WORK

I feel extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to change my relationship with ‘work’.

Specifically, since exiting a job that demanded a bit too much, it has blown me away how much more capacity I have at any given time in energy levels, emotional availability and creative engagement.

I don’t mean what the job demanded in terms of literal number of hours (Kerry’s point in this month’s work-themed letter around how little of our time those of us in a 40 hour/week job actually dedicate to paid employment makes it clear that any sense I might have had of work being an all-consuming activity that dominated all other aspects of my life simply wasn’t true in a purely ‘hours worked’ sense).

What I do mean is how clearly the job used up the finite capacity I have in other areas of my life, out of all proportion to the paid hours’ time I gave it, and that in its absence I can redistribute focus accordingly.

I need to work to earn money, I don’t have the luxury of not working, and nor do I want not to work, but I’m thrilled to have found work that pays just enough for me to get by, that I don’t need to over-invest in when I’m not there, and which in combination with adjustments to spending habits (‘reward’ spending on things it turns out I only bought to make up for doing a job which took too much) equals a life that is opening up opportunities to explore creativity and meaning.

Most of my sense of ‘work’ now is the effort I put into art and Millpond, and that doesn’t feel like work at all, it feels right.