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Posted on 04/18/2011 7:21:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Be honest. You’re a control freak. You’re in a rat race. You’re trapped on the hedonic treadmill, you’re surfing the info tsunami and you’re mainlining off your Crackberry. Gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to work.
And that’s exactly the way it should be.
Consider the Dickens Paradox. In George Orwell’s essay on Charles Dickens, he wonders what the Victorian novelist’s heroes get up to after the books end: “The answer evidently is that they did nothing . . . That is the spirit in which most of Dickens’ books end — a sort of radiant idleness. His heroes, once they had come into money and ‘settled down,’ would not only do no work; they would not even ride, hunt, shoot, fight duels, elope with actresses or lose money at the races. They would simply live at home in feather-bed respectability, and preferably next door to a blood-relation living exactly the same life.”
That was how Dickens wrote. Now consider how he lived.
He was famous by age 24, when his first novel was published, and quickly became rich. He could have retired long before he plucked his first gray hair.
Yet in the 35 years before his death at 58, he produced 13 novels, most of them massive. His short stories, plays, essays and poetry filled more than a dozen volumes. He was a prodigious writer of letters and a control-freak editor of two very prominent magazines, often rewriting their contents. He traveled widely, frequently performed in speaking engagements, dabbled in theater productions, worked tirelessly on charitable causes, obsessively rebuilt his various houses. And he did all this while walking 20 miles a day.
Why so busy? Because work is life.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
WHO writes this DRIVEL!
What has thie guy been smoking?
I work to live - I don't live to work.
If the Democrats hadn't destroyed the economy in 2007 in their power hungry quest I would NOT be working now - but the retirement account is only just coming back.
The other 40% or so is meaningless bullsh*t paperwork to keep the government and accounting department happy, a decade or more after most companies begin to replace paper transactions with electronic transactions.
be careful with that retirement account...it is about to be squeezed again...
I hate my job and career. I’m not alone.
I ONLY do it to pay rent, put food on the table and clothe myself with any extra cash used to enjoy my free time on the weekend.
If I wasn’t a God fearing conservative with a conscious and work ethic, I’d quit right NOW ,take government handouts and get drunk and stone all day.
Ping!
What. The. Hell.
Underemployed, working three part-time jobs in addition to my FT to pay the bills ... and this guy thinks I love this.
No. I want my freedom back, I want my company to grow so it can pay me a wage that allows me to see my family again, and I want government off my back to do it.
Man is at his best when he is working and working for something meaningful.
I have three companies and some of the stuff I must do I cannot stand.
But, I can’t do the rest of my work without those tasks.
It’s like working out. Can’t stand it!
But if I don’t do it I can’t snowboard, hike or swim with all the gusto I can muster. Just another BS thing I have to do, so I can enjoy the rest of the stuff.
Even though I generally enjoy my job if you gave me enough money to retire I’d be gone in a cold minute, because no matter how much I enjoy work I enjoy my couch a lot more.
I personaly HATE the rat race. Sometimes, it looks like the rats are winning. I can’t wait for the day that my alarm clock can be permantly turned OFF. Getting up and dragging my carcass to work s*cks. Going to work has lost its luster. If I ever win a Powerball or Megamillions lottery, my resignation letter will be written the day the winning is confirmed. After that, my employer has two weeks left of my life to control. Then it’s all up to me as to what I want to do and when I want to do it.
“I personaly HATE the rat race. Sometimes, it looks like the rats are winning. I can’t wait for the day that my alarm clock can be permantly turned OFF. Getting up and dragging my carcass to work s*cks. Going to work has lost its luster. If I ever win a Powerball or Megamillions lottery, my resignation letter will be written the day the winning is confirmed. After that, my employer has two weeks left of my life to control. Then it’s all up to me as to what I want to do and when I want to do it.”
Copy that. Last year at the age of 62 I woke up and realized that I was totally burned out; I had hit the wall. I had originally planned to work at least another four years, but sometimes reality has other ideas. I was essentially debt-free and had planned to save a bucket load of cash during those next four years; but it wasn’t worth the risk of stroke, heart attack or nervous breakdown. I can tell you that retirement is awesome. I am busier now than when I was working, but now I am doing the things I want to do. I am exercising more and am more intellectually stimulated than ever. Life is good.
I'm fully aware that at least half of it is unavoidable due to government compliance requirements, but if I can change the ratio of useful/useless work from 60/40 to 80/20, it will add a lot of value to the company.
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