Do You Work to Live, Or Live to Work?
I have a friend from Germany that has moved to the states to work. He’s always wanted to live here, but now that he’s here he’s wondering whether or not he made the right choice. We got into a conversation about it the other day and he said the biggest difference between Americans and the rest of the world is that Americans live to work; everyone else works to live.
That statement was simple, yet very profound for me. I definitely live to work. I haven’t had a vacation in more than ten years - not a real one anyway - I haven’t stopped to smell the roses in I don’t know how long. My life is consumed with my work and school. My friend, on the other hand, working only to live goes sailing every weekend. He enjoys the simple things in life like a picnic in the field on a warm spring day or a drive through the countryside at dusk. These small pleasures that are simple and free, yet we often take for granted.
So now that I was feeling thoroughly depressed with how hard I seemed to work and how little I seemed to play, I thought about it a little more. Is it a bad thing to work as much as I do when you love what you do? Doesn’t passion count for something?
To be fair, my true passion is writing and I’m not doing nearly as much of that as I’d like. While I love the financial industry and helping people, if I’m honest I do it because it provides me the money I need to pursue my passion of writing. And while I occasionally get paid for my writing, I’m not so sure I’m ready to cut the safety net of the financial industry. But, part of my job in the financial industry means I keep up with financial news around the world and in the U.S., at least as much as possible. What I found today was both inspiring and deflating in equal measures - how’s that for injustice?
Kiplinger’s gave a report on a couple in Florida who have little debt, a new baby, one spouse working the steady 9-5 gig and one spouse doing the freelance gig. The one working 9-5 is Todd and his passion in life is to make films. He’s part-owner of an indie production company that’s made some acclaimed short films and now they’re seeking out investors to help develop feature films. The trouble is, he’s only able to devote himself part-time to this venture because his priority is to the job bringing in the income.
Todd and his wife are doing modestly well with $135,000 saved in retirement accounts, a liquid savings account with at least 6 months worth of expenses saved, and little debt - in other words, their finances are an excellent model of where a couple their age should be; however, market experts say now’s not the time to leave his steady job. Now’s the time to stay his course and keep the benefits given the uncertainty of the economy. That’s definitely a wise course of action, whether the economy is bad or not. While your passion may be a dream you’ve longed to pursue, when you have obligations that passion sometimes has to take a back seat to your life. Still, it has to be insanely frustrating to be so close yet so far away from his ultimate goal.
Clearly my inner artist is craving attention today as my post is more folly than practical, but assuming that we didn’t have bills to pay or had responsibilities to tend to, where would your passion lead you?
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May 21st, 2008 at 9:16 am
That is a really hard question. I already don’t work, so that’s easy, but if my husband didn’t have to work either… tough one. We would probably move out of state, we could come visit whenever we wanted after all. But after that… I don’t know. I would say travel but that is pretty hard to do with the kids in school. I’m sure we would travel as much as we could.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am
If I had no bills to pay or responsibilities to tend to, I’d be traveling across the country and around the world, visiting and bringing assistance to kids who need it. I have a great passion for helping underprivileged children and the most fulfilling times of my life are when I am able to have face to face time with them and bring them some joy and help.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am
This thought has been on my mind a LOT lately. I am a work to liver, but find the culture here makes it very difficult to live the way I would like. I’m working on ways to change that, but these things take time :)
If I have the resources and freedom to do whatever I wanted, I would garden and enjoy my yard more, then paint and create works of art. I would love to sell art, but am pretty darn happy with anything that meets my personal goals and expectations for a piece. I would also like to teach, perhaps ESL or Math. I would love to show people, especially kids, that math can be fun. I would take ballet or dance classes almost every day as well as yoga for fun. Finally, I would travel, especially in Western Europe, stick to the small towns, take lots of photographs (learn more about photography), and do some cross country skiing while practicing languages I’ve long forgotten.
May 25th, 2008 at 4:47 am
[…] Do You Work To Live, or Live To Work? […]
May 26th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I’m amazed that you’ve not taken holidays for 10 years. Here in Australia your company in most cases will force you to take your holidays if you let them accrue more than 4-6 weeks (we get 4 weeks a year paid holidays here).
It’s bad for your health & wellbeing, & bad for the business’s bottom line to have too much leave just sitting there.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I’ve taken the few days off here and there to make for some long weekends, but I haven’t been on a proper vacation in 10 years. I feel the strain of it everyday, believe me. In fact, I’m now dealing with a case of pneumonia. My problem is I’m a bit of a work-a-holic, even when I try to take time to rest and relax, my brain is still worrying about the things I know I need to get done. The never-ending cycle of what it means to live to work. But, I’m trying to learn how to work to live…some habits just seem to die hard!