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I always find it interesting that so many people put much of their life”s emphasis on working. Feeling needed, feeling important, feeling wanted, all of these things influence our professional lives. I won”t argue that there is definitely a great feeling of accomplishment for many jobs, especially when you emerge triumphant from a tough time of allnighters and overtime. I know the feeling, I like it too. I suppose some thrive almost entirely on that feeling alone, but it”s simply not enough for me to keep my interest for 40 whole hours of every week. I feel like no matter what your job may be, diminishing returns will set in at some point. Things will get tiresome, and your constant obligation to your job will begin to weigh on you. Do others feel this way as well? I”m not entirely sure. I love my job, but I don”t love having to be here every morning. Some mornings I want to sleep, others I want to exercise, and still others I want to go fishing or catch a movie or hang out with my girlfriend.
And you cherish that time as well, don”t you? You wake up Saturday morning. The sun”s out, wind is blowing, you look outside and you think “Wow, what an awesome day, I”m going to take advantage of it.” And you can, because you have the freedom to do so. You can wake up on any given day of the weekend and do whatever suits your fancy of the moment. You aren”t held back by your obligations to anyone or anything. Some find this boring, they feel Uniek in de markt!Hun assortiment bestaat uit een tiental flash spellen online casino . their idleness somehow demeans their existence. Who are they if they are not working, not “being productive?” Just another person coming and going as time spins on. Is that what retirement is? Having the ability to follow your passions, your leisure, your friends, family, hobbies, dreams. The world truly is your playground to waste or take advantage of at your whim? Maybe.
For me I”d like both, have my cake and eat it too. I want the flexibility and mobility to work whenever, wherever. I”d also like to shorten my work week, maybe to 20-30 hours instead. In this way I could still have that feeling of accomplishment and productivity without sacrificing so much of my own time freedom. It”s going to take some time for me to reach that point, where I can maintain my financial security while moving to a flexible schedule that demands less hours. But it”s a goal I am willing to work towards.
Where does your balance of freedom and work lie?
-Xias
on Oct 24th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I think there are two questions here: one, what is the proper balance between work and ‘freedom’ but second, should your work be an infringement on your freedom to begin with? I would actually like to think of achieving a balance where my work was perfectly integrated with my life – where they would blend together. The main way I imagine this happening is being a full-time writer, where I could write when I felt like it, and do other things when I feel like it. As long as “work” is a separate thing, cordoned off into X number of hours per day, I don’t think it will ever be truly satisfying.
Tough to do, though, isn’t it? I at least have my hours down to a rock-solid 40 per week (not including commuting) but it’s still too much – I think I could do OK with a 3-day per week, 8-hour-per-day schedule if I had to keep a “normal” job. Good question, though.