you are what you dream of at night

reframing our ideas of work and not letting our job titles define us

note: this piece took a little while to write because i do not want this to come across as me encouraging you to stop caring about your job or do something crazy like quit on the spot. this is a piece of creative writing hopefully giving you a little nudge to reframe your ideas about work and jobs in general. i am not a life coach or a professional in this regard. i’m also not saying certain jobs are “better” than others or anything silly like that. i’ve had multiple jobs, most of them customer service related. pls do not do anything rash in relation to your job. it is still important, it is keeping the roof over your head and food on the table. ok go read and be romantic n dramatic.

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you are not a receptionist, you are not a sales assistant, you are not a financial analyst, you are not a social media manager, you are not a marketing executive, you are not a project manager, you are not a teaching assistant. you can be, if you want to be. and if you are happy with that, that’s fine and you can stop reading here. otherwise,

you are a writer. you are an artist. you are a painter. you are a designer. you are what you dream of at night. don’t let the label you wear at work define your entire world. don’t forget to take off the label when you get home, when you close your laptop, when 5 pm strikes on a weekday evening. tuck it away somewhere unseen like i tuck my work laptop in the space between the wall and my bookshelf on fridays. completely out of sight. just like we have separate rooms in our houses to make food and to sleep, separate yourself from your job when your contract says the label can come off. don’t be the one answering emails at 7 and 10 pm, 2 and 6 am. thinking about work tasks at 2 pm on a saturday. thinking about rude customers when your feet aren’t firmly planted on the shop floor. learn when to switch the big (office) light off and turn on the lamps, light the candles, switch on the fairy lights to welcome the real you into the space.

you are a gardener. you are a poet. you are a public activist. you are a journalist. you are a modern fantasy writer. you are what you dream of at night. when someone asks you what you do, remove the 9 to 5 from your vocabulary. that is not what you do that is the role you play to live in society and play by the rules. that is the chess piece you move around to get across the board in the safest way possible. when people ask you what do you do, you tell them about who is moving the chess piece. you tell them about the soul within you that has dreams and hopes and aspirations. you tell them about the important work the body is doing in order to honour the soul every day. you tell them about the painting you’re working on after work, the sculpture you’re thinking about before work, the interior magazine you subscribe to and all the inspiration it brings, the research you’re doing to become a grief herbalist, the characters you’re thinking about in between customers, the flavours of jam you want to sell at the local farmer’s market. don’t focus so much on the label. tell them about the person wearing the label.

you are a film critic. you are a book reviewer. you are a travel blogger. you are a fibre artist shop owner. you are what you dream of at night. so what actions are you taking every day, most days, when your body allows, to show this? you are not what you say but what you do. and i know you are tired. i know there will be days where you are a merchandise assistant and a data analyst and that is okay. it’s just the unfortunate way the world works. but you have to feed the soul. it doesn’t have a big appetite, but it wants nonetheless. i cannot say i write letters to you if i do not write and press send. i cannot say i am a reader if i do not pick up books to read. you have to honour the soul and if that means taking energy away from your 9 to 5, then do that. do your job and nothing more. recognise where your job begins and ends. be kind to your co-workers but do not go out of your way to do another job that is not yours. your label does not say ceo. it does not say company director. it does not say everyone here is my responsibility and if that person over there isn’t doing their job correctly i have to fix it. do not give your energy to that that does not feed your soul. honouring your gift, being kind to others, being kind to the planet, respecting your life and the lives around you—those are the things that matter.

you can be a nutritionist. you can be a creative director. you can be a postpartum nurse. you can be a chef. you can be a witch! you can be a bookshop café owner. you can be an interior designer. you can be a notebook historian. you can be what you dream of at night. i’ve been talking here about how you fill the hours spent when you’re not at your job (or even when you’re at your job, what? who said that?) but we don’t always have to live like this, scraping whatever time and energy we have left in order to do the work that really matters to us. the hours spent in between your day job can be in pursuit of something more, eventually. it can be the plans to breaking free from the chess board altogether. there is no real rush. you have time to sit down and plan your route to another kind of life that doesn’t involve emails and social media trends and excel sheets, but you have to make sure the sun doesn’t go down each day without you making another move. your 9 to 5 is for right now, it’s keeping you satiated until you find what you’re really looking for. but if you don’t want it to cast a shadow on everything else in your life, don’t let it be the ugly sky scraper that ruins the view. move the obstacle. decentre the day job. know who you are when you’re not at work and concentrate on nurturing her.

you are not your 9 to 5. you are a special being with unique qualities that deserves more than the title you found on indeed.com one day.

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hello quiet readers, this post is a little special to me because it features all the hopes and dreams of my subscribers. if you thought the job titles and things were a little niche, that’s why! i asked you what your dream job titles were in the finding quiet chat and you certainly delivered. i loved inserting your dreams into this week’s piece, it was such a touching experience :’) we must do it again some time. you should definitely subscribe so you can join our little chats hehe

basically what i was trying to get at with this piece is that you definitely should not suddenly quit your job and run off to become a herbalist if you can’t afford it. i’m just saying, if we look at it like the solar system, your day job is not the sun. you are. your day job is earth, saturn and if you’re like me, it’s literally pluto. it’s barely a planet lol. i get my job done and i do it well but my sun is my writing, my creative expression, connecting with nature. in this piece, i’m asking you where your 9 to 5 is and whether you can move it a little further away from the sun. i hope that makes sense!

thank you as always for reading. here is my last post with media, books and article recommendations and here is my latest youtube video of how i’m embracing a softer life now that it’s spring. enjoy!

see you next wednesday <3