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What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

JlolSenior Contributor13 Dec 2022, 2:19 pm AEDT

What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

Get up, commute to work, work, commute home, household chores, sleep, repeat.

No time (or energy) for self care.

Whenever you raise this as an issue you’re told to “make time”, which is impossible.

What’s the point?

6 replies

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In response to: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

chibamSenior Contributor13 Dec 2022, 2:26 pm AEDT

Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

Hi @Jlol .🙂

I've never understood this, either. To me, it's always felt like a massive con. And it rarely, if ever, seems to be justified, when you look to others' lives to see how it ultimately plays out.

My therapist was really big on this - being obsessed with making money and self-preservation. I could never understand why anybody should be expected to have such priorities, in the absence of anything that makes life worth enduring.

In response to: Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

GwynnSenior Contributor13 Dec 2022, 5:03 pm AEDT

Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

Hi @chibam - quite often, people think that money can buy happiness, which isn't exactly the case, but it can buy stuff that brings about happiness, like being able to afford good food easily, or to go and do a class or get a gym membership. I'm not saying that these will make life worth living, but perhaps your therapist's thought was that having enough money helps.

In response to: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

amber22Senior Contributor13 Dec 2022, 5:45 pm AEDT

Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

Hey @Jlol

It can definitely feel like a cycle that is never ending sometimes, I sometimes can get stuck in a bit of a rut because I feel like all I do is work!

So what I've been trying to do is to romanticise my commute a bit more (when I go into the office) and enjoy a hot coffee or listen to a new podcast so that I feel as if I have something to look forward to.

I also do the same with looking forward to coming home to watch something I really want to watch, or have a yummy dinner so that I can keep some excitement in my life. When I have time off or a weekend off I try to pack it with things that will refresh me (seeing a friend, self-care, a big walk with my dog) to add some more purpose to my soul 🙂

Amber22

In response to: Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

chibamSenior Contributor13 Dec 2022, 7:41 pm AEDT

Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

There's an element of cart-before-the-horse to that thinking, though, @Gwynn , as there's not much point pursuing the things that maintain life (e.g. food), until life has achieved a standard where it is actually worth prolonging.

If you are short on both the means to preserve your life, and any reason to preserve your life then, IMHO, the most pressing matter that ought to occupy your attention should be acquiring a reason to keep living.

In any event, my therapist was intimately aware of the circumstances of my life, and was therefore well aware of how useless money was to me in my present circumstances.

In response to: Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

Shaz51Senior Contributor13 Dec 2022, 8:14 pm AEDT

Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

Hello and hugs @chibam , @Jlol , @amber22 , @Gwynn

Self care does not have to be big

I am learning it is the little things that counts

Here for you @Jlol

In response to: Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

TaitungNew Contributor14 Dec 2022, 3:36 pm AEDT

Re: What’s the point if all we ever do is work?

An engineering degree, Grad Dip and. Grad Cert and the best I can do is a 9 to 5 job in a factory workshop not utilising any skills gained from uni.

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