MAN SAYS LIFE IN S’PORE IS JUST WORKING TO PAY BILLS & SURVIVE WITH WHATEVER $$ IS LEFT

Is this the norm in SG?

As I grow older, it feels harder to be genuinely happy.

I count my blessings for not having to worry about daily essentials, but yet every passing day still feels like a mere distraction, towards an end that’s nowhere in sight.

Weekdays are for meeting deadlines; weekends are for fulfilling societal expectations. Payday comes and goes, only to squirrel away whatever balance after expenses.

It’s also getting harder to be truly interested in conversations, especially when mobile phone entertainment seems more engaging.

Did anyone else feel this way, and how do you get out of this rut?

Netizens’ comments

1. Lack of interest can be a sign of burnout. I was overworked before to the point where I felt dead and life was not worth living anymore.
   I quit my job to try something different and that helped a little. However, I got too good at this job and my work has been piling up, so I tendered again because I don’t want to end up in the same situation.
   Now I’m looking forward to taking some courses, and explore other options. It’s subsidised for ppl aged 40 and above.
   So, my suggestion is to diagnose why you feel this way. If you have work life balance, then perhaps you need a change in environment or try different experiences to get your creative engine going.
   I find that travel to a new country works wonders, or learning a new skill or language can mix things up a bit. I’m saying this because I’ve found these rather useful for me. Or maybe you just need to do nothing at a beach somewhere. 🙂
2. To me Singapore feels almost like a closed bubble. People say it’s like Disney Land (for the rich), but for the working class, the demand of work and societal expectation to ‘succeed in life’ make Singapore feel like a bubble of ‘work’.
   Whenever discussions on meaning come up, it comes down mostly to the family, and the spectre of chasing material success—for the sake of the family ironically—again comes up. We cannot run away from chasing material success. The whole project of life is defined in its term.
   We live to work. We work to live.
   It does not help that the physical space of Singapore almost feels like a bubble, an island with urban architecture. The lack of rurality leads to a lack of space for contemplation: of life, of nature, of relationships, since the urban speed at which we enjoy relationships and external environs make us unable to breathe slowly and look inward deeply, discovering meaning.
   Do this day in and day out, every day of our adult life, and our senses for the transcendent atrophy. We become insensitive to meaning, to wonder and awe of existence and life.
   Which is why my advice is actually to travel. Not to other urban spaces like Hong Kong, Seoul, etc. where you will end up breathing the same spirit, but to rural places where traditions are alive and people are connected to each other and to nature. See how other societies live and imbibe their worldviews. There are many ways we can draw meaning that we are not used to, far beyond the spiritual boredom we are used to cultivating inadvertently.
   Maybe we can feel wonder in life again!
3. Been feeling the same way as OP. Every week feels like an endless cycle and the months just mesh together.
   Am afraid of my ‘prime’ just passing me by like this so I made the decision to put my job on hold (boss was nice to grant a sabbatical) and go travel for 6 months.
   I might come back broke-ish but hopefully I’ll gain a whole new worldview and I think my mental health really needs it.