Over the last two weeks, I’ve written about, the meaning of life and Happiness. This has led me to thinking about work. I think most people place to much emphasis on Work. Many people unintentionally place it ahead of things I believe are more important, such as family, health, and happiness. Today I would like to explore the question:
I have never identified with employment work or seeing that as giving life meaning.
It's funny, last night I dreamt that I had a conversation with someone and I was saying "the biggest problem of our society is the discrepancy between what we say our ideals are and what everyone does in real life. Nobody wants to accept real life". Meaning that there are so many people trying to avoid employment-work one way ore another but still we say it's the ideal...
I know exactly what I would do, if didn't have to work, because I tried it.
I do roughly the same stuff, just less organised. And I do a lot of work for friends and acquaintances... And I work at building our house ourselves together with my husband instead of paying for things. This is a general rule. We do stuff mainly ourselves instead of paying for it to get done.
Beautiful Marta. Thank you for this thoughtful comment. I'm glad I'm not alone in imagining life without work. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to try it like you.
Lol, yeah, I think we've all felt this way. I used to think that if I didn't need to work I could write more. But I'm not sure that is the case. You'll always find an excuse to not write. Resistance is relentless.
If I had to write as a job then I'd be doing it for the money, which not what we want either.
But if I was rich enough to write without worrying about money then what would I write?
I’m just sick of the “find good work that gives you purpose and all your problems are solved” line. I can’t relate to it, so for now I’m trying to find my own solutions to being happy and living a good life.
For me this is a useful thought experiment and I strongly believe that most people, at least in the US put Waay to much emphasis on career and work.
I know a lot people who don’t have a financial forcing function to work and still do.
They have financial freedom because they actually like work, they’re good at, and are rewarded by it in more ways than just $
But they don’t work full time jobs they don’t like. The average desire for work hours seems to be around 4-5 hrs / day, around five days a week. Some people like working all the time. Some people are comfortable not contributing.
Yeah, that’s great. I think it’s likely that when I achieve financial freedom I will still work in some capacity.
My thing is that there’s more to life than work. I’ve literally seen people (friends parents/family members) work their entire life, then retire, then die within 5 years of retirement (or less).
They never thought about their own happiness, they never prioritized their health because we’ve been taught since grade school that career is all that matters. It’s like you’ve said before about the “what do you do” question. I hate that question as well, but people think that is all that matters about who they are. And I don’t like that.
I think a better question is “what if you didn’t have to work” and I think most people don’t ask these type of questions unfortunately and I’m here to change that.
I have never identified with employment work or seeing that as giving life meaning.
It's funny, last night I dreamt that I had a conversation with someone and I was saying "the biggest problem of our society is the discrepancy between what we say our ideals are and what everyone does in real life. Nobody wants to accept real life". Meaning that there are so many people trying to avoid employment-work one way ore another but still we say it's the ideal...
I know exactly what I would do, if didn't have to work, because I tried it.
I do roughly the same stuff, just less organised. And I do a lot of work for friends and acquaintances... And I work at building our house ourselves together with my husband instead of paying for things. This is a general rule. We do stuff mainly ourselves instead of paying for it to get done.
Beautiful Marta. Thank you for this thoughtful comment. I'm glad I'm not alone in imagining life without work. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to try it like you.
Lol, yeah, I think we've all felt this way. I used to think that if I didn't need to work I could write more. But I'm not sure that is the case. You'll always find an excuse to not write. Resistance is relentless.
If I had to write as a job then I'd be doing it for the money, which not what we want either.
But if I was rich enough to write without worrying about money then what would I write?
I'd just be writing the same stuff I do now.
All good points.
I’m just sick of the “find good work that gives you purpose and all your problems are solved” line. I can’t relate to it, so for now I’m trying to find my own solutions to being happy and living a good life.
For me this is a useful thought experiment and I strongly believe that most people, at least in the US put Waay to much emphasis on career and work.
Thanks for the comment man, cheers!
I know a lot people who don’t have a financial forcing function to work and still do.
They have financial freedom because they actually like work, they’re good at, and are rewarded by it in more ways than just $
But they don’t work full time jobs they don’t like. The average desire for work hours seems to be around 4-5 hrs / day, around five days a week. Some people like working all the time. Some people are comfortable not contributing.
Yeah, that’s great. I think it’s likely that when I achieve financial freedom I will still work in some capacity.
My thing is that there’s more to life than work. I’ve literally seen people (friends parents/family members) work their entire life, then retire, then die within 5 years of retirement (or less).
They never thought about their own happiness, they never prioritized their health because we’ve been taught since grade school that career is all that matters. It’s like you’ve said before about the “what do you do” question. I hate that question as well, but people think that is all that matters about who they are. And I don’t like that.
I think a better question is “what if you didn’t have to work” and I think most people don’t ask these type of questions unfortunately and I’m here to change that.
“What do you do” is the fucking plague
I say “what kind of stuff do you like to do” and people hardly know what to say
They’re so ready to answer “what do you do” that they say “do you mean like for work”