"I am not going to bother learning this, as I only have eight years left until I retire".
These were the words of a colleague's client, which is in stark contrast to what I heard in my own session, where we were talking about lack of workers and employment issues. My client is production engineer, but also has a dairy farm he inherited, which he and his brother still operate full time. I asked about how long his father worked for and while he is now 88 years old, he only stopped working consistently 5 years ago and altogether 3, where his body just couldn't take it and he was more a liability than a help.
Aging sucks, but it is interesting to note the difference between the attitudes of the self-employed and the employed. While one is looking forward to retirement and slowing down almost a decade before, the other worked effectively for 15 years past retirement age and was forced to stop - that is a difference of over a half a professional career. This is interesting if you consider that my student started working on the farm by the age of 6 and if he continues on to when he is around 75, that means he has added value to the farm for 70 years. This is a potentially massive difference in economic outcome.
I think that this has something to do with Doing what you love, as that tends to be able to drive the motivation to keep working at it for longer, which we can often see when it comes to artists. But it also is an indication of how not doing what you love can wear down on motivation in ways that could be very costly long term. The other factor that should be considered in this section is, the "doing what you love", as that shows a high degree of self-interest, which again is going to add motivation. Most people seem more likely to work harder for themselves, than they do for others.
It also can mean that a person doesn't have to retire, whereas an employee will effectively be terminated at a certain date, regardless of their skill, enthusiasm or desire to stay. This means that the person working for themselves past retirement can regulate their resources and have flexible working ranges and can work part-time, rather than being forced to stop cold turkey.
Most people will choose careers that they think will bring them the most economic benefit, not the most life satisfaction. Although, the caveat here is what our evaluation of a satisfactory life is. While some people will see it from the financial stability and opportunity perspective, others will see it from the work itself, or the lack of work as the case may be. I think when we are making these decisions about our future, we aren't necessarily experienced enough to understand that a lot of life contentment comes from the work that we do, not the things that we have or the leisure time we take. For many, that luxury holiday is only luxurious because it was earned, not because of what it actually is in regard to location or experience.
This is part of the reason why the adage of "You only appreciate the value of money when you earn it" holds true - because this applies to the value of pretty much anything. If it comes easily or for free, there is no reason to cherish it, as there is always more of it available, scarcity isn't an issue. Time is no different, it is the most finite resource we have, yet for those who get it easily, wasting it doesn't seem to be much of a loss. When time is in short supply however, it becomes very precious.
Combine the doing what you love and the view that time is precious, it is likely that more time is going to be directed toward doing what you love. And when what you love is value-adding in some way, it means that there is the potential to add more value for longer. If we take an author for example, there is essentially no time limit on their career. As an illustration of this, Stephen King's first novel was Carrie, in 1974 - 46 years ago. He is 73 years of age and has a book due to come out in 2021. Most likely, that will depend on how long he lives. He currently has 61 novels to his name, as well as 200+ short stories. What year will his last book be published? And another interesting point to consider is, when will the last royalties on his books get paid? Essentially, he has invested into a multi-generational income for his creativity and providing enjoyment to generations of readers and movie fans. Pretty cool. Evergreen content is valuable.
Not everyone can be Stephen King of course, even if they have the skill, but we should consider the value in doing what we love as extending past the material gains and, past the time that we would normally consider our career. We are living longer past our retirement than we were before, there will be decreasing opportunity as we get older in an already shrinking job market and, the social services past retirement are likely to keep getting reduced, as the babyboomers who funded it are bled dry, by the governments and corporations that have siphoned it over the decades through various mechanisms, including increasing consumption by low earners.
This is where the generations of people working in the same field (literally on a farm)are able to build large wealth, as they are able to take advantage and leverage skills and the availability of the precious time resources for longer than they can during a normal career, with each participant adding value that builds the collective value. For instance, when my client was working from the age of six, he was definitely not adding a great deal of value to the dairy farm, but he was able to lessen the workload on those who do, by taking care of minor odd jobs. But the real value is that while he was doing these odd jobs, he was learning about the farm, developing good working ethics and building the sense of being a value-adding part of the community. While the immediate value might have been small, the total value over his lifetime working on the farm can be immense, especially since it will stretch the majority of his lifetime, even after he retires from his 9-5 job. This is investment into wealth generation across generations.
I am a proponent of work, not just because of the financial value, but because of the community value and the personal value that doing something value-adding brings. I think that the work however should be considered from many perspectives and while most people actually aren't likely to do well "doing what they love" as work, choosing a career that is interesting and evokes curiosity can go a long way to mitigating the risk of boredom with no chance of change, which is highly demotivating and likely why people start their career wind-down, when they are only halfway through.
The future of employment is changing, the future of hobbies are changing too, which means it isn't always easy to choose a career long term, which is why learning the skills to adapt are so important. Adaptation isn't just for survival of the bad times, it is also about knowing when and being able to pivot in the good. I think a big part of what brings life contentment is being able to bring value to the lives of others, which returns value to our own. Not everyone will take this path of course, but that doesn't mean not everyone can.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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I always wonder why some people despise learning so much. There is still so much to learn after school or university! Staying curious is the secret of progress. Without curiosity, one can only sit and wait for death. Doing what you love but also finding joy in what you do is important.
Well known authors have indeed left a legacy for future generations. They had a vision and in general they never trully retired.
It could be there association with school education.
Authors, artists, the neighbor who still builds stuff in his 80s, my grandad and dad who worked at their trade until they couldn't anymore... Craftspeople.
Quite often learning at work is decided for you just like it was at school. I got no interesting in ''yellow belt'' ''kaizen'' ''lean'' but it gets pushed down your throat at work.
I also got the feeling that many people just hit their max and have information overload. Then you just don't want to learn anything that isn't 100% what you love.
I think this is a big part of it - but much of the information is irrelevant and useless - like news and the dramas of instagram
!ENGAGE 15
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.Work on what you love, and you won't have the need to work a day. So goes a saying. And I believe it to be true. The secret is in doing what we love, the things we enjoy doing. Some people are lucky enough to make big profits from what they like to do. However, there are others who feel that they are subjected to jobs that they are not passionate about and feel that working is a punishment. These are the ones who hope to retire as soon as possible. Of course, the ideal would be that our professions serve us to live comfortably. As a teacher, I had colleagues who said that they would never retire because they loved what they did, but because of the crisis and the bad pay, they had to quit their jobs and dedicate themselves to other things that were more economically effective. That is also sad. I think, for example, how many artists there will be in the world, for example, frustrated in office jobs waiting to retire. A good Wednesday to you, @tarazkp
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.I think doing what you love might be the hardest thing to do, as it will consume continuously and endlessly. It is worth it though.
It is a broken society when people have to give up on value-adding activities they enjoy, to make ends meet. The economy is designed for employees to maintain their label -we should change that and make everyone an owner.
This is an attitude I ran across in my job. A few of those people did not make it the eight years because they refused to keep their skill set up. Eight years left is when a person should be looking to maximize their learning opportunities with the company, so that they retire at a higher level such as a supervisor job verse retiring as a grunt worker.
A lot of what work really is, is attitude, love or hate the job, if it is hate, try making it something you can enjoy.