In my previous post, Laid Off at 35: A Forced but Welcome Escape from the Workplace, I wrote at length about my last job and nearly six years of my life there. It has been exactly half a month since I left. Freed from the nine-to-five commute and the tension of the office, these days that no alarm clock commands have let me slow down, talk with myself and with life again, and find a new direction somewhere between the warmth of daily life and the quiet.
Living a life I actually enjoy
In this stretch I lived the days the way I like: full of everyday warmth and yet relaxed. Exercise became a daily must — the lightness of the wind past my ears when I run, the ever-changing scenery along a ride, and the release of long-accumulated pressure in the panting climb of a mountain hike. I even saw a movie. Most memorable of all, I took two days off for my kid on purpose and took him to Wulang Mountain and Luniao Mountain near home. I thought I could handle it; the whole route left me wrecked. But watching him bounce and skip, exploring nature full of curiosity, I felt the exhaustion was more than worth it. Besides sweating it out outdoors, the library became my other base — wandering aimlessly through a sea of books quieted my restless mind and filled a spiritual blank I had not had for a long time.
The passions shelved during the busy years at work also got picked back up. After joining my previous employer I never had time for my blog again; it was like an old friend forgotten in a corner. With this free time I made up my mind to fix it up properly, used AI to completely rewrite the frontend, and archived the scattered reading notes I had jotted down. Looking at the fresh blog, I felt I had found the version of myself who loved to share and loved to think. There is no describing the satisfaction of mending a regret with your own hands.
The rare break also gave me a chance to see old friends again. A few former colleagues who had also left met me in Dream Town. A steaming bowl of mutton soup, a couple cups of rich coffee, and warm sunlight — we talked about how things were going. Stripped of the identities the workplace imposes, we honestly shared what had happened since leaving, and were glad to find everyone doing well on their own new tracks. That gathering had none of the office’s calculation or politeness, only the ease of old friends. It made me believe even more that every choice means something — leaving is not an ending, it is a new beginning.
Keep exercising and learning, and prepare for the next job
Rest, of course, is not total indulgence. I was also seriously planning my career direction. In this period I updated my resume, just to look at the market, and found that everyone who reached out to me on BOSS was from an outsourcing company, and mostly for technical-support roles. That only hardened what I already thought: no more technical support. Not that I look down on the job — I worked in it for seven or eight years and know its value and its difficulty well. But for me the ceiling of that role is already within reach; neither in pay nor in personal growth can I see new hope. Staying would only mean stagnation.
A short rest is for setting out better. For the future I already have a clear plan. First, go deep into AI — from large models to LLMs, exploring this field full of potential step by step, and keep writing the learning process and takeaways on the blog, forcing input through output to deepen my grasp of the knowledge. Second, keep the exercise habit going: running, cycling and hiking are not just pastimes but the foundation for a healthy body and a positive mind.
I have to say, having grown used to the busy days of a workhorse, suddenly having a lot of free time feels strange in a wonderful way. But I know well that free time, if not used, easily turns into decay. I was never someone who can sit idle. This break is not an escape for me, it is a restart. It let me shed the exhaustion, find my passion again, and see the direction clearly. The road ahead may be full of challenges, but I am ready — carrying the energy this time gave me and a clear goal, moving forward bravely. Half a month is short, yet enough to let me regroup and meet the new journey in a better state.
Not working, I spend less
There is another interesting thing: not working, my spending actually dropped. Commuting to the office used to cost me more than 2,000 a month on parking, fuel and keeping the car alone — all gone now. That is four or five thousand a month saved on costs that came with going to work. I also do not need to eat out; cooking at home costs almost nothing, another few thousand saved. Some days the only expense is 14 yuan deducted by my son’s school cafeteria. So if work is not forced on you by life, I really do think working is optional. Use the time to do what you love, and earn a little along the way — far more interesting than grinding a high salary at 996 with your nerves strung tight. A monthly salary looks decent, but after all the taxes, social insurance, mortgage, car and commuting costs, and living expenses, what actually reaches your hand is not much at all. A dozen-plus years of working, and I still owe the bank hundreds of thousands. Sometimes I feel there is not a single thing to look forward to in this life.
Life by subtraction
A life is only twenty or thirty thousand days. At my age, more than ten thousand of them are already gone. For someone my age, I have experienced what there was to experience, eaten what there was to eat, bought the house, married, had the kid — and suddenly I find that plain food is fine by me. What I want to do now is subtract, not add. And I have been doing it for years:
- Gradually withdrawing from social networks. Quitting the internet is hard, but I have already closed my accounts on X, Weibo and the like, keeping only WeChat Moments and my personal blog.
- Deleting people I added but never or rarely contact. I started this early; now almost everyone left is someone I actually know.
- Quitting drinks and coffee. At work I used to need a cup a day to survive, but in this half month I have barely touched coffee, saving a few hundred yuan in coffee money. Coffee keeps me awake, and soft drinks are all high in sugar — neither suits me anymore. An occasional one, maybe.
- Keeping up at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise a week: running, cycling, hiking. It is the best habit I have built in the past three years and the highest-return investment I have made. I also signed my kid up for basketball, two sessions a week, 60 minutes each, plus a mountain hike every weekend with good weather. This came from reading Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
- Finding things I love to do and training myself into a slash-career person. I refuse to pour all my energy into one company or institution, and refuse 996 and every 996 company. Compared with a seemingly high-paying job that can vanish the moment you are laid off, spreading the risk is the wise move.
- Forcing myself to read before sleep, no phone, so the phone does not disturb me and ruin my sleep quality.
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