Work and Work

Yesterday I realized that I have placed a barrier in my life which does not need to be in place.

For years I have separated "work" into three categories: the work that I do to get paid (my "job"), the work that I do for which I am not paid but which needs to happen (family, home, etc.), and then the work I do which is for me (hobbies, goals). I have carefully segregated this time, ensuring that one does not carry over into the other and that my own time (especially) is focused specifically on me.

What I realized yesterday is that this creates two levels of difficulty for getting anything done: 1) There is a constant sense of having to start up and stop any one of these three areas with the resulting loss in time; and 2) I have learned to associate great amounts of effort and diligence with my job that do not carry over into the other two areas, because I have come to believe that family/home/hobbies/goals should be enjoyable, and enjoyable means by default not working like at my job, which I often do not enjoy.

If you have children you probably already have a fine subconscious understanding of this: when your children, who were two minutes before excited playing outside or using their imaginations, are turned to the task of their homework, what do they do? Do they embrace it with the same enthusiasm, or do they suddenly become unenergetic, complaining, whiny, wondering why they "have" to do this?

(I'll carefully not point the same finger at myself, although I know it to be true.)

The reality is, we are always "working", both in the sense of moving forward in performing tasks on any number of fronts as well as training ourselves to become more diligent and learning to accomplish tasks.

In this sense, "work" simply rotates between these three areas, all of which should have the same level of importance in our lives: if we excel at our job but have no personal development or hobbies, we wither as individuals; if we excel at our job but fail to make efforts at home and with our family, we have family relationships not worth emulating by our children, overgrown lawns, and cars needing maintenance; If we excel at home/family and goals but are poor at performing our jobs, our paychecks will reflect this.

If work is viewed not as tasks but as an attitude to accomplish, suddenly this barrier breaks down. I'm accomplishing different things of varying importance, but the effort has not changed; what the effort is being expended on has. I should think that this would help to bring balance to my own life, as suddenly items in all three areas are moving forward, instead of one.

And relaxation? That still remains a part of life, although even in that the same level of effort should be made (the old phrase "Work Hard, Play Hard" comes to mind).

If I truly made this kind of effort (as I will this week), what would my life look like? What would I be accomplishing that I am not right now?