Work To Live, Don’t Live To Work

It is often said that we should find a job that we really like, because only then, we would not have to work a single day.

We know that something like this is not exactly easy, since, in order to live, sometimes many people are forced to carry out a job that does not suit their tastes or values.

However, this should not be the case. If we have to spend a large part of our lives in an environment that is hostile to us and violates our principles, sooner or later it will end up affecting our emotional health and, consequently, also our physical. Life is too short to have the wrong job.

Therefore, as far as possible, we should be able to carry out an activity that, more or less, fits our talent and, above all, that satisfaction that one finds doing something for which they feel useful, so it feels good. We invite you to reflect on it.

Time to work and time to live

If you know “the theory of the three eights” you will  know, without a doubt, that the ideal would be to have an 8-hour work day that would allow us, in turn, to have 8 hours of leisure and 8 hours to rest or sleep .

We also know that this proportion is not always true. That there are the overtime hours and, of course, the time we lose on trips or on those days, games that sometimes make us lose valuable hours.

Experts in work psychology usually distinguish 3 types of profiles when facing work and the complex contexts that surround us. They would be the following.

1. Those who hate their job

In this first dimension are those people who, by whatever circumstances, have reached a point where they hate their work.

This can occur when factors such as bad management appear that do not value workers and that “exploit” them. Also, sometimes, certain environments where competitiveness or pressure from certain colleagues cause us to go to work with disgust, stress and discomfort.

2. Those who do their job

In this part is, without a doubt, the great majority of the population. Working is, after all, a necessity and an obligation. Therefore, we try to do our best.

However, we fall into a certain resignation where we never stop dreaming of getting a better life or winning the lottery. Without existing an incisive and almost destructive discomfort as in the previous case, sometimes, due to routine or even a lack of high motivation, people lose their vital energy.

Little by little we drift into apathy and into such a suffocating routine. There  stress and anxiety may appear because there is no personal satisfaction. Because there is an internal dissonance.

In the end, the work becomes a formality. It is not something that defines us and makes us feel useful or proud of ourselves. Although there are many inter-individual differences, many people can end up suffering from depression from these causes.

3. Those who love what they do

In this group are those who have found a vital purpose that defines and identifies them. For them, working is not an obligation but their personal meaning.

With their work they not only promote their own satisfaction but also improve the quality of life of others. People who work on what they love. They have had, above all , the luck of finding a medium or a context that values ​​their abilities, they work by vocation.

The word vocation comes from Latin and means “a call that comes from within us to put our voice into action.” This dimension is an aspect that we should all discover and find the means to be able to carry it out.

Read also What has to be will be, in due time and in due course

The knowmads , the workers of the future

In this changing and increasingly complex society, a new work profile has emerged that is as interesting as it is useful. They are known as knowmads and have the following characteristics:

• The knowmad can be a young or mature person. She knows that she has skills that can be useful to others and wants to pass them on.
• He understands that his work should be his passion, but he carries it out independently, without having a status or direction above him.

• He likes people and “connecting” with them, either personally or through new technologies. In this environment, he is usually ideal to develop his work.
• The knowmad value your freedom, transform information into knowledge and is versatile. He learns continuously, he is restless and he is not afraid of failure, because he also considers it a way of learning.

An interesting approach that teaches us, above all, to seek new employment opportunities. We must work in a complex context where what is intended is, above all, to work to be happy.