Never, ever, think outside the box (Photo credit: Mrs eNil)
I think deep down in all of us we long to experience new locales. If we can combine trips, even with ones lasting only parts of a day, with activities that are fun and interesting, smiles and laughter indubitably ensue.
People that are getting promoted on their jobs are not necessarily going places, though. Too often promotions are empty titles without any additional pay. Workers take on more responsibilities, become overworked and are incorrectly referred to as “going places.”
Good jobs for the good majority of us remain hard to find in this tepid, recovering economy. It is difficult to gauge the quality of the recovery when so many worker bees are struggling. Yes, they are going places, but if they continue on their present journeys their destinations may very well be early graves.
Fun needs to be part of, and in, our lives. Going places should be like the answer a kid has for what they are doing on their summer vacation:
I am taking trips and doing stuff.
Translation: “My family and I are going to some new places and we will be doing (fun) things.”
The kid will be spending time with people they love and who love them back.
There is loyalty between them and their family.
Love tree (Photo credit: @Doug88888)
Love and fun beget loyalty.
When we work more than we should, although we may be passionate about our jobs, whatever fun we may be having is literally drained from our bodies–we are really not having any fun at all. Go back and read that phrase again: “We are really not having any fun at all.”
Yet we keep on performing the job and its increasing duties.
Do we have any love on the job? Does the job and/or any of the people we work with love us at all? Sometimes they do. You can find out a lot about that if you leave a job on a good basis. You may receive a farewell lunch of some kind. Or you may be taken out for appetizers and a couple of libations–all in the name of wishing you well and thanking you for the time you were on the job with that employer.
This is an expression of appreciation more so than love. There may be co-workers that love you and I would look for the sincerity in their actions. If certain of your co-workers pull together an informal gathering to celebrate, that is more a display of affection and yes, love. Too often it becomes a ceremonial gesture when the company orders sandwiches one last time for you and them. They wish you well, you get a few hugs and then you are escorted from the building (if you work in a security-sensitive environment)–knowing the locks to the office entrances and exits will be changed in less than 24 hours–denying you any access ever again once and for all.
The finality of a job ending is moving emotionally. While you are being moved on an emotional level, you physically find yourself putting distance between yourself and your old job. Your body and mind are taking action for you. It is a version of astral traveling in that you can see, hear and feel what is going on, but you really are not in control of what is going on.
English: Cyndi Lauper in concert, Australia, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We wrench our bodies and minds from what they really want to do each day we do not, or are not, able to go places and do fun things. If we are not able to pursue this on our jobs, then we most definitely should be able to do so away from them. Two weeks of vacation a year are hardly enough time to go places and do fun things.
Cyndi Lauper sang “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” I used to make fun of that song. I now realize we ALL want to have fun–NEED to have fun, in fact.
Kids have fun. I went to Forecastle on Saturday and EVERYONE was having fun–young and old kids alike. Was there love there? I would say resoundingly that yes, there was. To me, you cannot have 25,000 people occupy a relatively small section of real estate, good live music to please all tastes, food, drink, sunshine, grass with blankets on it and all this in a non-violent setting, without love being present. If this does not speak to love, I do not know what does.
Step out of your job box for a brief moment, be honest and answer (or think about the answers) to these questions:
Are you going places on a regular enough basis to satisfy your body and mind’s needs for frequent, positive environmental change?
Are you having fun on not only your summer vacation but throughout the year?
If so, you are being like girls, kids and anyone else who has fun and is truly going places.
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