What would you do instead of work?
I’ve been trying to convince my dad to retire. He’s one of those old guys who thinks he just has to work, and the last time I bugged him about it, he insisted that he wouldn’t know what to do with his time. But he could come up with a list of 10 things he would do if he didn’t have to work. That’s what you’ll be doing when you retire, I told him.
Maybe all those years I went to school for 2 months and spent the rest of the time in India made me resistant to having my time monopolized for nothing more than a paycheck. I used to keep track of all the times I’d been fired or quit (ie no notice) with pride – it’s somewhere between 12 and 15.
Complaining is pointless unless you plan on doing something about it, and even wanting to do something isn’t the same as being inspired to Do Something. I got my inspiration when I made my own list of Things I’d do Instead of Work (see below).
Luckily, the internet is a great resource, from Why Work?, which promotes alternatives to ‘wage slavery,’ to offering opportunities to create income that doesn’t involve commuting, working overtime or having the life sucked out of you by associating with lemmings & zombies. Anyone can start a website or business these days
The big change is figuring out what’s really important to you and stop wasting time on things that don’t directly affect the important stuff. It’s figuring out the difference between a want and an unequivocal need.
Here’s my list of things I need to create leisure time for. If you made your list, what would it inspire you to do?
- make a stop-motion Lego movie
- learn a martial art
- make an animated short film
- learn architecture
- write and illustrate a children’s book
- be a lounge singer
- write and record 5 pop songs
- paint with watercolors
- start a band
- play more boardgames (hell, maybe I should make one while I’m at it…)
There are so many things on my list. *sigh* If only the world tossed out the silly money idea and went back to things of real value.
The money thing is a real PITA. If I hadn’t started building a website for the hell of it a few years ago, we wouldn’t have the possibility of moving. I spent years with the mistaken notion that I ‘had to find a good job.’
Even my web thing didn’t take off until we bought the house, realized we’d bitten off a bit more than we could chew and I started trolling for work like crazy.
My perception shifted a bit after reading ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad.’ I don’t buy Kiyosaki at all – I think he’s totally full of it. But the notion of ‘streams of income’ vs a wage makes you look at things very differently. Work that generates income after the work is completed – like a book – is much more efficient than wage slavery.
You write well – have you considered freelance writing? I’ve been listening to podcasts from FreelanceSwitch.com and one of the speakers is a freelance writer. I think there are a lot of opportunities out there, and I’m sure there’s something that’ll work for you.
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