When Your Career Is Your First Priority, Dating Gets Pushed Into The Background 

When Your Career Is Your First Priority, Dating Gets Pushed Into The Background 

When your career is your first priority, it’s hard to find someone to date because you are busy all the time. There are friends you haven’t seen in months. There are texts you haven’t answered for days. You can’t imagine finding the time to date when you can barely find the time to sleep. Your schedule is packed. You are involved in more projects than you have ever been before, which also means you are busier than you have ever been before. You don’t have much time to spare.

When your career is your first priority, sleep becomes your second priority. Even if you are rewarded with a weekend off where you could theoretically get dressed up and meet people, you don’t really want to leave the house. You don’t want to push your way through a crowded club in the hopes someone will offer to buy you a drink. You would rather pour yourself a drink. Your work weeks are fulfilling, but they are also exhausting. You want to rest on your hours off, not socialize.

When your career is your first priority, love is pushed to the back of your mind. You don’t spend every waking moment on dating apps. Even when you spend some time swiping, you might have a nice conversation, but you rarely meet  up with anyone in person. You don’t have that kind of time, so the relationship only exists over the phone.

You don’t mind that too much, of course, because you aren’t obsessed with finding the love of your life. You aren’t upset about the fact you are single. Sure, it would be nice to find your person, but it’s not something you spend too much time worrying about. You have bigger concerns. You are more excited about reaching career milestones than relationship milestones.

When your career is your first priority, you forget some people consider being single a bad thing. Living on your own doesn’t bother you in the least. You are perfectly happy. You don’t need a person you’re passionate about because you’re already passionate about your work. It means everything to you. It’s the reason you get up in the morning. It’s your purpose.

Unfortunately, some people are going to assume you are lying about being happy. There are going to accuse you of working in order to distract yourself from how lonely you are deep down inside. Of course, that is not the case. You aren’t lonely. You aren’t using your work as an excuse to stay busy. You work because you love it. You work because it brings you a sense of fulfillment. You work because you want to work.

When your career is your first priority, you grow to accept everyone is different. Some of your friends consider marriage their first priority. Some of them consider family their first priority. Some of them consider travel their first priority. Some of them consider their bank account their first priority. Different people value different things — and that is okay as long as you’re all happy at the end of each day. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Holly is the author of Severe(d): A Creepy Poetry Collection.

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