Is It Possible To Hold A Job When You Are Constantly On The Search For A New Challenge?

About Serial Life Changers And Their Fight Against Routine

I am turning 32 years in 3 weeks. In the last 14 years, I have lived at least 10 different lives.

From studying Chemistry right after school and living a quiet life with a partner to experiencing the last years of my studies as a single woman, partying most of the week and eradicating most of my memories. Finally, graduating from university and going on my first adventures. From getting lost in Venezuela and living with tribes for a few days in the Amazon Jungle, hiking for weeks in Nepal, experiencing bomb detonations in the Golan Heights in Israel, learning Kung Fu in a Kung Fu Academy in China and falling in love with New Zealand while living there for 1,5 years to finally arriving in Australia and never wanting to leave again.

I have been a waitress and bartender for numerous restaurants and bars, worked as a hostel worker in multiple hostels, chased festival work around the world, been a security guard for nightclubs, worked for a canyoning tour company, cleaned luxury holiday apartments, been a host for a lodge located deep within a beautiful National Park, worked on a farm, planted trees for an environmental organisation, been a pizza chef, worked as a trail builder building mountain bike and walking tracks in Tasmania, sold handmade things and worked as a photographer.

I studied again and got highly interested in plants, permaculture and off-grid living. I went from wanting to party all the time to going back to reading one book a week and chasing quiet evenings at home. I went from running all day to hiking all day to surfing all day to weaving baskets all day to reading all day to writing all day and back to do it all over again.

One thing all of my lives had in common: I would get bored with any 9–5 job within 3–6 months. Especially when I was holding only one job, one main income. Having most of my time and income chained to one job would make my social anxiety worse to the point that I wasn’t able to get out of bed in the morning to go to work. I had to call in sick or make up weird excuses because my head just wouldn't let me go.

It wasn’t that I was lazy, that I didn’t want to work per se. But I wanted to feel challenged, to feel I was doing something with purpose and at the same time be part of a healthy environment, that would not drain my energy. Something that would make me feel motivated in the morning. That would make me want to jump out of my bed and start the day.

Instead, I would feel anxious, guilty for calling in sick, weak because I didn’t understand what was wrong with me. Why could I not just stick with it? Do my 9–5 job, Mo-Fri, climb up the career ladder and live happily from 3 weeks holiday a year. So many other people seemed to be fine with it.

I felt watched. I felt judged. Sometimes I felt easily replaceable. And while those things all come from something inside of me and are rooted in my social anxiety, they always started and intensified after around 3 months in one job. 3 seemed to be the magical number.

And then I quit. As soon as I made the decision to leave, I instantly felt better. I felt free. I felt like I was able to do whatever I was dreaming of.

Maybe I just had the wrong jobs. Probably.

I am not good with routine. I love learning new things. Growing with every new skill I gain. Ever evolving.

If I could, I would study forever — Neuroscience, Arts, Photography, Graphic Design, Social Work, Environmental Science, Outdoor Education, Journalism, Adventure Therapy, Carpentry, Outdoor Guiding, Permaculture. I want to do more volunteer and humanitarian work. I want to go on adventures.

I am interested in a vast amount of topics and I can get easily excited and passionate about things. And for a while, I will stick to them. Until I find a new thing that is catching my eyes. I will swap around between things, jobs and hobbies — sometimes I will go back to an old one until I need to do something else again.

Before I start a new job, I always have a romantic idea about it. Usually, after starting the job, I realise most of the time it’s not as amazing as I made it up in my head. Or sometimes it is. But still, after 3 months I am ready for something new.

Apart from relationships and friendships, I like change. I want to experience life in all its vastness. And that means for me living different lives. Experiencing different life ideas, cultures and jobs. Life feels too short to do only one thing just to climb the career ladder. Life is an adventure.

I’m an introvert. I’m socially anxious. I’m highly sensitive and empathetic. My mood can easily change with my surroundings and while feeling everything intensely seems to make me a better counsellor for friends, it is often not very helpful for the jobs I have done in the past.

Maybe I don’t have enough willpower. Maybe I’m not strong enough. Maybe I’m looking for excuses. Maybe the day just doesn’t have enough hours. But I don’t want to feel miserable doing something I don’t feel passionate about. Something that makes me feel imprisoned.

At the same time, I feel guilty. I feel guilty for feeling this way. It’s a first-world problem. I should probably be happy that I am able to have a job. And while I am trying to not complain and just trying to express how I experience routine in a job, I do feel like I should be happy with the options and freedom I have. And I am. Living in this society, despite social pressure is still a privilege that allows me to change jobs, change countries and experience different life ideas.

So why would I choose to change my life over and over again?

I think it is safe to say, I have learned and grown the most over the years when I was actively solo travelling. A life on the road. Staying in places not for too long, changing jobs and going on adventures. Getting lost in countries where I didn’t speak the language, just to realise that you don’t need to speak the same language to understand each other.

I became more tolerant, brave and realised I can do anything.

The last 3,5 years I have spent in Australia. Not travelling around much. For the first 2 years, I lived in the same city in Tasmania and for the last 1,5 years I have settled down in a little town near Byron Bay in New South Wales. At the moment I don’t have a need for travelling and rather invest my energy into building lasting bonds with friends and loved ones. However, my job situation remains the same.

I am feeling the same pressure, experiencing the same feeling of imprisonment if I do one job full-time for too long. It feels like it takes all of the time that I would like to spend on so many of my other interests.

I have recently started writing again and it makes me happy. It feels incredibly natural, seeing letter after letter appearing on the screen while I’m typing the words in.

I feel free. I feel like I can write about whatever I want. Any topic that comes to my mind. At any time of the day. I don’t feel like I am chained to a schedule. I don’t feel like I have to pass on adventures because I have to work at a specific time.

To answer the question in the title — Is It Possible To Hold A Job When You Are Constantly On The Search For New Challenges?

Maybe.

Maybe a job with a lot of freedom. A lot of change. Different projects, different environments. Maybe self-employment.

I am sure and optimistic that there is something out there. And if not, changing jobs and chasing new challenges is pretty exciting and not too bad.

Life is too short to stay in a job that you don’t like. In the end, we are all going to end up in the same place and nothing matters too much. Let’s try to take life not too seriously.

And while I am writing this article I just received my roster for the next week. I feel restless. I don’t feel free. I want to escape.

If you like my work and would want to support me so I can spend more time creating, you can buy me a coffee here.

Franzi is a fine art land- & seascape photographer, writer and crafty girl who spends most of her time in nature capturing moments or writing about anything swirling around in her imaginative head.

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