Truth be told, I hate work. But this doesn’t mean that I’m lazy. I just hate having to work in the traditional sense.
I hate being compelled to work against my own terms. And I despise being told what to do. I also don’t particularly like working on teams. Simply put, I really love being free to do what I want – including working how I see fit.
I’m also an ambitious person who loves to be productive. I work hard at my goals which often require a significant amount of time and energy. In other words, I’m motivated to achieve success.
Given all of this, the live to work lifestyle doesn’t appeal – especially if it means working for someone else. Plus there are so many other things that I find equally important to work. At the same time, the work to live approach is too laid back for me because my personal ambitions are indeed important.
Clearly, something had to give when deciding how to structure my life. I needed to find another way.
This conundrum is what birthed my alternative approach to the live to work versus work to live decision. In the end, I decided to take a radically different approach which I’ll discuss in this post.
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The Living For Life Philosophy
Rather than staking my entire existence around work like those who live to work, I’ve chosen to balance work in my life alongside other equally important areas.
And unlike those who simply work to live, I place significant importance on my work and aspirational endeavors.
This article will dive into how I’ve flipped the work to live or live to work decision on its head.
But before I dive into the details, I’ll start with a discussion of the pros and cons of living to work and working to live. Then I will follow with why I think living for life is a much better approach.
Defining What Work Actually Is
Before discussing the nuances of working to live and living to work, let’s establish a common understanding for what the term “work” actually means.
For our purposes, we will define work as any income generating endeavor.
Of course, a normal day job would constitute work. Driving Uber on weekends or selling custom baked goods from your kitchen also fit the bill of work. Additionally, a passion project that you hope will one day take-off also counts as work.
In other words, it is considered work if it earns you money today or in the future.
Living To Work Versus Working To Live
The key difference between people who work to live or live to work is the motivation driving these people to pursue work in the first place.
Those who live to work are passionately driven toward work for one reason or another. Meanwhile, those who work to live are typically working out of necessity because life simply requires it.
Characteristics Of People Who Live To Work
As mentioned above, people who live to work are driven toward work. These are the people we commonly refer to as type-A personalities because of their ambition, workaholic tendencies, and competitiveness.
They want to be excellent at what they do and are driven to make it to the top.
As a result, we see people who live to work rise in their chosen professions. And along the way, their efforts are rewarded with promotions, accolades, and monetary windfalls.
Characteristics Of People Who Work To Live
People who work to live can usually be described as more laid back. They see work as a means to an end. That is, they work to generate a decent enough income to live good non-work lives.
People who work to live often place much greater emphasis on having fun, spending time with loved ones, and relaxing. As such, they can’t be bothered too much with climbing corporate ladders and may even actively avoid such opportunities.
Is It Better To Work To Live Or Live To work
It is important to recognize that neither living to work or working to live is necessarily better than the other. We all have uniquely different dispositions, and how we view work is just part of the bigger picture.
Plus, there are some distinctive benefits of both approaches that are worth calling out. Here are the pros and cons of each:
Living To Work Pros & Cons
- High Achievement: Due to their hard work, those who work to live usually achieve a lot more than those who work to live.
- Financial Success: A byproduct of high achievement is often financial gain. Those who live to work are often rewarded for their efforts.
- Accolades and Recognition: Being the best comes with recognition. This could be highly prominent roles at work or even wider fame within a certain industry and beyond.
- Great Satisfaction: All of that achievement has to feed a person’s soul right? Those who live to work often enjoy great satisfaction from the work they do and their achievements.
- A Boring Life: “All I do is work”. I work my normal hours during the day; and I also work right up until bedtime. I usually work weekends. And I don’t like vacations because they take me away from work.” Imagine hearing his uttered on a first date. Very few people would sign up for that rodeo. Why? Because it’s boring!
- An Unbalanced Life: If you live to work, you are probably always working. Obvious right? Well, the downside of so much work is it could take you away from other things such as relationships, life milestones, and managing your health.
- The Endless Chase: Is enough ever truly enough? It is unlikely to be the case for those who live to work. Instead, achieving one success simply paves the path toward the next mountain to climb. In other words, those who live to work may find themselves on a never ending quest for fulfillment.
Working To Live Pros & Cons
- More Traditional Fun: Those who live to work find fun in working. Meanwhile those who work to live are often out having more traditional versions of fun such as hanging out with friends, going out, and taking vacations.
- Less Stress: A promotion at work? Perhaps, as long it won’t lead to more stress. That is, those who work to live usually have a lot less stress as a result of not always striving for that next conquest.
- Better Relationships: With so much more time at their disposal, those who work to live often fill it with human connection.
- Less Success: If work isn’t the priority, a person is much less likely to excel at it. Those who work to live could reasonably expect to be a lot less successful than their hard working counterparts.
- Looked Down Upon: In cultures that emphasize work and achievement, these people can be negatively viewed as less ambitious and looked down upon as a result.
- Too Close To The Edge: Again, what is enough? Those who work to live may only do enough to cover the minimums needed and thus always live life close to the financial edge.
Living To Work & Working To Live Could Lead To Regrets
Let me tell a quick story about a friend of mine. He’s in his mid – to late 60s and is filled with regret at how his life unfolded.
In hearing his story, it sounds like he was always the work to live type which means he was never overly ambitious. And now in his later years, he seems to have a lot of regret for how he spent those years – wishing he would have achieved a bit more.
On the flip side, I’ve heard many stories of uber successful people who are in the same place.
They’ve spent decades living to work and seem to have achieved everything the world has to offer – but are filled with regret. They aren’t fulfilled and don’t have much else to be proud of in life beyond the success from a life of hard work.
And this highlights the rub of working to live and living to work: both approaches could lead to regrets. So then the question becomes whether there is a better way?
Fortunately, I think so.
Finding Balance Between Living To Work And Working To Live
The core tenet of the living for life philosophy is to get the most possible out of life across multiple dimensions. This is a balanced approach that seeks to optimize rather than maximize.
The issue that I have with living to work is that the approach is designed to maximize. People who live to work go all in on achieving maximum success. Meanwhile, other areas of life are ignored. This is a suboptimal approach in my eyes.
At the same time, those who work to live ultimately cap their achievement and may look back later in life with a lot of regret for everything not achieved. This too is far from optimal.
Living For Life Core Principles
The living for life approach is all about optimizing life across the board. Work is important, but so is life. And because of that – we want to optimize both.
Here are the core principles of the living for life philosophy.
Have 3-5 Values Are Truly Important To You
Many people navigate life led by goals, but it seems very few are guided by values. Values will always trump goals because establishing values aligns us at the core. Meanwhile, goals are much more arbitrary.
A few of my values are freedom, health, and creativity. Having these established makes goal setting and decision making easy. I simply align my decisions and goals to my values which ensures I stay on the right path.
For example, I could never take on a job or project that would limit my ability to focus on my health or pursue my creative passions. I could also never make a decision that would limit my sense of freedom.
In a sense, my values serve as a check against getting lost in the live to work lifestyle as they keep me focused on the bigger picture of what’s important.
Only Select Goals That Are Truly Meaningful To You
With solid values in place, goal setting should be much easier. However, the sheer amount of signals from the world can still make it difficult to really decide on what we pursue.
The last thing we want in life is to be the successful, live to work type who achieves everything and still feels empty. We also want to avoid the opposite end of the spectrum where we fail to ever achieve what’s important – and thus end up with regrets.
Having truly meaningful goals solves both. They give people who are inclined to live to work and work to live clarity on how to spend their time.
Do Not Sacrifice Between Your Values
In whatever you do, keep your pursuits aligned with your values. This will ensure you are always fulfilled with no future regrets.
If you’ve established family and achievement as important values, don’t pit these things against each other.
A job in the top of your field may land in your lap, but you should pass on it if it requires you to be on the road for many days at a time. You’ll simply have to target another top position that doesn’t require as much travel so you can be present with your family.
Abiding by this principle will ensure that you always live an optimized life. Suddenly, the decision of working to live or living to work takes a back seat as you simply focus on what’s important in life.
Strive To Be The Best Version Of Yourself Possible
Healthy, strong, and intelligent are a few things I strive to be in life. I also aspire to be the best writer / blogger I can be and work diligently to continuously get better.
These are the things that I’ve determined important for me to be the best version of myself. Plus, they align with my values which tells me I’m on the right track.
Striving to be the best version of yourself is optimal for both the live to work and work to live people.
Far too often I see successful, live to work people neglect other things such as their health. Sure, they’ve reached the pinnacle of one type of success – but many have destroyed their bodies in the process. Is that truly successful? I don’t think so.
On the other hand, I know many work to live types who seems to never live up to their full potential. This brings to mind a brilliant young man that I know who always talks about going to medical school, but never does because he’s lazy. Sadly, he may end up with regrets later in life.
Truly being your best means you are well rounded and balanced regardless of your disposition toward work.
Work As Hard As Necessary To Achieve Your Goals, But Not Harder
What happens when an airplane overshoots its runway? Typically not great things.
In the same way, we need to carefully align our efforts with our goals. If we hit our goal of saving 2 million dollars before retiring, why give in to the temptation to work several more years to raise that number to 4 million?
Those who live to work violate this principle as they incessantly strive for greater and great heights. Decades later, they are still feeding the insatiable desire for more for the simple sake of “more”.
Meanwhile, those who work to live may never actually put in the work necessary to achieve their goals. Why put in that kind of effort when the status quo is so much easier? In the end, they risk being like my friend mentioned earlier. This is to be avoided.
Never Do Work You Hate
Some scary numbers out there show that a great portion of people hate their jobs.
Obviously, those working to live may tolerate a miserable job because they are simply in the Monday-Friday survival mode. Meanwhile, someone living to work may stay in a loathsome job because of what it provides them.
Either way, this is no way to live.
Adhering to this principle will ensure that you are fulfilled no matter how much work your values and goals lead you to pursue in life.
Life Is About More Than Working To Live & Living To Work
In sum, the living for life philosophy that I have adopted strikes a balance between living to work and working to live.
Work is important, but not more important than other key areas in my life. At the same time, work is not something I passively do just to get by.
I don’t pit work against life. Nor do I shun work for the sake of other things. Instead, work fits in harmoniously with everything else I deem important.
This is my approach to achieving balance, but I’d love to hear from you.
How do you approach the live to work or work to live decision?