this by the generation above me such as family members and teachers. Let’s get real — the school system focuses on promoting the employee lifestyle. Think about it. They want to teach a student how to be an employee because it fits into government standards as a working citizen. You may feel the sense of pressure to live by what society says it successful because you fear that you will be mistreated and looked at as a failure. This fear is generated by comments and statements that previous generations used to talk negatively about others.
Some of these statements are…
“If you don’t go to college, you won’t be able to get a real job”
“You can’t make a living off becoming a hairdresser”
“Being a Youtuber is not a real job”
“Being an influencer is not a real job”
“You are not going to get anywhere as an artist”
I’m sure you can agree that all of these statements are based on ignorance. All of these career aspirations can be achieved if you set your mind to it. We are blessed to have social media as a powerful tool to help reach those dreams.
Moving forward — this is how working a 9–5 job is hurting your mental health.
As humans, we crave adventure and freedom. Working a typical 40 hours a week can feel like you are trapped. There are 168 hours in a week. You spend 40 hours in a building where you do not have much freedom. If you sleep a recommended 8 hours a night, you spend 56 of those hours sleeping. The average adult may spend 2 hours a day commuting to their job. This is 10 hours in commuting. Let’s not forget an average of 1 hour a day to get ready for work in the morning.
Tallying up the basics of an average lifestyle, for someone who works a 9–5, you have 111 hours. Let that sink in. I did not include the time you take to eat, shower, clean, grocery shop, and spend time with loved ones. You have the remaining 57 hours to do that. Based on my calculations, 66% of your life is spent around your 9–5 job. Some people love their job, but some of us hate what we do. Spending 66% of your time doing what you are not passionate about can take a huge toll on your mental health without even realizing it. So many working adults do not realize this.
Another reason we trap ourselves into the 9–5 lifestyle is that just like any human, we need money to survive. The generations that tell us that we need to go to college to get a real job is the same generation that believes that working a 40 hour week is the only way to make an income. We are so brainwashed that we can only make money by trading time for money. Thanks to social media, there are other opportunities to create a passive income stream. I mean, I am currently typing on one right now.
Working with a set yearly salary with little opportunity for a raise limits what you can afford to do while living your life such as — vacations, quality food, experiences, clothes, health, and so much more. I know there is an opportunity to do free things and still have a good quality of life, but the majority of things in life cost money. Unfortunately, money equals freedom in the United States.
If you are anything like me, I strive to grow and live my best life. My life experiences being on a standstill feeds into my depression and I feel like I am just on this world to work then die. I feel deeply for the people that have this belief embedded in their brains. Unfortunately, I would say that my whole family thinks like this. There is a small percentage of society that wants more than just a 50k salary and a limited amount of days to take off for a vacation which can be easily taken away if you are someone like me who has multiple health conditions.
We did not get a choice to be alive, but we can choose how we want to live it and the last thing I want to regret when I am on my deathbed is that I didn’t truly LIVE my life.