Choosing Time Over Money & Health

My family having a birthday celebration 

Last Thursday, I was on course on positive workplace. I just wanted to attend a course as a sort of escape from office work, lol. After that I went for my Cardio Hip Hop class and also a birthday celebration for me and my mum at Swensons. Fun fact. My mum and I share the same birthday month and it’s a mere 3 days apart. 

As for the course, it was quite a good course, a little dry, but it’s always the case because they need to also share the theories besides just doing group work. Anyway, during the group work, we were encouraged to share stories but due to limited time, the sharing was done by two people in a group each. My group happened to have some very chatty people but it was good, so I don’t have to talk so much, lol. They were like on autopilot.

The trainer looked young but very experienced. Armed with experience and a Master’s degree, he is now doing private practice with half his time doing therapy and another half conducting workshops like these. I didn’t share this but recently I turned 38. But I felt that at this age, I was still breezing through life and perhaps not achieved even half of what I wanted to do. I hope to change this for the better before things become too late like seriously, life can just suddenly take a sharp turn.

Anyway, two of group mates who shared came from the private sector. And the working hours were long and arduous such as having to complete work until 3am in the morning and being on 24 hour on call. Different industries but both were just as demanding, taking a toll on their health and their relationships with their family members were also affected. At the end of the day, they felt that they made the right decisions, though difficult, to change jobs and work in a government sector. They weren’t too particular which ministry, as long as they can work within the hours and come back in time during office hours. They did experience a  pay cut and one of them was pretty significant, casting doubts on the potential employee if this was what he wanted.

They were also able to fulfil their other commitments such as looking after the mum with ailing health, spending more time with the family and also for their own self-care. All these couldn’t be measured in terms of dollars and cents. Yes, Singapore is expensive to live in and not all of us are privileged but it is still manageable if we are able to live within means. And to not be too fixated on living the perfect lifestyle often portrayed by people online but what is best for us and our immediate loved ones.

Every day we have choices to make in life, be it simple or life changing. It can be a happy trade off or one filled with challenges. But it is how we learn to manage our expectations and asking ourselves what do we want out of life. Do we want more money? More time? I wish we can have both like I know how there are people who enjoy being on vacations, having more recreational time but still make a lot of money in between. Of course they work hard too in order to achieve such idealistic work life balance. But you know, we are just mere mortals, lol. I think to me, as long as we work hard, plan well and set realistic goals in life, we can be anything, so to speak. After all, we each have 24 hours in life. It’s how you make use of it that matters.

So what do you think? Would you give up the good money for more time and better health?