Work, Work, Work, Work………

Side 1:

My life, my rules.

Live life king size.

Live free. Live happily.

The best universal quotes related to life is always about freedom, faith, hope, happiness, and independence. But we also hear and read:

Side 2:

Workaholic life. #Tired

60 hours work/week. #Exhausted

Work, work, work, work.. #Stressed

We actually forget that work fills more than half portion of our entire life and we call it as our ‘Work Life’ i.e. Work is our Life.

Now, if we compare above 2 sides — those are two contradictory statements.

If someone says he is workaholic and has happy freedom, that seems suspicious and tricky, doesn’t it?

If anyone says he is working 60 hours/week, how is it possible to live freely?

Work is one such thing where everything happens. Revolutionary discoveries and unexpected inventions. Still there exists a wide variety of responses and opinions about ‘Work Life’.

What is WORK actually?

Ignoring the Wikipedia and stereotypical definitions, I have come up with some humane personalized meaning:

Work is the first and foremost thing human beings are recognized/known for. Without work, we lose our own identity. Work is something we do for money as a primary reason and happiness as a secondary reason. Work means commitment and dedication to something particular for a consistently long period of time. Work can’t necessarily provide us happiness but it ensures a sure-shot way to earn the bread. Human beings’ one of the most important purposes for life is to find joy, stability, freedom in their work. Without work, human beings are a skeleton. With the help of our work, we fulfill our dreams.

I complete the definition at dreams but I begin the real story here.

When we actually say, “It’s my dream job”, we mean, “With the help of this job/work, I will be able to fulfill my dreams.”

Tell a housewife to stop cooking for a month, instruct an experienced chauffeur to stop driving for a year, request a professor not to teach for 15 weeks, command an actor not to do any stage performance or theatres for a couple of months.

What will happen? What happens to them is plain and simple.

By taking away the WORK from them, you are taking the LIFE out of them.

How come? We just paused their work. How does their entire life alter? What is the reason?

The reason is: Human beings are born to work. The pursuits, goals and dreams are the outcomes of how, where and what we work.

I am a professional content writer. My dream is to be a best-selling author. The only way I could do is: Not to stop, keep trying and write relentlessly.

That’s my work. That’s my job. That’s my dream. That’s my pursuit.

If not chosen wisely, work is such a deal-breaker that can make or break your life entirely. Being a mechanical engineer turned writer, if I had continued to do the engineering job which I hated, I would lose my identity. People would still know me as ‘Bhavik Sarkhedi Mechanical Engineer’. I would be known to THEM only, not to myself. Who cares about others when all we want to do in our life is satisfy ourselves and do what is best for us?

Thus, I would lose my identity for me.

We won’t debate over these quote: Do what you love and love what you do. It’s a different context altogether. Okay, continue….

As a content writer, when I commit myself to become a famous author, I justify my life doing my work. That’s what it is. Work is directly proportional to Life. They can’t be separated.

Cooking, Writing, Designing, Coding, Driving, Painting, Singing, Dancing, Acting, Dry Cleaning. It’s all work we do. It’s all we have.

Have you heard of a writer who is famous only for his singing?

Do you know an actor known for his writing only?

Let’s ignore the exceptional cases 😐 (Please!)

Work is who we are. Work is Life. Work can take us in ‘Hall of Fame’. Work can take us in the ‘Wanted’ list. Productive work helps us to sleep peacefully. Unsatisfactory work will take your sleep away. Work is your second spouse, by default.

I conclude with the following original quote:

“When pandemic happens, work stops. When work stops, pandemic will happen.”