On my homepage I state I mentioned that I help people find more joy, fulfilment and space in their lives by getting them to think differently about work, time and leisure.
Our lives comprise paid and unpaid work, other obligations such as self care (biological and psychological needs) relationships, leisure and more . All this makes for a life. The various parts can become a competition for time, some of which is more obligatory than others.
After decades of working with thousands of people, older adults in, or facing retirement and those in the work who were time starved, the one factor consistent with their stress was the importance they placed on their paid work identity.
It makes sense that if you gain intrinsic benefits from paid work – self esteem, stimulation, challenge, recognition and social connection then when added to being financially rewarded it makes paid work highly valued. Do it for decades and it can shape you and how you and others see yourself.
Therefore you are likely to place it higher on your rung of desirable versus undesirable obligations than other elements that may not provide the same benefits. You tell yourself you “should” be spending (look at the language) more time with (fill in the blanks) but you know that the reward won’t be as strong.
Our brain moves us either away from pain or toward pleasure.
So the aim is to understand how how and where we "spend" our time and what we can do to find intrinsic benefits from those parts of our lives other than paid work.
The goal is to no longer feel swamped - instead feel carefree!!
In my own life after completing a degree in leisure studies in 1986, I shifted to the East Kimberley region of Western Australia and during that period I started a horse trekking business and then WA's first crocodile farm. Both of these ventures were income generating and they merged work and leisure.
Today I share a cattle herd with friends on a station in the East Kimberley and with my partner Rachel we also run a creative adventure business. So I am a practising example of merging my work and leisure.
During summer we catch our food - this is my serious leisure!
I'd love to work with you to find your sweet spot with work, time and leisure.