What is work for?

Why do you work?

Is it to provide the basic needs and necessities for you and perhaps even your loved ones because that’s what work used to be for?

Or is work for accumulating possessions?

Would you work if you weren’t being paid?

Sound ridiculous?

I agree.

So, allow me to tweak the question slightly.

What would you like to do and get paid for it?

Think of two concentric circles. One is your interest, and the second is compensation – where they overlap is where you get paid.

Before I continue, I want to acknowledge that I know I’m painting with a broad brush and that there are people that are victims of circumstances and cannot, and for whatever reason, are tied to work they would never willingly choose.

Why am I asking you to think about work? Because data shows that the average person will spend one-third of their life working. Now your initial reaction might be one third is no big deal because simple math tells you that leaves you with two-thirds for yourself. I apologize in advance; you also need to know that the average person spends one-third of their life sleeping. That’s two-thirds of life gone between working and sleeping. The final third of life is the bookend hours between work and sleep.

You can’t do much about the sleeping part of life because it’s required for survival. Sure, you can cut a few hours here and there, but remove too many, and you’ll pay the price with poor health.

But when it comes to working, you have more choices.

You can find work that allows you to express your interests, but it takes effort to do so. The first obvious step is to do some soul searching to uncover what motivates you or said differently, what you might do for free. And then, find a way to get compensated for doing work you love.

I know there’s a massive elephant in the room about being compensated for doing what you love and sacrifices that might need to be made between material desires and personal fulfillment. But my hope is that over the course of your life, you’re able to find employment that allows you to express your interests and be compensated for work that inspires you.

P.S. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please share it with one person you love.