FOMO

I was checking my email last night at 10:30. I saw an email from one of the crowd sourcing platform that I have signed up with. I opened that email. It said that a project is available for me. The project matches with my skill set. I should lock in immediately and claim that project. Else someone else will claim it and it will go from the open workflow. I was happy to receive that email. I am always looking for such projects. It had work for approximately 30 minutes with good payout. I was almost going to click on it but then I stopped myself. I asked myself isn't this why you left your job? The answer was yes.

Approximately 6 months ago I left my corporate job. The reason was that I was overd and under appreciated at my workplace. This was not the first time it had happened. A persons I started my career there were more lows than highs. Every project and company I worked with had tremendous amount of work. In my entire career there was no single day when I completed my working hours only for the time they were supposed to. Everyday the work would extend my working hours. Sometimes I would work for a 10 hours, sometimes for it 12 hours, sometimes for 16 hours, or sometimes for 18 hours. Despite working hard the management would always say that we are not giving our 100% to the project. The management but still expected more work. The work that I had done never got the recognition which it deserved. Good work meant more work meant more working hours. Not a single day was without worries. Everyday there would be more work and more tensions. Everyday well returning home I used to receive calls from my managers to ask me to login. I would tell them let me at least reach home first then I will login. The pressure from the management was unbearable. I was feeling as if I am getting crust under the pressure of management. Everyone had the same expectation. They wanted me to work like donkey.

Nobody even scared about my health. There were multiple times when I was unwell but I still went to work because something was important. Not a single person asked me if I was ok when I was unwell. When there was work everybody would come running to me. Every night at 10:00 I would receive a call saying that there is an important meeting which I would need to join. I would leave everything what I was doing and I would join the meeting. The same story every night. The meetings but go on till 12 or 1 at night. Even after that I was expected to show up at work at 8:30. I was not treated like a human being.

I remember all this when I received that email at 10:30 at night. I remember that this is the reason why I decided to give up on my corporate job. I do not want to be the slave of the work. I want to have the freedom to work. I did not click on that link to accept the project. The fear of missing out which I was getting 2 minutes ago was no longer there. I understood I do not need to be bound by FOMO to progress in my life. I know I will miss out on few opportunities. But I am ok with that. I have come to terms with life. I have understood that I do not need to crap every opportunity as I see it. I should only grape the opportunities with which I am comfortable. Thinking that I closed my Email app and went to sleep. I must say I had a peaceful sleep after giving up the fear of missing out.