When We’re Out of Work: Time to Take Time

Today’s one of those days when I especially need to focus on the positive.  So I thought I’d come up with the “advantages” of being unemployed that, maybe, I’ve been taking for granted.

Here are a dozen things I can do – or do more easily – because I’m out of work.  (And just for the record, I do these things in between looking for and applying for jobs.)

• Wait for my car while they change the oil

• Keep my bird feeders filled at all times

•  Run errands during the week

•  Never run out of clean laundry and clean dishes

•  Interact more with my dog, cats and parakeets

•  Volunteer my help to organizations or family members

•  Dispose of and/or organize decades’ worth of accumulated stuff in my basement

• Finally sort through my late parents’ (they’ve been “late” for more than 10 years)  thousands of family photographs

• Consider attending a networking event – at the beach (I’m not kidding, this is for real)

• Learn a new computer-related skill

• Enroll in a course to learn something fun, like yoga or pottery or photography

• Read, pray, laugh, appreciate, communicate, reflect more

Yeah, unemployment is…it's not great, but I will say that it's different.  It does give you time.  Time to observe another side of life, time to get to things you can’t get to when you’re working, time to focus on things that matter besides work.

Because when I think about it, as I now have time to do, I understand that time is the most valuable thing there is.  After all, if we waste it, there’s no way we can get any more.