Welcome everyone!

Welcome everyone!

Here I’ll be covering topics that I think are important, but mainly I’d like to talk about happiness, or more specifically, what I think is worth doing to be happy.

And here’s an important note: we won’t talk about what I do to be happy, because what makes me happy won’t necessarily make you happy. Here we will talk about activities that I consider objectively good for everyone, which I believe are essential ingredients for a happy life.

I am starting this series because I feel a deep need to share with you my feelings and thoughts on various topics, and I would also like to add my voice to the very important discussion about truth. About how the truth is currently under attack, distorted, hidden.

I hope some of the topics we will be covering will help you look at important issues from the real side.

We will cover topics that are difficult, controversial, and they will require deeper reflection, which I encourage you to do. I also encourage you to actively comment, and hopefully together we will build a base of materials that will help many of you on your way to a happy life.

See you soon!

Reforged Life – an easy way to get a lot of extra time in your life

When I talk to people about things that I do in my life and try to encourage them to change their lives, I often hear the very same answer: “I would like to have time for such activities, but unfortunately I don’t have one.” or “I don’t have the magical power to extend the day, so because of that I have enough time for everything.”

I think, in fact, it is true that some people may have such a busy schedule that there is simply no space for anything new. But when you take a closer look at the average schedule of the day, you’ll see that some things consume so much of your time that’s pure madness.

For me of the most important thing in my life is my free time. When I don’t have enough time for myself, I feel unhappy. That’s why I hate wasting my time when I don’t have to. Therefore, I followed some rules that allowed me not to waste too much time on meaningless activities. On this post I would like to share few tips, that can give you a lot of additional free time.

First and the most important rule is to choose activities that are close to your home.
Yes, it’s really that simple. This single rule can save you many hours monthly.
One of the most time-consuming tasks is getting to work and returning home from work. In some cases, this task may take 2 to 4 hours a day!
This task has two main factors:

  • The distance from your home to the workplace – just pick the workplace that is as close to your home as possible. The ideal situation is when you can walk or drive to your job in less that 10 min. If you can’t change the job, maybe you can change the home?
  • The way you get to your job – is the way you chose to get to work is the fastest possible way? The same distance can be covered very quickly or very slowly, depending on the chosen means of communication. So, if you are stuck in your car in traffic everyday, maybe is good idea to go with subway or some electrical vehicle?

But of course this is not just about work. It is the same case with all everyday activities you do. Just make a fast calculation and you will see that small changes can give you a lot additional free time.

Get a car
I know it is obvious, but I will write it anyway. Car is one of this special things which can change money for time! It will help you save so much of your time that you can’t even imagine.

Get a electrical vehicle
If you live in a big city, I definitely recommend buying an electric vehicle. It is also a very strong time saver. Plus, many models will also give you a lot of driving pleasure.

To sum up I would like to show you quick calculation I made, so you can see some numbers:

Far away from homeTimes a dayMinutesTimes per weekTotal min per activity
Work2605600
Training2305300
Studies (weekends)2402160
Weekly17,67
Monthly70,67
 
Close to homeTimes a dayMinutesTimes per weekTotal min per activity
Work2105100
Training2105100
Studies (weekends)220280
Weekly4,67
Monthly18,67
Difference52,00

As you can see with only 3 main activities the difference is huge +50 hours monthly. And the savings will be the greater the more activity in the month you have. Take some time and make your own calculation and you will see how much extra time you can get for yourself.

Do yourself a favor, make a change and enjoy the many extra hours of free time!

Burnout – the best thing that happened to me in my professional life

When in comes to working life I think I was really lucky. I always knew what I want to in my life. Thanks to that I have never felt lost in my professional life. Well, at least until burnout.

I started working soon after the high school. My first serious job was a waiter job. This job was really nice for me that time. The job itself is quite easy, there is a free food, sometimes also free alcohol, the schedule is very flexible, you have 15 days off each month, and the money you can earn are very nice.

First, I was working in of the more famous and prestigious restaurants in Warsaw as a waiter’s helper. The work there was super hard and the atmosfere was really, really bad. But the service standards was super high, so, I learned quite a lot there. Unfortunately I was only able to last there for two months.

The second job I got was in another restaurant in Warsaw. I worked there for about two years and after that for another four years on special corporate events with couple of restaurant from the group. The job, specially the special events was really hard physical work, but I really like it. This was really amazing time for me. I was young, I earned a decent money, I had 15 days off each month, so I had the time to spend the money. It was like a never ending party. So if you are wondering which first job to choose, consider working as a waiter – its really nice job for the start.

In the meantime I started my master’s degree in psychology with specialization in social psychology. I have chosen psychology because I wanted to use is in my life – to better understand myself and the world around me and in my target job, which was to be a job at an advertising agency.

I wanted the job that is interesting. The job that gives you an oportunities to do many different things and you don’t have to do the same things every day. That is why I have chosen working in the advertising agency.
When it comes to the position, the matter was simple – I always loved to organize and manage projects, so the Project Manager was ideal position for me. With that criteria I started to looking for my first office job.

My first office job was in the biggest (that time) advertising agency in Poland. The brands we were working for were the biggest ones in the industry. The team I was part of was very nice, people were friendly and the work standards were really top notch, so everything was looking very good. I really liked this job and learned a lot there. I worked there for almost a year (this “almost” caused me quite some problems later), but unfortunately I was reduced as part of mass layoffs. That way I became unemployed overnight.

After that I had a really big problem finding another job. This “almost” year was very bad for me, because I was not a Junior anymore but still not a Project Manager, so I didn’t fit either on Junior Project Manager or Project Manager Position. Because of that and because I was not interested in anything else than working in advertising agency I was looking for my next job for almost a year. It was not fun.

Finally I get the job in another advertising agency where I met very interesting girl (my boss at that time) and when she proposed me to move on to her newly created agency I didn’t hesitate even 5 min. That way I joined the company which was the most important one in my whole career.
The company was indeed two companys in one. Advertising agency and a software house (with my girl boss partner as a boss). This was great because I could make and learn many things from two different areas.

Before I get to the details how the process of burnout started and ended I have to say few words about me and my approach to work.
I think the crucial thing is that I was raised by my grandmother. I owe her a classic old school values like: to keep one’s word, iron moral backbone, a passion for honesty, truthfulness and commitment to the job. Also I really engage emotionally in everything I do. I hate fails, so I always try my best and work that way, so I can avoid as much fails I can. For me, working well is not a duty performed for my boss, it is a matter of honor.

So I worked really hard and was giving all the time and effort to make things right. I made a lot of overtime not because I had to, but because I believed that this will take me to the place I want to be. The place where the time I invested will be returned to me and I will claim all the benefits from my hard work.
Because of how I worked I was able to get my bosses attention really quick. Thanks to that I had a oportunity to do many interesting things that were far away from my job description. I really like that.
When we gained our mutual trust we started talking about the plans for the future. We were talking a lot about the future and how we want to get there. I felt quite special and felt that I am an important part of a grand plan. I really believed in this plan and this gave me the energy to work even harder.

But time went by and unfortunately I began to notice that what we were talking about was not implemented. The promises made were not kept. Something else was always more important. So we did everything but our promised plan. Work has become repetitive and boring. Clients were dissatisfied all the time because we didn’t meet the deadlines. So my work turned into constant apologizing to clients and chasing unrealistic deadlines. Overtime didn’t change anything and there were a lot of them every day. I remember I felt really hopeless that time.

In the meantime, we were looking for an employee who was to work with me in the team. We managed to find a very interesting person. We managed to get along very fast. We had a similar approach to many matters and understood each other very well.
We noticed some things that we could change to improve the situation in the company. We wrote all our ideas down and full of energy and hope we went to present them to our boss. I remember this conversation very vividly. He listened to us carefully and then criticized all our ideas. That single event was crucial for me. That day I realized that there is a very small change that anything will change.
So my job was still constant apologizing to clients and chasing unrealistic deadlines and making meaninless overtime. At least now my boss knew what we were thinking about the situation.

Soon I started to feel very bad. Constant pressure made me nervous, restless and stressed. I often felt that I wasn’t myself. I had frequent abdominal pain and chest stinging. I felt hopeless and I thought that I’m waisting my best years on a meaningless job that is simply not worth all the time and effort. On Sundays afternoons, I had a standard stomach aches because I knew I’m going to work on Monday. I couldn’t fully relax even on holidays, and on some of them I even experienced a panic attacks.
I could not stand that long and soon I gave my notice. We had a long conversation with my boss and he convinced me to take 3 months unpaid leave before the final decision. This 3 months didn’t change anything for me, so I decided to change the job.

When I was looking for a next job I decided to give an advertising agency one more chance. It was because recently I was doing mostly IT projects, so I wanted to switch not only a company but also the type of the projects. I sent some CV’s and soon I get the job in one of the Warsaw advertising agency.
I worked there almost two years. After a year and half I started to feel the same symptoms, only much stronger. I remember that one day when I was coming home I experienced such a strong pain in the chest that I had to stop the car for a while.
That was the last warning for me. I knew that if I did nothing I would get a stroke, a heart attack or both.

So I made the fisrt step. I quit my job and started to make changes in my life. Already in the first month I received a little present from the Universe. I achieved massive sale in my guitar shop which I started two years before. I will never forget this day, the day I felt really, really good with my decision.

It’s been almost two years since I left my the standard working life and everyday I’m greatful that this burnout happened to me so quicky. I’m only 35 years old now and I have all the time and energy to build a different live for me and my family.

I take my time to do all the things I always wanted to do but I never had the time and energy for it. I changed the way I eat, the way I work, the way I rest. I returned to my big passion which is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I feel free and I feel I can do everything I dream of.

Do I regret all these years of working like that? Definately no. I learned many important things. I gained a lot of professional skills and I was working on many interesting projects. All this experience I gained is very useful for creating and managing my own projects.
But the most important thing I got from all this years is knowing who I don’t want to be. I had to experience it, but now I know exactly how my life should look like. Maybe for you this kind of event would be a disaster but for me this burnout was simply a liberation.

To everyone who struggles at work every day I can say one thing:
I’m on the other side of the fence now and you know what? The grass here is indeed much greener.