Work to live vs live to work?

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I understand you gotta pay your dues at a certain age to live the way you'd like to later on. But at what point do you tell your employer to go frick themselves, and you'd rather experience life than work?

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A relative of mine is about to turn 40, and he's lived a fuller life than anyone I've ever known.

He has never been tied down to a job. He works seasonal jobs that pay for his next adventure.

He's explored most of North America. Slept with countless women. Hiked the vast expanse of the Rocky Mountains. Hiked the Appalachian Trail. Fished off the coast of Alaska. Worked some kind of cult resort as their chef. Tended the fields of a marijuana farm in California. Was a surf instructor in Mexico.

He's also spent numerous nights sleeping in his car, rummaging through trash cans, begging for people to take him in for a while, and has no health insurance.

He says that if he gets sick and doesn't get well, he'll die. When he gets old and doesn't want to continue bouncing place to place, he'll settle somewhere and if he starves to death, he starves to death.

Sometimes I envy him.

I work to live.



I give my job 100% when I'm there. But the moment I clock out....I don't think about work until I go back to work.


In my field, you will mentally suffer if you start taking work home with you(in your head). You see so much stuff that just breaks your heart, out of necessity you HAVE to learn to distance yourself from it when you leave work. Or you will burn out.



I could never be a workaholic.

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I work to live.



I give my job 100% when I'm there.

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Same here. But the work I do isn't my identity. I'd rather not work, but have to be able to afford the things I do. I'll retire as soon as possible.

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I could never be a workaholic

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When people say I work for so-and-so, I say "I'm EMPLOYED by so-and-so...I'm working for ME".

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He says that if he gets sick and doesn't get well, he'll die.

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So he is like every other human ever?

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That's not true at all. I get the tenor, but there are no absolutes. I just met with a guy not long ago that has two kids, he's taking a year off. He has money saved.

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Well duh! Obviously you can do that if you have a ton if savings.

Maybe he does. He can certainly plan for it if he doesn't.

I can tell by his words, the guy is burnt out. I've been there, recently. It's ok to say frick it, from time to time, it feels great.

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If I ever won a massive lottery payout I def wouldn't continue working fulltime as a nurse. I would say I wouldn't want to work, but I think I would at some point get bored and want to do SOMETHING productive.

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I'd volunteer, travel, etc. Lots of volunteer opportunities with conservation groups around here I could spend my time and energy, and get a hell of a lot more satisfaction than working.

I've a couple jobs I really really liked, but everything gets old after a while. I've got an older brother who's a CPA that is the total opposite of me.

I'm living to work right now, I worked to live for the past 10 years but now I gotta sprint to make some gains. Where I work right now, everyone stays pissed including the costumers.