Do you live to work or work to live?
Many will quickly say: I work to live! I want to take time off, relax, it’s just a job, it’s just money, and my family matters a lot more
Anyone who says otherwise, that they work to live… can be seen as being workaholics who don’t value their family enough.
I’m here to say that maybe we might want to consider the other side of this story:
There are those of us out there who love our jobs (myself included).
I love what I do, I’m good at it, and it gives me satisfaction. When I am on a contract, I actually bounce out of bed at 5.30 a.m. – 6 a.m., eager to start my day.
They did a number of studies, and found that comparatively speaking, if you work a 60 hour job at something you hate, it feels like an eternity, whereas if you work 100 hours at a job you love, you feel that time flies by.
I am also aware that there are certainly those of us who are true workaholics and cannot think of anything BUT work, to the point where their social and family relationships crumble.
I just think that living to work might not be such a bad thing, if you enjoy it and don’t let it consume you.
If you work to live, it’s seen as being positive, or the “right” way to live by not devoting your life to your job. I’d agree with that sentiment to a certain point because I subscribe to that mentality.
I work to make enough money to cover my needs and wants, and save for the future.
In a different light, it’s a negative feeling if you’re really working to pay for your consumption and lifestyle that you can’t afford, which is exactly why you see your job as a noose around your neck, choking the life out of you.
Everything in moderation
Neither one or the other is “right”, but I think a balance of both, where you are working at a job you very much enjoy but you don’t spend a lot and therefore don’t need to work as much, but choose to, is the best of both worlds.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Right now I work to live, but I’d love to find something I love to do and live to work (but not in a workaholic kind of way…)
It’s taken time for me to get accustomed to living withing a budget and seeking a career that inspires me. I think 20somethings are taught after college to find a job that pays well. However, they’re rarely taught to seek happiness and wealth. Both can and have coexisted. I live on a budget while attending grad school which frees me up to seek jobs that pay well and make me happy.
On a side note, I think it’s great you’ve cleared $60,000 in18 months. That’s amazing, I would like to begin clearing up student loans, so that I continue seeking happiness and wealth in peace. Please check out my WordPress blog “An Unconventional Publisher Confesses”, here’s the url:
http://www.lateshagoodman.wordpress.com.
Thanks for your entry
Latesha Goodman
It is nice to hear both view points!
I looovveee my job. I do not make a lot of money at it, but I have a lot of pride in what I do and enjoy my daily life. I have had jobs with better pay that made me miserable. Turns out the better pay wasn’t even that significant. I make up the difference by getting some of my groceries at Aldi’s.
I live to work. I’m not a workaholic by any means, but I get a tremendous amount of enjoyment and satisfaction out of the work that I do. The second that changes, I’m switching jobs or switching careers entirely. 40 hours a week is too long to spend doing something you’re not totally passionate about.
Working to live right now … and it’s not so much the job I hate, it’s my boss who makes it an utter misery to get out of bed on days I have to work with her. All I want is a full-time job that’ll cover my bills, leave me enough to save and some to enjoy myself with. Loving the job would be an awesome bonus.
Both – I like my job a lot, but there are a whole ton of other things in life I really love too. I like to have a variety of interests and do a variety of different things, and I especially love trying new things. No matter what my job was, I’d always feel this way. I live to live!
I think about my job a lot, even if I’m not working on things for it, like grading. I enjoy my work greatly and am glad I do. I’ve been in the work to live situation and it was all right. This is more enjoyable and satisfying. However, I agree, everything in moderation.
It’s almost embarrassing to say this, but frankly I prefer having a job where I live to work. It’s meaningful, I get to impact others positively and make cool things that are useful to other people. I don’t get that through hobbies, puttering around or going out and amusing myself.
I’ve done both. Yes, I do prefer to ‘live to work’ but I’ve gotten into jobs that seemed like they had a lot of promise and in the end just didn’t do it for me.
These days it feels like I am living to work, where in the past it has always been working to live. Actually in the past it didn’t make any difference as what I was doing I enjoyed and didn’t mind putting in the hours.
That’s what this working vacation is for, to help get me back to what I had before.
I agree…although I am starting to worry that I fall into the ‘obsessed with work’ camp. Where is the line?
I love my job. It’s not that I live to work, it’s that in the absence of other cool things to do and cool things to do them with, I opt for work, every time. It’s fun and interesting and beats sitting at home alone, watching TV, or anything else I’d end up wasting the time doing instead. I guess I could take up some random hobby I enjoy half as much. I don’t know. My hobby is what I do for my job…to prove it: In my time off from my last job, I used to do the sort of things I do for my current job. I have even incorporated my job into my other hobbies: reading, for example–I tend to grab a few books pertaining to my field during every library trip. Does that mean I am not well rounded enough? I’m beginning to think I am boring or that something is wrong with me since I like doing what I do so much…no one else seems to have this issue (except for my co-workers, that is!). I do have an active social life and no shortage of friends, but as I move up in my career, work is starting to be more interesting than they are. Time for new friends? or time to be worried about myself?!