Everything comes at a price

I don't have a full time job. I used to have one. That stint lasted four months. For those four months, my life revolved around work. I woke up, got ready, commuted, worked, had one hour to have my lunch, worked some more, commuted back home, had dinner, went to sleep and did it all again the next day. My days off were spent unwinding, hardly ever doing anything productive.
Working 40 hours a week was a soul sucking experience that I don't want to repeat any time soon.

Lazy? Unmotivated? ｢You be the judge!｣

I was earning a significant amount of money, but my mind was at a point where my work mantra was "just focus on the money" while my first thought getting home was "another day wasted". And this while living with my parents and having the luxury of someone else making dinner and doing laundry. It was unsustainable and I quit. Ever since, I've been blessed to find jobs between 25 and 30 hours a week and, while the pay is less, the time earned is invaluable. My current job is 26 hours a week and I earn more than the minimum wage for a full time job, which is more than enough to help my parents with house bills and groceries and save some money for any eventualities.

Without the 14 extra free hours in my week, I would NOT be able to pursue my self-improvement. I truly respect those who somehow manage to juggle living alone, working full time and still have not only the physical prowess to do some exercise but also the mental stamina to pursue culturing themselves. The latter becomes easier if you decide to use your commute and lunch breaks for it (which is what I've been doing), but physical exercise is a whole different hurdle. Working full time in a semi-physical work environment as was (and still is) mine with hardly ever a break to sit down, I'd come home always physically exhausted. The only thing approaching physical exercise I'd do was lift my legs against the wall to allow better blood flow to avoid or alleviate leg pain that would creep up the next day.

Once I became a part-time worker, I truly, finally learned to appreciate and use the free time I won back. I still don't use it all with complete efficiency but it has definitely helped putting my life back on track, physically and mentally.

If you truly don't have the time to invest in yourself, I don't blame you. A time will come when I will have no choice but to work full time.
I know that, when that time comes, the life I'm leading now will end. It's up to me to use this time to build the foundations necessary to allow me to keep pursuing my hobbies and further self-improvement. But I do wonder if I'll have it in me to. No use worrying about it now, though.

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