From The Straits Times    |

Sometimes, when I’m having a spectacularly bad day at work, I like to play a game with myself. It’s called the "If I could be anywhere in the world, where would I like to be?" game. For two minutes — I swear it’s just two — I abandon the task at hand and allow myself to fantasise about what I’d rather be doing. I’ve conjured up my bed, sunny beaches, eating my way through a mountain of Kit Kat, and going for romantic walks with Rodrigo Santoro. A girl is allowed to dream, right?

The funny thing is, my two-minute fantasies usually end up making me feel worse than I did before. Because on top of having a bad day, I am now faced with the realisation that I in fact do not possess any Kit Kats, am not in bed, and am not likely to be for the next 10 hours. Don’t get me wrong — I love writing and wouldn’t ever want to do anything else. It’s just that sometimes, in a moment of self-indulgence, I tend to forget. Which is why it’s always handy to remember the best piece of career advice I’ve ever heard: 

"Don’t expect every day to be a high-five, pay-raise, make-a-difference kind of day. Sometimes work is just work. After all, if work were that great, surely the rich would keep it for themselves!"

I read it three years ago in the editor’s note of a foreign publication, and the words have stuck with me since. We all have bad days at work, and it’s always humbling to have a reminder that beyond the petty little day-to-day frustrations (like a colleague’s contagious bad mood or a really tedious assignment), work is just work. It’s not the be all and end all of your existence, it’s usually not personal, and you’re getting paid to do all of it anyway.

Oh, and the best career advice I have for others? It is to always have an emergency Kit Kat bar in your office drawer. Just in case.

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