Your work doesn’t have to define you Meet Daniella Mancini, a Brit living and working in Denmark. In 2016, Daniella and her boyfriend found themselves tired of the “caffeine-fulled, unfulfilling routine” they lived in, and decided to leave for Denmark. Daniella came to Denmark in pursuit of fulfilment, happiness and, above all, adventure. Here’s her thoughts on the Danish work-life balance
Rewind 12 months and I was working stupidly long days that were made even worse by an even more stupidly long commute on a packed, stinky train. I could pretty consistently rule out the hours of 07:00-20:00 every day. These days, I usually average a 7-hour day and work just a 10-minute cycle away from home. Quite often I find myself glancing at the clock at 18:00 having already finished my working day, been to the gym for an hour, showered and cycled home again wondering what the hell I should do with my evening. It’s really
difficult to put into words just how positive that shift has been. I now not only have more time to do things for me, but also the headspace to dedicate energy to side projects and hobbies. In London, I got myself into an unhealthy cycle of putting my career above everything else. Not willingly, but just because I couldn’t avoid it. If I ever spoke to anyone about how I was doing, the conversation would always default to how my job was going and very little else. Inspired by the Danish attitude towards work-life balance, I now I fill my life not only with a job that I love, but also many other things that that have no other function than making me happy. I no longer feel defined by my job title, and much less so by my salary, and I now make a point of finding ways of using my free time to explore new things. I think this is the single best gift that living in a Danish culture could have given me, and it’s something I think we could probably all learn a lot from. Blog re-post: Scandirella