But getting sick wasn't in the job description?

Here's what I learnt from 10 months in a corporate 9-5.

Trust your gut (literally)
Everyday for 10 months, like clockwork, I would wake up and have a morning latte at home and almost instantly it would be in my sink.

...

Let me take you back to little 22-year-old me in her first “big girl job” in the big city of Melbourne.

Everyone around me was finishing uni and starting their careers and like the little sheep I was, I thought I needed to as well.

What other options were there? I had no guidance other than what was around me so I took a job that was offered to me by someone in my network.

(Side note: Don’t get me wrong, I was very grateful for this opportunity at the time and it taught me a lot of resilience and what I didn’t want in life. I think it was a really important part of who I am now and I may not be here without this chapter).

...

So I worked as a Marketing Coordinator for a corporate company and dreaded it every night and every morning. I couldn’t sleep, I barely ate and I threw up every morning from anxiety.

Everyone was telling me I “wasn’t getting any younger, suck it up”, “being tired is just part of life”, “how you’re feeling is normal” and "you shouldn't have time for anything else" (these are direct quotes from fully-grown 50+ adults).

It honestly makes me angry to think about all the wrong advice I listened to as a young adult. It's a big part of why Boring Studios is so important to me. I feel I have a responsibility to show our audience that you can have a life and a career that you enjoy. You can have the freedom to live your life how you want and you can be anyone and anything you want to be.

…

Anyway. Back to my story…

I took the throwing up in the mornings like a grain of sand. My doctors told me I had anxiety and an iron deficiency like most women - normal enough, so I moved on and stuck out this job for about 10 months.

I cried in the bathrooms and had knots in my stomach all day.

I thought I was just weak and not cut out for the “real world”.

Boy was I wrong because 3 months after I quit that job, I was thriving. No anxiety. No tiredness. No deficiencies.

Alright, let’s get to the crux for you. Where’s the important lesson to take away?

Just like how you get a fever when fighting a virus, your body can tell you something is wrong in so many ways.

If your body is telling you something is wrong, don’t ignore it. Trust your gut.

That dread you feel on a Sunday night about going to your 9-5 office job, the anxiety you feel going to sleep thinking about the tasks you have to do tomorrow, that drained feeling you get when you get home and you’re too tired to do anything but order takeout and watch tv or maybe you're simply just living for the weekend… these are not “normal” feelings.

I am glad you’re reading this because I wish someone had given me a wake-up call (because obviously, the coffee wasn’t working).

All I needed back then was for just one person to tell me “Hey, you don’t have to live this life. There are other options” or “Hating your job is not a normal part of life. Here is how you can work for yourself.”

So here is your sign - your guidance.

Whether you’re 22 or 52, you should be inspired, driven and excited for what you do. Not dreading every second of it and especially not to the point of being sick.

And if you’re not excited by your job or your life, do something else and definitely stop listening to everyone around you.

Start doing the things that keep your coffee down.

With love,

XO P