Balancing Lifestyle & Work

[CelticWarrior]

I wanted to talk about experiences with working our jobs and how it affects our ability to maintain a healthy way of life. Each of us works to make money for our needs and just about anything that gives us more freedom or enriches our lives. It's not easy for anyone, however I've wanted for the longest time to get an idea of how people are doing while managing thier lives around a busy schedule. (Of course it's clearly not that money gives us freedom but rather keeps us in an illusionary state of living. As well as keeping the masses in check to maintain control over a society where so called "democracy" and the guise of "for the people by the people" is the most clever scheme ever orchestrated.)

I have been working with the Ontario government for over a year now, it's been both an easygoing and frustrating job to handle. Mostly I'm involved in human resources and security operations, plus assisting with basic maintenance of computer servers all relating to the building's main function which is a data centre for public and private records. More than anything, I'll experience mental stress which can lead to headaches, tiredness, irritability, depression, etc. Also there's the long hours, working on holidays, rotating shifts, night shifts (15% of the time) causing loss of sleep, disruption of circadian rhythm, and again stress. There can be an adequate amount of time off work to rest and recover, however it's just never enough to be honest.

Using Eiriu Eolas and getting into the habbit of pipe breathing can help big time. In addition, having a better diet than anyone I can see around me makes a difference to a point, and there's always the usual comments from colleagues like "why do you eat that way?" "you need bread in your lunch" "I eat lots of vegetables" so that can be annoying. Getting sufficient rest is a huge problem, it's just far too difficult waking up in the morning and then switching over to night shifts after a short period of rest. I use a lot of my time to get rested and make sure my body restores it's natural state. So, when it comes time to get something important done on my own time for example visiting family, reading, networking, organizing my research on various topics that ralate to diet/self-work or going out to have fun and enjoyment in life... it all seems way too hard.

I've contemplated going part time. Then there's the reality check that I'll need more money to spend on my needs and few wants plus saving up for the future. There will be a moment when I realize it's going to be dangerous to continue living this way for much longer and when it comes to that I'll have no choice but to work less often or find a new line of work.

If it were up to me, society would never run on making profit. Instead there would be the goal of better living, communities that engage one another daily to find solutions to common things like eating/drinking, building homes, manufacturing clothing, health care on so forth.

Please share experiences with your working lives... I figure there are people who go through this kind of thing just as badly as I do - and possibly worse!

 

[Mikey]

I've recently started the book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich from Timothy Ferriss, and I think it is the perfect answer to your questions.

_http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357

The book offers strategies for people who are self-employed, but also for people who are employed. Ferriss emphasizes the point that money is not everything, since you can earn a lot of money and still be worried about income and live an unhappy life. He introduces the concept of income relative to the perceived quality of your life. In this way, someone who is poor can lead a 'richer' life than a millionaire, even though it is not necessary to be poor. He also argues against the classical 9-5 work schedule and the pointlessness of being a slave for a lifetime in exchange to a 'secure' retirement, which in times of financial crises is not so secure at all and may never happen. He instead suggests doing and working in a way that is truly fulfilling, what you would do anyway if you were in retirement or if you had millions in your bank account.

Ferris seems to have made a lot of money in his own business ventures, but not without paying a high price for it (stress, long workdays, etc.) So he seems to speak from experience. The book also is a documentation about how he turned his life around, how to stop doing the many pleasant and easy things each day that do not bring money but only eat up your valuable time. It all seems to be about firing 80% of the customers that don't bring money, giving up 80% of all tasks that don't bring money, and instead focus on the 20% that actually do. That way, you are freeing up an enormous amount of energy and time, which can be used to better plot your path and life in the future.

I'm still at the beginning of the book, so can't give more details, but can highly suggest it so far. It's also very funny and entertaining at places!

 

[Carl]

I've contemplated going part time. Then there's the reality check that I'll need more money to spend on my needs and few wants plus saving up for the future. There will be a moment when I realize it's going to be dangerous to continue living this way for much longer and when it comes to that I'll have no choice but to work less often or find a new line of work.

Maybe this is something you could work towards? It's important to know our limits and respect our bodies, and these alternating shifts sound like hell! You could spend some time taking a general inventory of your life, including both time and financials. Is there a way you could increase your free time (or use current free time more productively) by reducing your expenses and therefore required work hours?

If it were up to me, society would never run on making profit. Instead there would be the goal of better living, communities that engage one another daily to find solutions to common things like eating/drinking, building homes, manufacturing clothing, health care on so forth.

Please share experiences with your working lives... I figure there are people who go through this kind of thing just as badly as I do - and possibly worse!

Believe me, we all feel the unforgiving pressure of working like slaves for the right of living with some of the PTB's fake money. But if you can't Work under pressure, then your Work is of little value. I share your dreams of this new world/community, in fact my heart just cries out for it, but we have to work with what we have.


Some of my personal experiences: I started a tech repair business in June as a partnership with another member. We don't make a lot of money at all, and are putting a lot of time into it; it has been a very stressful experience (literally blood sweat and tears). But I've got a lot more out of it than money so far, which is not always the most important thing. One of the benefits of this job is that I get to sit here and write this post while 'at work' ;).


I've thought about this a whole lot, and came to the conclusion that, in the end, we can only do what we can do. The trying and striving is what matters, whether you have 2 hours or 14 hours free per day. I know that I certainly don't yet use my free time to it's fullest potential, so I refuse to complain to the Universe about it. Your situation may be different, though.

Ferris seems to have made a lot of money in his own business ventures, but not without paying a high price for it (stress, long workdays, etc.) So he seems to speak from experience. The book also is a documentation about how he turned his life around, how to stop doing the many pleasant and easy things each day that do not bring money but only eat up your valuable time. It all seems to be about firing 80% of the customers that don't bring money, giving up 80% of all tasks that don't bring money, and instead focus on the 20% that actually do. That way, you are freeing up an enormous amount of energy and time, which can be used to better plot your path and life in the future.

Yes, I'm starting to learn this too, applying the 80/20 rule. We've starting turning down more jobs that we know to have a huge effort-to-reward ratio (and high stress factor), such as motherboard repairs etc. We have various 'currencies' in life, two of which are money and energy. Taking on more stress may increase money, but will deplete energy reserves rapidly, which then damages your free time, because you feel too down to do anything productive, and instead just want to relax and dissociate.

 

[Alchemie]

If it were up to me, society would never run on making profit. Instead there would be the goal of better living, communities that engage one another daily to find solutions to common things like eating/drinking, building homes, manufacturing clothing, health care on so forth.

Please share experiences with your working lives... I figure there are people who go through this kind of thing just as badly as I do - and possibly worse!

You speak out of my soul.
In our society goes something wrong. It is complicated, to live out normal his basic metabolic needs, clear thinking, harmonious family life, etc. .
I think, the people who have opted for the STO path, will fundamentally change his society.
A little "spinning company" :
Would it be a nice dream, to flee out of this planet? If ones try to be STO (as a advanced spiritual group of people) , could it be a nice gregariousness.

----
Du sprichst mir aus der Seele.
In unserer Gesellschaft läuft etwas enorm schief. Es wird einen erschwert, seine Stoffwechsel-Grundbedürfnisse, klares Denken, harmonisches Familienleben, etc. normal auszuleben.
Ich denke, die Leute, die sich für den STO- Weg entschieden haben, werden für sich die Gesellschaft grundlegend verändern.
Eine kleine "Spinnerei":
Was für ein schöner Traum wäre es, als weiter entwickelte spirituelle Menschengruppe von diesem Planeten zu flüchten? Wenn man versucht, STO zu sein, lässt es sich doch miteinander aushalten.

I know that I certainly don't yet use my free time to it's fullest potential, so I refuse to complain to the Universe about it. Your situation may be different, though.

You've totally right. The reason is, that we do not use our full potential in the spare time, that we are still struggling with "the gray enemy" within us. And this enemy is created by the psychopathic methods, that we are exposed to excessively since the beginning (I mean the state of the unborn child).

---
Du hast total Recht. Aber, dass wir unser volles Potenzial in der Freizeit nicht nutzen liegt daran, dass wir noch mit dem grauen feind in uns kämpfen. Und dieser Feind entsteht durch die psychopathischen Methoden, die wir seit der Zeugung übermäßig ausgesetzt sind!

 

[Vic]

Hi Celtic Warrior

I work in local government and experienced similar dynamics in terms of the stress and loss/waste of energy,time to do what you would actually like to do instead of dancing to the taskmaster's tune.

I use 'experienced' in past tense because at a certain point I realised the agenda behind the hierarchical system used by employers like ours - government, authorities etc - to use us as slaves with which to feather the nests of those at the top, but to do so in a subtle enough way to maintain the illusion of a caring employer.

'Human Resources' is an accepted term these days - "Oh, can you pop over to HR?" ... "I enjoy working in Human Resources" ... "Human Resources sent me a written warning" ... "HR want to know where I was living ten years ago for some reason" blah blah

But what a horrific term it is when you actually think about it. Using Energy Unit Usage or Slave Inventory or even Flesh and Blood Optimization would be more honest terms to use. But,of course, honesty is an alien concept to those at the top.

At work I keep conscious of the fact that I am in an insane asylum. You know the old saying The Lunatics have taken over the asylum - true, but there are a lot of wonderful, although asleep, fellow inmates in there. It works a treat. I don't get stressed about my work. I do the best I can, and as much as I can, because that's how I am with everything. It's not difficult for me to do that. But I don't need approval from the slavemaster. I used to, until I realised that the more you do the more they demand you do, and there is never, EVER, a reward for effort.

Promotion, more money? That's no reward. That just gives the bosses an excuse to demand even more from you. And you get hooked in deeper,because the more money you have the more you spend and get used to a certain level.

I look forward to each day because I know that at the end of the working day I can come home where I can be sane with my wife, cat, and this forum.

I still dream of dropping out of the system and having faith that there is a way I can make a living in a way that I love doing - but in the meantime work is now a doddle, where it used to be a nightmare, and I can secretly laugh at the slavemaster system when I am there - and it is so arrogant that it doesn't even know I am laughing at it.

I hasten to add that it is not maniacal laughter - more of a sort of smug, self-satisfied laughter

 

[Vic]

I've recently started the book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich from Timothy Ferriss, and I think it is the perfect answer to your questions.

_http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357

Hi Data

I hope you find that book useful. I know it can help many people. It helped me, but not in the way I think the author probably intended. That's if he actually cared of course.

I got a third way through the book before realising that it was me, and others that bought his book, that enabled the author to experience the very lifestyle that the book espouses. I was helping to pay for his freedom from the system by reading what I viewed as common sense. I felt kinda conned. It was a bit of an eye-opener for me in terms of self-help books, of which I had read hundreds.

That was my perception of course. My lesson. Others will have more positive perceptions. Just depends what lesson we are due I suppose.

 

[Tigersoap]

I've contemplated going part time. Then there's the reality check that I'll need more money to spend on my needs and few wants plus saving up for the future. There will be a moment when I realize it's going to be dangerous to continue living this way for much longer and when it comes to that I'll have no choice but to work less often or find a new line of work.

Maybe that would be a good option and if there are any skills that you may have already or want to develop more during your time-off it might lead to better opportunites for you.
Finding something you really enjoy doing & be able to sustain yourself could reduce the stress factor osit.

[quote author=Carlisle]Yes, I'm starting to learn this too, applying the 80/20 rule. We've starting turning down more jobs that we know to have a huge effort-to-reward ratio (and high stress factor), such as motherboard repairs etc. We have various 'currencies' in life, two of which are money and energy. Taking on more stress may increase money, but will deplete energy reserves rapidly, which then damages your free time, because you feel too down to do anything productive, and instead just want to relax and dissociate.[/quote]

Yes me too, I backed up from a few jobs as well because the stress was detrimental to my mental health and the rewards were low for the time I would have had to spent working on these projects.
I've pushed myself too hard a few times, not resting enough, and it always backlashed, I ended up really drained out & despondent for a while.

I had difficulties saying no at first because of an unspoken fear of not being seen as reliable then starting to internally considerate about what people would think of me if I refused a job...

Thus said, I still have to pay attention to what my body tells me but I can still trick myself in thinking that I am ok when I need rest ;)

 

[CelticWarrior]

I've contemplated going part time. Then there's the reality check that I'll need more money to spend on my needs and few wants plus saving up for the future. There will be a moment when I realize it's going to be dangerous to continue living this way for much longer and when it comes to that I'll have no choice but to work less often or find a new line of work.

Maybe this is something you could work towards? It's important to know our limits and respect our bodies, and these alternating shifts sound like hell! You could spend some time taking a general inventory of your life, including both time and financials. Is there a way you could increase your free time (or use current free time more productively) by reducing your expenses and therefore required work hours?

Yes, I'm starting to learn this too, applying the 80/20 rule. We've starting turning down more jobs that we know to have a huge effort-to-reward ratio (and high stress factor), such as motherboard repairs etc. We have various 'currencies' in life, two of which are money and energy. Taking on more stress may increase money, but will deplete energy reserves rapidly, which then damages your free time, because you feel too down to do anything productive, and instead just want to relax and dissociate.

Hi Carlisle. I could certainly use my current free time more productively. But, if the life is sucked out of me to the extent where productivity is butchered then I'd want to just relax and take it easy for the most part. As a result, the use of free time becomes more concentrated with wanting to decompress after feeling inflated. In that case this would call for action against abusing one's energy reserves and respecting our limitations with the mind/body. I'm looking forward to giving myself a well deserved change of pace so there is more free time to be productive and eventhough it may reduce my pay it will benefit what matters most to me.

Thanks for your insights.

Hi Celtic Warrior

But what a horrific term it is when you actually think about it. Using Energy Unit Usage or Slave Inventory or even Flesh and Blood Optimization would be more honest terms to use. But,of course, honesty is an alien concept to those at the top.

Promotion, more money? That's no reward. That just gives the bosses an excuse to demand even more from you. And you get hooked in deeper,because the more money you have the more you spend and get used to a certain level.

I look forward to each day because I know that at the end of the working day I can come home where I can be sane with my wife, cat, and this forum.

I still dream of dropping out of the system and having faith that there is a way I can make a living in a way that I love doing - but in the meantime work is now a doddle, where it used to be a nightmare, and I can secretly laugh at the slavemaster system when I am there - and it is so arrogant that it doesn't even know I am laughing at it.

Hey Vic, yeah I know. I've never seen the use of wanting more out of my job such as promotion because that's just more work load to add to the demands of the master vs slave relationship.

Haha I like your perspective on the work environment dynamic. In the past, it would be much more difficult to realize exactly why I am here? and there's a somewhat common interest amoung all of us who are in the know these days to have purpose other than success through a pathologically controlled system.

Finding something you really enjoy doing & be able to sustain yourself could reduce the stress factor [or so I think].

I've recently started the book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich from Timothy Ferriss, and I think it is the perfect answer to your questions.

I'm still at the beginning of the book, so can't give more details, but can highly suggest it so far. It's also very funny and entertaining at places!

Data, I don't believe there is a perfect answer to our monotonous work-a-day lifestyles. I do appreciate the suggestion, it is definately worth looking at the book and the possibilty of self-employment kind of tickles my fancy. Always good to find any alternative to what we can see as otherwise hopeless situations at times.

 

[Mal7]

I've recently started the book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich from Timothy Ferriss

I had a quick read of that book a few years ago. Looking back, I didn't actually put anything into practice from it, as it didn't really suit my particular situation. Ferriss himself started a mail order business, selling vitamins or nutritional supplements, with a few employees. He might now be making more money now from his book and from talking on his 4-hour-work-week idea, than from the nutritional supplements. One idea in the book that made me chuckle was out-sourcing your personal life to cheap labour in India, e.g. if you need to write a thank-you note to your neighbour, employ someone else to do it instead of spending time doing it yourself.

I do like and practice the concept of "work smarter, not harder", but think to be successful in most areas you probably still need to work smart and hard. I think it is important that people work at what they like doing. If people are doing what they like, then working the extra hours will be less of a chore. Work should really be play, or perhaps service like in that movie/book "The Peaceful Warrior".

I did prefer Richard Carlson's book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff at Work, and his general book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, to Ferriss' book.

 

[SadEyes]

I'll tell you what works for me. Since I am separated from my wife and her kids, I'm not being pressured to bring in a lot of money for material items I don't want. I only make a little bit of money from my 2 part time jobs and a small pension from the military, but it covers my rent, my bills and leaves me enough to eat. I work from 2-6 pm (Tues and Thurs) at a gym as a personal trainer.

9:30-1:30 Weds at a yoga studio in exchange for a free membership, and

9pm-2:30am on Fri and Sat at a bar.

I have most of my free time during the mornings and afternoons, and a bit of time in the evenings on most nights. I absolutely love it. Because I have a just a bit too much time, I'm going to go back to school (paid for by the military) so I will get extra money for a living stipend each month. I may even pick up another part time job for Mondays and Fridays. When I tell people how many things I have going on, they look at my surprised. But I work less than 20 hours a week. Those hours are just split up between different jobs (which kills the monotony of working) and always keeps me interacting with new and different people. I use my time at work to practice my self observation and self-remembering.

Since I clean a lot for my jobs, I use that time to keep my sensations held all over my body and I track my arms while they clean, my body when it bends over or straightens, and my feet when they make the slightest adjustments. I self- remember while interacting with clients so I can "picture" in my head how I might be perceived by them at that moment. Since I get anxiety when around new people, I use those opportunities to watch my emotions, feel my heartbeat increase and my breath change. I then switch to concentrating on my breath to calm myself.

When driving too and from work, I use that time to be aware of my driving, the pressure I put on the gas, the movements of my hand on the steering wheel, the way my arms move to change the station. I go back to my breath when sitting at lights, and watch my mind until the light turns green..I usually get taken before green.

I guess what I'm saying is I use my "work" to do my "Work". When I get home, I still do my Work, but I stick to reading, meditating, sitting/ doing nothing or researching and networking. If I'm not doing that, I'll do hot yoga and try my hardest to be in the moment. If not that then I'll go hiking, and focus on my walking, the sounds around me, the temperature outside or I'll watch my thoughts.

Hope a glimpse into my life helps you out!

 

[Turgon]

Just finished watching this TedTalk How To Find And Do Work You Love where he talks about surrounding yourself with people who inspire you to do more instead of those that encourage complacency and that can lead to taking small, incremental steps towards breaking down barriers in your life and towards goals and aim's that matter. So helping to create momentum towards that higher purpose that 'speaks' to you and surrounding yourself with people that can help support and encourage this. Kind of like the forum. :P

"What is the Work you can't not do" is the main question he asks in the talk.

 

[H-KQGE]

Just finished watching this TedTalk How To Find And Do Work You Love where he talks about surrounding yourself with people who inspire you to do more instead of those that encourage complacency and that can lead to taking small, incremental steps towards breaking down barriers in your life and towards goals and aim's that matter. So helping to create momentum towards that higher purpose that 'speaks' to you and surrounding yourself with people that can help support and encourage this. Kind of like the forum. :P

"What is the Work you can't not do" is the main question he asks in the talk.

I enjoyed this, a good length too. "Build up your resumé!" I liked :"become a self-expert." Not forgetting those that were quitting their jobs en mass & "giving the middle finger to the scripted life." The part about the guy making a living from a blog that he writes for only twice a week , made me think of a similar thing i had ideas about around 10 years ago & never went after.
A world where 80% of people loving their jobs sounds incredible! Then again, it might be like agent Smith said in "the matrix" about "a perfect world that our primitive cerebellum kept trying to wake up from(!)"

This reminds to keep watching TED talks seeing as forget to do so & it's easily accessible. "Learn your own impossible." Thanks for sharing.

 

[Alchemie]

Just finished watching this TedTalk How To Find And Do Work You Love where he talks about surrounding yourself with people who inspire you to do more instead of those that encourage complacency and that can lead to taking small, incremental steps towards breaking down barriers in your life and towards goals and aim's that matter. So helping to create momentum towards that higher purpose that 'speaks' to you and surrounding yourself with people that can help support and encourage this. Kind of like the forum. :P

"What is the Work you can't not do" is the main question he asks in the talk.

"Learn your own impossible."

These statements of you inspire me to think about my future work. I still need to find out, which work is right for me.

My husband and I had a bad start in life (pathological influences of the family), so we did not do our greater talents in the profession (which we definitely had in childhood, but now are stunted: talent for drawing or technical ingenuity).
Since the birth of our daughter last year, we take our live into our own hands. We have managed to create a distance to the disturbed family members (especially my husband had an unhealthy, incredibly deep Stockholmsyndrome to his mother). they have defiled our souls, body and emotions!

Now I want to do/begin my A level as from next year. My husband takes care then of in the evening to our sweet baby.
But I still have to figure out, how am I earn my money after graduation, wherewith I can be happy.
I need to re-orient, and at the same time I do not want to neglect my sweet little family.

 

[sarek]

Before i began the Work, i was rather stuck in my work. I am in tax advice and that is absolutely not an STO oriented line of work, even though admittedly my clients are mostly very small hardworking entrepreneurs and not the high and mighty of the corporate and private world.

I had been tentatively thinking about a change though. I am an INFP and was thinking about going in the direction of psychology.

When i encountered the Work though, my attitudes towards work has undergone as change. For one in the Work, life is a school and every frustration and every negative aspect is to be taken as an opportunity to learn.

So for now my first priority is to see where the Work is leading me and what it will finally guide me towards by way of fulfilling my exoteric life-obligation is as yet in limbo.

 

[anka]

Thank you, CelticWarrior, for bringing up this topic.

And thanks to all the others for your inputs. Inspiring.

I cannot really complain about my work and workplace since I have a great freedom of working hours and can discuss any issue related to work with my employer. No need to worry about getting a strictly negative response (it is a manual job, maintenance of 3 houses and a garden, with special focus on eco-building, e.g. clay/wood works) - there is always a solution for every situation.

There is a different issue which is more about the fact there is a strange flow of energy between the owner and all the people coming into contact with her which I have yet to figure out and in the meantime have been maintaining a sort of 'protective coating' against her influence.

But the most important thing is that I can dedicate as much time to Work as I am able to be aware. Besides that, as a single person I am left with plenty of free time which is great for study. My biggest material difficulty is that I don't have my own home or a place to stay, only a tiny room on the property where I work. It is tough at times but it is ultimately my choice. It has both a positive and negative sides. I spend most of my earnings on quality food/supplements, books and tools and car maintenance. What's left I donate, share or enjoy.

When I read this thread I ended up going to the 12 Daily Exercises for Mind, Body and Soul and checked what would would correspond best with similar situation as described by C.W. This little book is priceless.

I stopped at the chapter 10:

HAVE THE WILL OF THE LION

"Humans are creatures of habit, and we often find ourselves in situations over which we have little choice. We live under the threat of events beyond our power to control, like natural disasters or political violence. Corporations and politicians require our complacence and often have hidden or harmful agendas and we don't want to be part of them. It's hard to overcome the inertia of just reacting passively to the world around us, like turning on the TV when we could be doing something worthwhile. We procrastinate, and this keeps us from seeing and doing. Either we use energy for learning or lose energy by escaping. But this does not mean you are powerless. You have free will, so use it. ..."

So, while I clearly understand, Celtic Warrior, you need the change of work (I remember working night shifts myself, and actually not being able to handle that at all - headaches, distaste for food, impossible useful planning of time), maybe in the transition period before making the move, let your family know what you are about to do, also that you need more rest (so less time for them) to prepare for the change and focus on it. And of course, continue to network.