I agree with this wholeheartedly! I spent the last 8 or 9 years "self employed" but doing minimal actual work. My life was plagued with spare time spent doing "leisure" activities. Needless to say my mental health slowly declined until i hit an all time low in my life at the beginning of last year. At that point I knew something needed to change but I had no idea what to do. So in October I had to pay off a car repairs so I got a job. Then in January I decided to finally follow my passion and go back to school for psychology. Needless to say it has been mildly stressful at times finding a way to balance this load. However, I feel better mentally than I have in years, and I owe this improvement to my sense of accomplishment from work and school.
No way Andrew!! Literally in this position. Unemployed since October, started up as a freelance writer, two days ago had the calling to go back to school to study something along the lines of Cognitive science or psychotherapy.
Why? because i’m aware my health will deteriorate without the necessary work load and stimuli.
This hit too close to home. Giving the opportunity I totally waste time. Work is absolutely the remedy, even unpleasant work, if you learn to live it. Great read!
Words take on a contemporary connotation. "WORK" has become a toxic word. (Maybe there is a lot of toxic work out there?) I rarely, or almost never was in a corporate situation, although I don't think they are all negative. Somebody is your boss, and "he" may be taking all the glory that you produced, for himself. Male dominated companies are hierarchical, and the game is one-up or one-down, on the totem pole.
I was always at least a partner, if not the sole proprietor. So I always gave it my all, and I was rewarded. (Even if the business failed.) Maybe people shouldn't use the word 'work" anymore?
Another word might be engagement. I engage with this and that activity and that person. What would you get by refusing to engage, besides stasis. "Mutual engagement" might grow to mean I do this for you, and you give that to me, (money). You said once; if you can learn to love what you do: and I think that is the start, and it begins right now. The other method is to do what you love, well, that could come later.
Don't even use the word "happiness". Use satisfaction. With satisfaction comes contentment. Sounds healthy to me.
I wonder if you could explore imaginatively what might happen to us in this future AI world where the work landscape is altered and how we will be filling our days with meaningful productive lives? In other words, some form of changes are coming, how might we best imagine and shape them?…for example. AI can’t paint your house…and even if robots will, someone has to choose the color. Will we all do more local physical work like cooking and painting our house? What happens when incomes are more equalized but many live in lower quality housing and now there will be economic pressure to equalize housing, so it’s a migration of those from lesser housing to greater housing and how does that uproot society? And what work does it demand of us? Imagine the new work.
I wonder if many people have forgotten how to not work? Subsequently given the free time, one looks to their piers, sees them staring into a screen and thinks that what should be done.
Great insight! Also I have found personally, and seen in others, that humans can become interested in doing work that they thought they never would be interested in. My parents encouraged me to "do something you love" so I became a musician. Eventually out of financial necessity, I went into healthcare which I did not love at first, but it was a way of helping people which I did want to do. While in school, it became a greater interest and eventually the neurotransmitter "Happiness Trifecta" started kicking in (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/vitality/201404/the-neuroscience-giving)!
Also I agree with your doubt about communism being a good pathway. The old Soviet Union joke comes to mind, "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." This is because systems that remove incentive, eventually fail.
I totally agree. John Cooper-Clarke, the poet and legend, says, 'The more you work, the more you work. Brilliant post.
Thank you Jon!
I agree with this wholeheartedly! I spent the last 8 or 9 years "self employed" but doing minimal actual work. My life was plagued with spare time spent doing "leisure" activities. Needless to say my mental health slowly declined until i hit an all time low in my life at the beginning of last year. At that point I knew something needed to change but I had no idea what to do. So in October I had to pay off a car repairs so I got a job. Then in January I decided to finally follow my passion and go back to school for psychology. Needless to say it has been mildly stressful at times finding a way to balance this load. However, I feel better mentally than I have in years, and I owe this improvement to my sense of accomplishment from work and school.
Thank you for sharing this
No way Andrew!! Literally in this position. Unemployed since October, started up as a freelance writer, two days ago had the calling to go back to school to study something along the lines of Cognitive science or psychotherapy.
Why? because i’m aware my health will deteriorate without the necessary work load and stimuli.
Marv 👌😆
This hit too close to home. Giving the opportunity I totally waste time. Work is absolutely the remedy, even unpleasant work, if you learn to live it. Great read!
Words take on a contemporary connotation. "WORK" has become a toxic word. (Maybe there is a lot of toxic work out there?) I rarely, or almost never was in a corporate situation, although I don't think they are all negative. Somebody is your boss, and "he" may be taking all the glory that you produced, for himself. Male dominated companies are hierarchical, and the game is one-up or one-down, on the totem pole.
I was always at least a partner, if not the sole proprietor. So I always gave it my all, and I was rewarded. (Even if the business failed.) Maybe people shouldn't use the word 'work" anymore?
Another word might be engagement. I engage with this and that activity and that person. What would you get by refusing to engage, besides stasis. "Mutual engagement" might grow to mean I do this for you, and you give that to me, (money). You said once; if you can learn to love what you do: and I think that is the start, and it begins right now. The other method is to do what you love, well, that could come later.
Don't even use the word "happiness". Use satisfaction. With satisfaction comes contentment. Sounds healthy to me.
.
I wonder if you could explore imaginatively what might happen to us in this future AI world where the work landscape is altered and how we will be filling our days with meaningful productive lives? In other words, some form of changes are coming, how might we best imagine and shape them?…for example. AI can’t paint your house…and even if robots will, someone has to choose the color. Will we all do more local physical work like cooking and painting our house? What happens when incomes are more equalized but many live in lower quality housing and now there will be economic pressure to equalize housing, so it’s a migration of those from lesser housing to greater housing and how does that uproot society? And what work does it demand of us? Imagine the new work.
I wonder if many people have forgotten how to not work? Subsequently given the free time, one looks to their piers, sees them staring into a screen and thinks that what should be done.
Like prolonged extensions of ‘break time’. 🤔
Great insight! Also I have found personally, and seen in others, that humans can become interested in doing work that they thought they never would be interested in. My parents encouraged me to "do something you love" so I became a musician. Eventually out of financial necessity, I went into healthcare which I did not love at first, but it was a way of helping people which I did want to do. While in school, it became a greater interest and eventually the neurotransmitter "Happiness Trifecta" started kicking in (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/vitality/201404/the-neuroscience-giving)!
Also I agree with your doubt about communism being a good pathway. The old Soviet Union joke comes to mind, "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." This is because systems that remove incentive, eventually fail.
Thank you!