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We spend so much of lives at work that it’s hard not to feel despondent when things don’t seem to be going our way.

But just as these feelings of despair were about to overwhelm me this evening, I suddenly thought to myself: “Work does not define you.”

I am growing weary of the perpetual ineptitude that seems to surround me, and the unwillingness of anyone to try to make anything better. But in the end I must recall that it’s just a job.

I don’t get a lot of satisfaction from work anymore. I often contemplate looking elsewhere for new opportunities, only to conclude, “Better the devil you know.” I don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire.

So instead I’m trying to change my mindset. To think of work more as a means to an end than an end in itself. The means: to provide for my family and sustain a few basic comforts.

Is there life outside the hours contracted to work? Could this not be our real life? Could these moments not define us instead? Why let the stresses of our working lives take over?

Perhaps it’s time to learn to switch off. To not take everything so seriously. To just go with the flow. Or as my wife puts it, “Try your best and leave the rest.”

For me, it’s time to rethink work.