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A great many millennials are at a stage where they feel lost about career and life outcomes. An even greater number, on getting into the labour force, begin to feel unfulfilled and choked within a few years. As a matter of concern, Human Resource departments nowadays emphasize why it is necessary for employees to get a perfect work-life balance in place; but a lot of steam still gets dissipated in the course of that. The bull’s eye is yet to be hit.

It is worthy of note that individuals born between the years 1981 and 1996, naturally have grown new attitudes and techniques for dealing with the traditional workplace and because their population is rapidly climbing in the workforce, workplaces will sooner or later adapt to their revolutionary and trendsetting lifestyle.  These millennials normally place a larger emphasis on producing distinct and meaningful work, finding creative outlets to express themselves, as well as charging ahead with a hunger for immediate feedback and validation. Yet, that total workplace change is still in the making. For this demographic, it is currently a tussle between vacationing and resigning to pursue their dreams.

In most white collar jobs, an average of a 30-day leave is allowed for workers. Those who have experienced this 30-day vacation have mixed feelings about it. While some are jittery to go back to their routine which they have wrapped their lives around, others may feel that the 30 days is inadequate. For the latter, perhaps going on a mini-retirement is simply what they need.

Mini-retirements are still largely strange to our locality but the benefits abound. Even in advanced economies, it is just gradually gaining popularity. But has anything ever stopped anyone who has had a 5-year work stretch (inclusive of the normal 30-day leave), from going on a 1 or 2-year leave to pursue their own dreams and/or travel the world before re-inserting themselves back into the industry once again?

Many may argue that in a country where it is very hard to get a job in the first place, how easy would it be to re-enter the workforce at one’s whim? Truly, those are real concerns an average worker may have. A very resourceful worker, however, will likely not have the usual bottlenecks to getting good employment anytime he/she wants, especially with a 5-year previous experience leveraging one’s curriculum vitae.

Between mini-retirements in and out of interesting and engaging professional careers, some have been able to set up enterprises, take on life-changing courses, study something new, have babies, go on adventures and travel to experience new cultures, among other engagements which fulltime work may not be very accommodative of. Nevertheless, the place of proper planning, sufficient financing with savings and an alternative source of income cannot be underscored – definitely. And with the many available modern tools and techniques available today, a mini-retirement is even increasingly more achievable than it seemed to be.

The world is truly too much with us; but if you fail to gain full control of time as a necessary resource of living, you may eventually become its slave. Planning every stage of our lives ensures that we are at least in control of timing our work and our time off work. After all, they say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

It may thus be dutiful to our general well-being if we ask ourselves, “Am I not just winding every day as it comes rather than living my life in fulfilment?” If we do not seize the tiny opportunities from the tight schedule of our career, engagements and hectic work cycles, we may never be fulfilled enough to say we have had a great pursuit of happiness in life.


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This article was first published on 22nd January 2019

adedoyin

Macaddy is mostly a farmer in the day who also dabbles into technology at night, in search of other cutting edge intersections. He's on Twitter @i_fix_you


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