The work that I do...
Hello everyone.
It has been a while since my last post. The past days have been very busy for me at work.
I have shared in my first post that I am working in a full-time job in Singapore. Specifically, I am working for a multi-national insurance company with headquarters in France, leading the underwriting team.
Imagine a big stage in a play where all the actors freeze and just under the spotlight is where you can see all the action happen. My life has been like this for almost 26 years now -- everything else outside of the office seems to be in a slow motion while all my energy and attention is in what's happening at work during the last week of the month. This is when our workload peaks - when people who wants to buy insurance receives their salary. I can't complain, aside from a job, it is also a mission.
I have been in the life insurance industry for the past 26 years. Wow, that sounds like too long ago but felt only like a couple of years back. Truly as they say, time flies when you are having fun.
I have never imagined that I will be in this industry. When I was in university, I wanted to be a doctor. I thought I was on track to be one having a pre-medical degree in college. However I found myself in a different direction when I fell in love a year after I graduated from college, and got married 6 months after. I needed a job and fortunately got one easily.
I have 2 daughters now who are aspiring to be great doctors. Did I influence them to take a medical degree? No, I let them be. It is just a blessing that they dream the same dream I had.
Do I have any feeling of regret that I did not become a doctor? No, I have found a different meaning in my profession. I remember that when I accepted the job offer, I just badly needed a job as a young mother-to-be. But I got to know that I will be in this job for the long haul when one day this is what happened. A young mother came to our office with her very small child, weeping in grief because the husband died 2 weeks earlier in an accident. She is a housewife and has never worked in her life, so she doesn't know how she can bring up her daughter. Our claims manager then handed her the cheque for the insurance proceeds of her husband's policy. Despite the tears rolling down her cheeks because of sadness, I saw a smile of relief and she uttered words of thanks over and over again. When I saw that, I realized -- wow, what other job can make a weeping person smile in the middle of the pain and hurt of losing a loved one? I told myself then that this is where I should be.
So everytime I feel exhausted or frustrated at work because of long working hours or work pressure, I go back to this picture in my mind. And that invigorates me knowing I am in a job with a meaningful purpose.
So that's my tip when you are feeling burnt out from your work or your life - pause and rethink your purpose. If it is one that's deep enough to move and inspire you, then I hope you will hold on and just keep going.
"Live with purpose."
Sending you some inspiration. Till the next.
It has been a while since my last post. The past days have been very busy for me at work.
I have shared in my first post that I am working in a full-time job in Singapore. Specifically, I am working for a multi-national insurance company with headquarters in France, leading the underwriting team.
Imagine a big stage in a play where all the actors freeze and just under the spotlight is where you can see all the action happen. My life has been like this for almost 26 years now -- everything else outside of the office seems to be in a slow motion while all my energy and attention is in what's happening at work during the last week of the month. This is when our workload peaks - when people who wants to buy insurance receives their salary. I can't complain, aside from a job, it is also a mission.
I have been in the life insurance industry for the past 26 years. Wow, that sounds like too long ago but felt only like a couple of years back. Truly as they say, time flies when you are having fun.
I have never imagined that I will be in this industry. When I was in university, I wanted to be a doctor. I thought I was on track to be one having a pre-medical degree in college. However I found myself in a different direction when I fell in love a year after I graduated from college, and got married 6 months after. I needed a job and fortunately got one easily.
I have 2 daughters now who are aspiring to be great doctors. Did I influence them to take a medical degree? No, I let them be. It is just a blessing that they dream the same dream I had.
Do I have any feeling of regret that I did not become a doctor? No, I have found a different meaning in my profession. I remember that when I accepted the job offer, I just badly needed a job as a young mother-to-be. But I got to know that I will be in this job for the long haul when one day this is what happened. A young mother came to our office with her very small child, weeping in grief because the husband died 2 weeks earlier in an accident. She is a housewife and has never worked in her life, so she doesn't know how she can bring up her daughter. Our claims manager then handed her the cheque for the insurance proceeds of her husband's policy. Despite the tears rolling down her cheeks because of sadness, I saw a smile of relief and she uttered words of thanks over and over again. When I saw that, I realized -- wow, what other job can make a weeping person smile in the middle of the pain and hurt of losing a loved one? I told myself then that this is where I should be.
So everytime I feel exhausted or frustrated at work because of long working hours or work pressure, I go back to this picture in my mind. And that invigorates me knowing I am in a job with a meaningful purpose.
So that's my tip when you are feeling burnt out from your work or your life - pause and rethink your purpose. If it is one that's deep enough to move and inspire you, then I hope you will hold on and just keep going.
"Live with purpose."
Sending you some inspiration. Till the next.
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