Quit Your Job For A Healthier Mind and Body By Andy Dykes

Before I begin, I would just like to take this opportunity to say that this isn't intended to be some anarchic rant about how we should all escape the rat race, subverting and thus bringing about the downfall of the evil that is the capitalist system under which we all live, but don't all prosper. And I don't want it to come across like some airy fairy dogmatic hippy life advice. I was just thinking. That's all.

So I'm on the phone to my Dad the other day, looking for some parental support and unquestioning sympathy because of a couple of arguments I had had, and the fact I was tired of my job.

Because I had. I had had an argument with my girlfriend, and a wholly independent argument with my housemate, and I was feeling particularly bored with my job. And my Dad says, Oh well. That's life. What? Is it?

If it is, I want to end mine, I say. And with that, he retracted his statement. But I knew he still meant it.

And so I got to thinking. The facts of our lives don't define who we are. In other words, my life is more than the sum of its parts. Life isn't about jobs. It's not about holidays. It's not about nights out. It's not about nights in. It's not about houses or rent. It's not about cars.

It's not about money. It's not about CDs or DVDs or CVs or VDs. It's not about sleep or dreams. It's not about murders, muggings or living in fear. It's not about morning coffee or the next cigarette break. It's not about your mum, your dad, your girlfriend, or whatever. It's not about pets. It's not about a heart, a liver, kidneys, a nervous system and a brain. It's about you.

Because I'm sure you'll agree, you are made up of more than an accumulation of the items on the above list. Who knows what it is that makes us more than the sum of our parts. Humanity? The ability to think? Feelings? I don't know. And I don't think it really matters. The point is that if your job, or whatever, begins to take such a hold on your life that it begins to define you, then maybe it's about time that you thought about changing it. Just so that you can keep that sense of you being yourself.

Maybe the answer I wanted my Dad to give me was Resolve your arguments and quit your job. Either way, I'm happy now. Because I've thought about it enough to provide myself with that answer.

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