More To Life Than Shoes

OK, so it's not quite the new year, and we're all buzzing with talk of Christmas parties. But surely, fun at work shouldn't just come from getting hammered once a year and indulging in extra-curricular naughties on the photocopier. (Does anyone really do that?)

If the idea of going back to work after Christmas makes you want to do a runner in your reindeer jumper, read on.

If you don’t love what you do, there’s something wrong. Life without passion: it’s a hollow existence. Grey mornings, dull evenings and long boring bits in between – it’s not much fun. Plus, the chances are, if work is dullsville, it’ll impact on the rest of your life. You could become a comfort-eating, telly-watching moaner who’s no fun to be around.

Work is not a prison sentence and if we love our work we’ll be a hell of a lot better at it.

Surely, it would make more sense to work our thing and do something we love, instead of moaning to our friends, moping around and self harming using Dairy Milk.

For some people, passion seems to burn inside them. They’ve always known what they wanted to do with their lives. They have to do as their passion tells them; there’s no other option. It’s a done deal. Well, it’s alright for them, but what about the rest of us? When we were kids we might have passionately wanted to be an astronaut, a professional showjumper, but nowadays that all seems like a lifetime away. Having time and energy to think about our passions is a luxury we can’t afford. We’ve got no clear vision of where we’re going or what we want to do. So how do we go about getting some oomph in our lives?

Here are my top tips for loving what you do:

Passion can be a hard thing to uncover. It can take some people years to work out what’s going to make them leap out of bed in the mornings. But we’re not disheartened - we think the process of finding out what floats your boat is fun. It’s a chance to try new stuff, notice things around us and meet exciting new people. Not a bad way to spend our time, we reckon. One day it’ll hit us, and things will never be the same again.

Get skilled up: So you're good at hoarding old shoes, well, now's the time to gather skills. Bide your time and take the opportunity to learn as many new and useful skills as possible. Go on courses, learn computer programmes or languages, get qualified - by adding to your CV and your braincells, you're getting ready for the right moment to take over the world. You might even find that your employer will pay (just don't tell them you're planning to jump ship!)

Give your job a much needed fun-injection - Find ways of combining the things you love with your job. Start a company magazine, podcast, revamp the canteen, organise work events or outings, plan charity fundraisers etc .

Embrace the side project- you'll be amazed what you can get done during your lunch hour, on the tube and instead of watching TV. We've met some remarkable women (read interviews in our book More To Life Than Shoes: How to Kick-start Your Career and Change Your Life) who've achieved great things whilst working full time - especially Preethi Nair who wrote her bestselling novel on the tube during a long sweaty commute! So, start planning a new business, get started on your blog or do an evening class - embrace the "side hustle."

Get some More To Life Than Shoes action in your life! Get together with girls in your office or in your local area and start a More To Life Than Shoes group to to get your regular fix of new ideas, new friends and new energy and make it happen. Members of MTLTS are bagging their dream jobs, writing books, starting businesses and getting promoted. It's a great way of getting the support, inspiration and encouragement you need to make a change.

Break it down: We’re not saying you need to jack in your job, move country or rent premises, well not right away. Once you know what you want to do, break it into smaller steps, and then just take the first of them. Do some research, apply for courses – these aren’t scary things. Start out small and gradually things will happen. 

It is only November, people, so there's plenty of time to get cracking at this before Christmas is actually upon us and we're lost in a haze of mulled wine and bad knitwear.

Good luck!

Jojo, leader of More To Life Than Shoes's Oxford group, explains why changing careers to work for a charity has inspired her in all areas of her life.

Twelve months ago I was doing a job I really hated. The highlight of my week was getting to the weekend and having a glass of wine and forgetting all about it. Now I work for Platform 51, a charity that supports girls and women, helping them take control of their lives. My career change has helped me learn that I can do more with my life in other areas.

I had always been interested in gender issues at university, but somehow after I left, I lost my way a little bit. Then one day, my boyfriend told me I couldn’t sit around moaning about my job for the rest of my life, and that I had to get out there and do something else. So I did. I joined an agency and became the Marketing and Communications Officer at Platform 51.

At Platform 51, women and girls use us as a platform for having their say.  We run programmes at women-only centres in some of the most deprived areas of England and Wales. Each woman who comes to us has different problems. By taking part in courses, group activities and counselling, we help them understand what's going on in their lives. This often inspires them to take the first step, whatever it is: finding the courage to say ‘no’, learning to speak English, applying to college, or having more confidence as a parent.

We also speak out on behalf of women. We challenge inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes by influencing decision makers and lobbying for changes in the law.

The women that I have met at our centres have really inspired me. They have been through some terrible times: mental health problems, domestic abuse, drugs or prison, but they have used the services Platform 51 provide to do more with their lives and break the cycle.

As soon as you visit a Platform 51 centre, it's obvious why they're so special. It's like getting a big hug from someone you love. It's support when you need it. That's what makes our visitors say things like, 'Platform 51 has given me a new life.'

I've gained a lot from working for Platform 51. Truly caring about what I do as a  job has made me more enthusiastic in all areas of my life. I now run the More To Life Than Shoes Oxford group. I have entered the Royal Parks half-marathon (I am running for Platform 51, of course). I'm always getting out there and trying new things.

If you're like I was, hating your job but not doing anything about it, have the confidence to make the change. I would recommend doing something you love and care about. You never know what might happen.

If you would like to find out more about Platform 51, then why not follow us on facebook, twitter or visit our website.

Hi, I'm Marianne, a “Free Range Career” expert who helps you escape the 9-5 and do something awesome on your own terms.

Ever wanted out of the 9-7 commute-office-commute-crash race? You know the one where you live for the weekends and your yearly holiday (and in the time between, spend your time at your desk secretly Googling getaways?).

A few years ago that’s exactly how I felt – great job, sexy title, shiny office, brilliant future…. What did I have to complain about?

The problem was, that ‘brilliant future’ involved a life where the bulk of every day was spent in an office worrying about deadlines, dealing with ‘all important projects’ I frankly didn’t care about for a boss who thought that time off was for losers and illness was for wimps (and wasn’t afraid to say so).

But of course, I made good money. I had decent holidays.

The job was more interesting than most things out there.  Things could be worse.

I’d worked so hard to get here how could I give it up?

Plus, who was I to dare to dream of something more when I was lucky to have any job in this economy?

All of these things were going through my head and more, every single time I thought I want out’.

But the crux of it was this: I didn’t believe a life outside of working in a ‘regular job’ was possible for someone like me.

You see, I did things the right way (this is the bit where I sound seriously conventional). I got a good university degree, worked for big companies (Sony, Disney…), moved to consultancy and had a pretty interesting job with ‘director’ in the title. And a nice shoe collection to boot :)

People like me did not (I thought) give everything up to go gallivanting around the world doing god knows what and (shock horror) having FUN even while earning money!

Not unless they got ‘lucky’ or were ‘talented’ and somehow became a bestselling travel writer or photographer.

And giving up city life to travel endlessly seemed impossible unless you were up for being pretty broke forever.

There really was no way out.

Sounding familiar yet?

You want freedom and fabulousness, but all you can see are other jobs or conventional options that don’t quite tick the boxes. That life of freedom, exploration, fabulous travel and adventures is something confined to a ‘career break’ or yearly holidays.

But what if there was another way? What if it were possible to have something more than the conventional grind that most people think of as success?

Well from the title of this article you might guess that I did find another way, it is possible, and you don’t have to be a broke backpacker to make it happen.

Want to know how? Well - you'll have to read my next blog!!


Marianne is the founder of Free Range Humans.  website for more info about her work helping people like us escape the padded cubicles of our lives. Click here to view more details

Hi, I'm Olive! I'm a Business Psychologist and Career Coach. I help people rediscover their passions and strengths. I love guiding and encouraging them to find the careers to which they are best suited.


I find that people beat themselves up about their career choices. If you find that you are mad with yourself for the career choices that you’ve made, then making peace with those choices is important for your own psychological wellbeing and in going forward to make changes to your life.

Things that you are currently doing or have done in the past don’t need to go to waste. You’ve made choices and those choices were right for you at that point in time.

Even if you can’t see it now, there are skills that you have uniquely acquired. That’s why I find it’s really important for you to make peace with where you are.

I heard a story from Bernadette Doyle that I would like to share with you. It is about a Swedish woman  who became known as the “angel on the hill” who saved lives in the 2004 Tsunami.

“She noticed the first part of the tsunami - the warning. She observed that the tide went out really quickly and was revealing the seabed. It so happened that years before, she had been working as a journalist and had done a broadcast in Hawaii about the impact of tsunamis.

At that moment, she was one of the few people that recognized and understood what was happening. She was able to warn many people to get off the beach immediately. Who knows how many lives she saved just by that action?

After the two waves subsided, people were in shock, and many badly injured. They assembled for safety on this hill, where this same Swedish woman tended to many injuries. It turned out that she had completed two years of a medical degree a few years earlier.

Though she wasn't a qualified doctor, that two years of training had given her just enough knowledge to save many lives.”

The reason that I’ve shared this story is because it clearly demonstrates why it’s important to make peace with your career decisions to date.

The Swedish lady had made some career choices that hadn’t worked out for her. She had tried journalism. She tried medicine and quit before becoming a doctor. Possibly she may even have tried other things that didn’t work out for her.

We are all unique, and have not acquired our skills sets and further developed our strengths by mistake.  Her skill set from the different career choices she had made saved lives.

So I invite you to make peace with where you are now by starting to acknowledge the skills that you’ve acquired, despite how you feel about your career choices.