Idleness is the Root of Mischief

Idleness is the root of mischief.... ooh that sounds fun!

Have you ever wished that you could quit your job and live a life of leisure?  If you are in the working world, isn't that the most ridiculous question in the world?  Of course you do!! Or do you?

First of all, let me start by saying I am laughing at myself daily on this exact topic.  I just got out of a job that was sometimes very busy and other times quite relaxed.  But I had this job straight out of college for the next 5 years.  That means the last 9 years of my life I have barely had a chance to breathe, let alone stop and think about what I truly want in my heart.  Sure I tried, but man I had things to do, people to see.  When I wanted to go on vacation, I was typically taking the red eye flight to maximize time at my destination and to minimize the amount of days I had to take off of work.  Does this sound familiar?

So now I moved to Australia from the United States.  I am jobless.  I left my job in June 2012.  It was a job I liked, I liked the people, I felt good about my mission and our accomplishments.  I was both happy and sad to leave.  I was excited for the future, but I knew leaving a good job was a huge decision.  Who does that? Especially in this day and age of the economies of the world!  To quickly answer that question, but continue to my point, I had to move because my husband is in Perth, Australia (where I live now) and he has a commitment to his current job. Two years apart is plenty thank you very much.

But my point is now that I am living my own daydream, quite literally, I am driving myself stir crazy searching for a good job: time now.  Literally, I live 5 minutes from the beach, walking distance!  So why am I so desperate to work?  Let's explore this.

I began to think about our Western world and what it means to work.  In this day and age, man or woman, work means our independence, supporting ourselves and our loved ones, and often it is part of our identity. Yes woman too. Plus we are such a materialistic world now.  I want to buck that trend more than anything, but I feel like it is nearly impossible to hide from the reality of the western world while I live in it.  And I do actually quite like the western world, so I suppose I will look for a balance as life goes on.  And I say the western world because Australia and the United States are incredibly similar in many ways- so now I must generalize since I am learning about more of this "western world" first hand.

Now back to materialism.  It is an obsession.  Why is it that we constantly want to move up in the world?  I see many good things in working hard and enjoying the money we earn. But have you ever considered how much you actually enjoy your possessions?  Or if you even have the time to enjoy them if you are working so hard.  I will be the first to admit I am in love with my expensive bikes.  I used to own cheaper bikes and when I could afford to upgrade it actually did make riding more enjoyable.  So fair enough, I am guilty.  But for me, I hope it can stop there.  Does it now? No.  Will it ever?  I hope so!

How did we end up living to work, instead of working to live?  Does it make us that happy that this is an acceptable solution? I think only you can answer that question.  However, I will say that our culture has changed drastically.  Idleness is no longer bliss.  Just ask someone who is retired!  They will tell you how blissful idleness is... That being said, for creative minds, it gives us time to grow.  Oh and did you feel left out when I said that?  You are not.  For we all have a creative side.  My point is, perhaps you love your job, perhaps your family is okay with the amount of time you spend at work, you are a lucky person if so.  But you must carve out time for everything, including, shock and horror, idleness.  It is so good for you!  Yes, I am sure too much can be bad for you.  And idleness walks a thin line with laziness on the other side.  But perhaps we have to tread this line more often in fear of losing our creativity, or worse, the work life balance that is all important.

But I leave you with this important thinking point.  Employers are now offering more time off than in the previous 5 years.  I asked a recruiting company why that was.  They said "because employees demand it."  So perhaps we are heading in the right direction.... can you imagine that?  I thought the media said we are going down the drain in every way possible? :)