Wasting your life?

Despite what many people may think, being unemployed simply is not fun. If you have gone through what is effectively 17 years of education without so much as a breather you really want to be able to go out and start earning money, having a life and leaving exams, essays and procrastination far behind you in the dust.

Unemployment would be more fun if there were actually any goals you could have other than get a job. Goals that help you fulfil your potential and ultimately satisfy you.

The thing I think that a lot of people seem to miss is that job hunting may be a continuous process, but it doesnt take up a whole day. Far from it in fact. I have a catalogue of sites I check regularly for updates, but that only takes half an hour, and maybe another half hour on top of that if I need to apply somewhere. Ultimately its not worth a spending a whole day job hunting, even if a job is posted when you refresh the page for the ninth time it will still be there tomorrow and you could have discovered it then.

The point is unemployment leaves you with a lot of time sitting around on your own doing very little. This is where the depression side of being unemployed can really hone in and do its damage.

I for instance have spent a lot of this week playing Fifa 2010. Many hours in fact, day hours whilst other people are out earning a living. Occasionally (jokes about football games aside) you sit back and think am I wasting my life? When I went to university and got a degree and a masters was it so I could sit and play Fifa all day a year later?

The answer clearly is no. But its really difficult to motivate yourself to do other things, I love to read for instance, but I struggle to spend most of a day reading unless I really engage with a book. Games are escapist in nature, and hours pass easily and ultimately thats what I spend most of my time doing, passing hours, days, weeks until the next job based opportunity.

It can be depressing if you dwell on it too much, but if you try to accept the circumstances and look forward and on to the next chance its bearable. After all if all goes well once youve got a job, you will look back on those many free hours with longing because ultimately you have to persevere. There is no other option.