Some Folks Have All Fun
Ever notice that some of us live, some of work to live, some of us live to work … and one or two of us seem to BE a piece of work?
Other living species don’t think their way into this problem. Why should we?
Once upon a time there was a moment when the idea of work didn’t exist. Life was life and we lived it. Some of us only experience that in early childhood. Some of keep that secret with us and carry it through every moment we’re here.
5 Ways to Take the Work Out of Work and Connect with Life
It’s no secret that we’ve added negative connotations that bend the word work to define only some energy we invest or that work is often described as the opposite of play. And it’s fairly obvious to most of us that we often invest as much or more of our energy in things that we call something other than work … love, passion, sports, games, hobbies … life.
We’ve managed to disconnect what we call “work” from our life.
We frame it inside the idea of work-life balance — as if we could separate the working part from the living part and put each on the other side of a scale. Even if we could segment our lives so dicretely, each of us seems have a different definition of which exertion belongs in which category on which day.
The “who” of “Who puts the work in work?” is us. It follows that we’re the ones who, in the same way, can take the “work” out of work and get on to being fully connected to every breath that we take.
Here are five ways that I connect with life.
- Connect to the passionate you who likes being alive. Many people say that difference between working for a living and a labor of love is passion. Find your passion for life, your joy at humor, your original curiosity and the thrill at knowing that not all is in what we see. Keep positive knowing that the only time and behavior that you can master or change is your own. Whatever happens is life. We can we see it as work or some fabulous puzzle that will improve our skills, bring new ideas, and unlock possibilities.
- Connect with the passion of people who add positive energy to your life. When we’re passionate about what we’re doing, what we do seems worth every bit of energy it takes. We attract people who see the upside of what they’re doing too, even when what we’re all trudging through the mud in the rain. Notice the positive people. Connect with them in ways that bring more positivity into whatever you’re doing.
- Connect to the “want to” of everything. If what you see is work, change the way you’re seeing it. Create a new view. Look to the outcome that is the payoff for what you’re about to do. It may not be fun to mow the lawn or pay the bills, but the feeling of accomplishment when it’s done is one worth savoring. Go for the gold and enjoy what that it takes to find it.
- Connect to your ability to move when enough is enough. If the situation or is more work than it’s worth, move it out of your life. What we’re doing right now is what we want to be doing or we wouldn’t be doing it. Just as nature abhors a a vacuum — we don’t stay in situations that don’t payoff in some way. When the work gets to be higher than whatever used to be the payoff, we stop talking and move on. If you’re bored, uncomfortable, or feeling like it’s work to be you, move. Do something, one thing every day to move a little closer on where you’re going.
- Connect with the power to experience and respond to humanity with humanity and life with life. Be a beginner constantly improving your “life in progress.” Joy, peace, anger, sadness, illness, and disastrous events — none of these are work — but the way we respond to them and hold on to them sure can be. Humans are hard-wired to be deeply inspired. It will draw people to you who want to do the the same. Make it your quest to be on a mission to improve things and to leave people who’d rather complain talking to themselves.
It’s the way we connect to our life that determines what we value, who we give ourselves and our time to, and what we consider work or fun. Connect to your life. Aspire (breathe toward) with intention to get closer to the people and ideas that invigorate and energize you.
As we live for the people and the moments that fuel us, life becomes simpler, easier, more fun — even when it’s not. We connect more deeply to the people we value, to the world, to ourselves and to our dreams.
Suddenly we find it’s never been a problem of finding a balance between work and life, but simply a problem of connecting and savoring the time of our lives.
How do you take the work out of work and connect with life?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
Related:
The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life
How to Be Alive and 10 Ways to Celebrate It!
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I like to concentrate on where I plan to go from here. There may be some unpleasant things I need to do to get where I am going but I know if I get them done, I’ll get to the point where those things don’t matter anymore.
It’s a bit like the “Want to” you mentioned. In this case the want to may not be related to the work I am doing at all.
I am not a fan of the whole work life balance obsession. I think it encourages folk to see work as something separate to themselves and their life. I choose to think of life as something we can design of which work is an aspect along with family life, relationships, lifestyle and so on. If we then design our life, and all it’s component parts, around our core values and how we want our life to really be we are far more likely to live our ideal life.
We spend too many hours of our life working, that it is important to try to make the work side of your work-life spectrum exciting and something that fuels your passions. With that, you still have to care about your life (partner, children, family) and yourself and never let work overrun the life side. Getting both right is hard and is the real challenge of work-life balance.
Hi Jon!
Welcome!
I agree that we have to find a harmony (I like that word more than balance) in blending our work more easily into our lives in ways that fuel us … so that we can spend quality time with our friends and family, appreciating them, sharing with them the time of our lives.
Great post Liz!! Thank you.
Connecting into life and those that matter is the juice.
We need to transform work into passion. Passion into connecting to make a positive difference in our own lives and life times.
When we help others, we help ourselves. Odd connection that 😉
All the best.
Hello there, Iconic88!!
I love your use of the word transform ! It so perfectly fits what I was reaching out to say here. Thank you for extending my thoughts in such a beautiful, deep way. If I might build on your odd connections, I believe there is no act of generosity that doesn’t go both ways. 🙂
Perfect post for me to read after falling out of every balancing pose in yoga today and, unfortunately, that’s not unique for me.
And I loved the pic. cherry
Hi Cherry!
Balance is a state of mind … not body. heh heh
Hi Liz,
I enjoyed your insightful post.
Your line said it all..
“Itâs the way we connect to our life that determines what we value, who we give ourselves and our time to, and what we consider work or fun. Connect to your life.”
Some are so concerned with separating career and life that we don’t often breath passion into our work. When we infuse the human element into our work life it becomes vocation. Breathing passion or as you put it “aspiring” to connect with ideas and people who you resonate with enhances the experience of the work life merge that many are so desperately trying to navigate with grace in our 24/7 world.
Hi Judy!
I see so many people who have separate their life into boxes and containers that nothing seems to be connected to any other thing. It’s no wonder that they can’t feel any control or balance. It’s got to be hard to even understand what all of the pieces are. From where I sit it seems that once we get ourselves and our life integrated into a whole we might be more able to know what we bring and aspire to get from all of it and with every breath.
Connect to the âwant toâ of everything. I really like this. Don’t see work as work but see work as play. There is really no easy work, every kind of job is difficult no matter how high or low it is. So be content of the work you have now, if not, look for something you know you will enjoy and start living your life with passion. Do it with less complaining and you’ll see you’re doing what you’re suppose to be really doing.
Hello Andrew!
Every job requires some sort of energy investment, but imagine how bored we’d all be if we had to sit all day with nothing on which to spend that energy! Yeah, I agree. When we switch from complaining to seeing the upside of things, we actually get better at finding the upside and focusing on it. We also attract people who want to be with people who are positive. Better and more positive things happen with positive people around us. Go figure! 🙂
Thanks Liz!
” I believe there is no act of generosity that doesnât go both ways.” How right you are! even when let rip with altruistic acts of kindness, life tends to love you right back 😉
Thank you! Love your beautiful thoughts 😉
Only 20% of the workforce has the luxury of a stay at home parent. Since women tend to be the caretakers of children, elders, home and also their jobs, where is the limit on what a person can realistically achieve and still remain happy and healthy?
Great subject, and great insights as always Liz! Have you been watching “The Big C” (new show on Showtime)? It’s about a woman who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and decides to live life in a new way. One great quote from the show is her brother, noticing her new behavior: “you’ve gotten your weirdness back, sis!” For some reason, that has really resonated with me lately. I think we should all reconnect with our “weirdness.” The woman in the show manifests that as riding her old tandem bike to the ice cream shop, sunbathing naked, and keeping her son home from soccer camp. I’ve been pondering what things I would do differently if I knew I only had a certain amount of time left. We all need more “weirdness.”
Hi Rosemary!
What a great idea! We need our weirdness back, for sure! It’s what defines each of us as unique. I wonder if we valued our weirdness more that we wouldn’t discover something in it that might change the world?
Hi Jacqueline,
That’s just it. It might be that we’re too focused on what we achieve and not focused enough on living and being connected to the people around us. Do that would be achieving a life. It’s my point. 🙂