“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.”
It’s why I’ve always violently resisted labels. Just let me do my thing. Who cares what you call it.
I also think we spend an inordinate amount of our precious time working. Most people, 74% according Arnold Schwarzenegger in
his speech that broke the Internet, don’t like their job. That’s a lot of wasted time. Time you can’t get back. So for me, I made a decision a long time ago to do work that I would do even if I wasn’t getting paid for it.
For me that eliminates a lot of stress and unhappiness. I’m not having to “live for the weekend” or feel angst because I don’t get time to do the things I want to do. The idea of a work-life balance becomes a foreign concept. And I’m able to embrace the
“never not working” movement.
Now, confession, I haven’t completely nailed this formula yet. I still have to deal with people because the money dynamic still plays a part in my life, much to my chagrin; I am not independently wealthy yet. I still need people to buy my goods and services so the wolf doesn’t come knocking on my door.
And as long as that dynamic stays true - it means there will be parts of my work/play that I don’t like but have to do because they are part of the game.
On the podcast episode next week, we’re talking about how to grow old mindfully. The conversation circled around to a discussion on how ageing brings you closer to death and how do you deal with that Damocles Sword hanging over your head. It reminded of one of my favourite Pink Floyd’s song -
Time and the idea that you
Run and run to catch up with sun but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
Ok ok, I know it’s Friday and we’re suppose to be happy and all this talk of death doesn’t make for a partying mood, unless you want to drown yourself in whisky.
So let’s switch gears and get into…
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