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I work in a similar fashion when it is something I absolutely believe in. If I am in that situation then time doesn't even feel like it's going by. That sort of meaningful work is what I am wanting to get to.I've been giving this some thought lately too, especially in the historical context.
I think in an era or place where a tiger can attack your family in a hut, there's no such thing as "an off day". The more you layer on the trappings of modern life, the more leisure becomes a possibility.
But work used to be a virtue. The ability to work for the sake of working was seen as a goal or purpose to life in itself. Leisure was akin to lazy and laziness is a vice, something to be purged from our character. Don't indulge in too much leisure, else you risk being a do nothing.
Anyways, I feel like I'm wired the opposite of many people that way, in that I exist to "work" on my craft. I haven't always been that way, and maybe I won't always be this way, but its who I am at the moment. I have no intention of retiring, I hope to always have an office to go to. Sure, maybe I'll show up less in old age, but I still want to show up.
Sometimes artists describe this feeling, like they just have to make art. I don't think my sense of working on my craft is quite like that. This is more akin to how, as a kid, I used to zone out in books, or later I would zone out in video games. My work feeds the same pathways in my brain that those activities did, with the added benefit that I'm helping small businesses acquire more clients, which leads to more people having a job and more prosperity for more families. And not faceless families "somewhere out there", but usually this is helping families that I get to know personally.
Maybe you haven't found your craft yet. Or maybe you don't think your work has enough value. Maybe you could switch your mindset a little if you understood or had a greater appreciation how your work actually helped your team accomplished something that actually has an affect on people in the world.
It's easy to forget that sometimes the seemingly simplest things in life we take for granted. I think I do need to do some reframing for sure.I'm of the opinion that happiness is a state of mind. If you can't find a way to be content in your current situation, what makes you think this will change when you have more. There will just be more things and complications to be unhappy about.
Of course there are circumstances that make life a hell hole. This can be seen in multiple places in my family alone.
My mother was an extreme paranoid schizophrenic and manic depressive. She resented the world because she could not participate like other "normal" people. Spent many years in institutions and such.
Two of my granddaughters have such a rare genetic disorder that they don't even have a name for it. Their bodies don't process proteins and thus have little muscle. They are basically in wheelchairs. They can walk on wobbly legs but fall all the time. Never able to participate in sports or play like others. No cure at this time. They had a lab at a hospital with a staff dedicated solely to finding a cure for them. It was shut down after 5 years with no result.
My nephew came down with spinal meningitis when he was three. He is paralyzed on one side and had the mental capacity of a 5 year old. He lives in a care home.
All of them deal with life the best they know how.
Your challenge really is to learn how to be happy in general. It will really help if you can grasp this before heading into the fastlane. Life becomes much more complicated with success.
Not necessarily an escape from the grind but an escape from work that feels meaningless.What is the alternative in your mind?
Because if you think being an entrepreneur gets you out of the grind, it may be partially true. I knew many people who like the 9 to 5 because they go to work and go home and collect money. Don’t think about work on the weekends at all.
If you want freedom that comes with owning a business, or making a lot of money, let me tell you, there will be a lot more pressure than going to Starbucks and going to work every day.
So as you stand in line and think that your life sucks, just be prepared for the ultimate grind when you go off on your own. Many people aren’t, which is why you see them in line at Starbucks every day.
A silver bullet to those thoughts if there ever was one XDThe only way out, is by taking your life back after the work and most people won't, can't or even don't understand why they have to do it.
Keep your mind clear. Don't bother why those people are, who they are. Your biggest problem should be, why those people don't spend their hard earned money into your company?
I want to take on a very heavy burden that I find meaningfulWhat do you want then?
How do you want to live?
And there's a certain meaning in that for sure, I wonder if as a society we would actually like it more if it was like that. Though I cant be sure as I have never had to live like that except for backpacking.Maybe I am romantic but I doubt that people back then were as miserable as most are now. It's a question of control, environment and food. Shit food causes inflammation and inflammation causes depression which perpetuates the cycle.
Also, if you were a cave man, you went to hunt your whatever it was and you kept it. If you succeeded, you got to keep the reward and if you failed, you would be hungry, but at least there was a direct connection between your actions and the consequences you faced.
Thirdly, the environments most of us live in are ugly and synthetic with fast food stores, parking lots, cheap warehouse buildings and retail outlets. All that ugliness kills the soul.
But the real difference would have been that humans have only recently (since the enlightenment) developed a concept of an autonomous, separate 'me' who must achieve and do it all alone. That's the source of all our misery.
On the other hand, I am very happy to live in an age of relative freedom, health care, and peace.
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