Here are some ideas for improving work life
The order is not fixed
Aim to spend 35-40 hours a week working, volunteering, studying towards work, and other activities as set out below
Research the notion of Ikigai
Identify skills
Identify skills gaps
Identify opportunities for closing those skills gaps
Record and analyze all spending and produce monthly and yearly accounts
Produce monthly and yearly budgets
Track actual spending against monthly and yearly budgets
Identify variances, explain them, and feed the information into the next budget period
Identify opportunities for savings and economizing
Have a one-year (annual) and maybe a five-year plan for income, broken down by month
Review the plan for reasonableness and feasibility
Track income against the plan
Identify variances, explain them, and feed the information into the next budget period
Identify opportunities for earning more money
Where are the gaps between what I will earn and what am I spending?
How can those gaps be filled with temporary stopgaps?
How can those gaps be filled with permanent solutions?
If necessary, acquire skills in budgeting & financial planning
If necessary, seek professional help in doing so and / or read books or go on courses
Read books on careers and on choosing / changing careers
Read books on career development
Talk to careers advisers
Talk to everyone you know who is successful in their career
Note down what they did
Make a plan for replicating what they did, adapted to your circumstances
Get professional or other advice on filling out job application forms and interviewing
Do lots of interview practice with trained or experienced people
Read prospectuses for colleges, training schemes, universities
Talk to whoever is charge of these courses
Talk to the admissions departments for these institutions
Interview for courses
Enroll on courses
Attend courses
Find people to provide advice on vocational / professional development
Sign up with recruitment agencies
Sign up temporary work agencies
Bring a CV up to date
Get the CV reviewed by human resources or recruitment professionals
Go to careers libraries / accessing online resources about careers
Go to careers fairs
Find out about careers I’ve never even heard of
Find out more about careers I have heard of
Make lists of careers that are interesting to me
Make lists of careers that do not (yet) appeal but match my skills
Make lists of careers that do not (yet) appeal but are short of workers
Make lists of careers that do not (yet) appeal but offer the opportunity to make money
Research each of these careers with an open mind …
… asking God to help me grow beyond the limitation of my personal reality
Shortlist a dozen careers
Establish the trajectory for going from ‘here’ to ‘there’
Review the feasibility of these various trajectories
Make a shortlist of trajectories
Start to proceed along them
Reject options at the last feasible moment not the first opportunity
Identify opportunities for volunteering
Research them
Discuss these opportunities with advisers and with the relevant organizations
Take up these opportunities
There are many, many ways for any human being to be useful to the world
If I’m under-occupied, I’m saying ‘no’ where I should be saying ‘yes’ to one of the above