Are We Slaves to Work?
It is a common enough view that we are slaves to our work and – actually – there is some truth in that. Not that we are chained to our desks by some grim overseer who strides the corridors in shiny riding boots and a frock coat, at least not outside of the symbolic world. We become “slaves” to work because work is deep within our nature; because work is the current day manifestation of the survival drive. Squirrels collect nuts, build dreys and fill their waking days with the struggle to survive. Our own survival drive is subverted into the daily commute, the hours spent at a desk wrestling with intangible problems and working with intangible people over e-mail and the telephone. No wonder stress levels are high; in a very real sense, we live unnatural lives. When the singer, Roy Harper protested, “The habits I’ve got are more than 10,000 years old” (see foot-note), he was touching on the root of many of the issues we face today.
So we are slaves, but, perhaps, willing slaves.
One of the consequent challenges of our deep-seated drive is that, without conscious attention, it is all too easy to fall into pursuit of the obvious rather than the necessary. The imperative of the bank statement unavoidably enslaves us to feeding our wallets. Perhaps money can’t buy happiness but it does help and we all need to earn sufficient cash to pay the bills. Too often, we let ourselves get stuck in pursuit of Wallet Food. This can be particularly the case for the self-employed and often the original motivations for becoming self-employed get subsumed by the need to do the work which pays. Rather than lovingly crafting murals on custom hot-rods, we end up re-spraying body damage on Nissan Micras; rather than devoting your soul and your time to following your muse, you end up instructing reluctant students in the finer application of the semi-colon or the treble clef.
In reality, success (i.e. satisfaction) needs to be defined along two dimensions. Rather than just the pursuit of money, Wallet Food, we also need to feed the Soul. What are the activities which really give us energy? When do we feel most fulfilled? What did you want to do when you grew up? It probably wasn’t a wage-slave.
I have found the following frame-work to be a useful tool for considering your current situation and how you might seek to rebalance it.
We are all searching for Nirvana, aspiring to reach the top-right of this chart: to get paid lots for doing what we love.
In the bottom-right quadrant, at worst, we tend towards martyrdom; no money but oh, what joy!
Top left, is a surprisingly easy place to land. You’re good at what you do, you get promoted, you earn, and become bound to, increasing amounts of money but... you realise the joy has gone, it has become soul-destroying.
And, at worst, we find ourselves in the realm of the Zombie: a dark kingdom with no money and no pleasure.
We owe it to ourselves to plot our work-lives on the above and see how we can shift ourselves top-right.
For some, this will be where the concept of a Portfolio Career can come to life. Instead of plotting a “job”, you can plot your various projects in the tacit acceptance that some activities will be Automaton roles which serve to compensate financially for a corresponding clutch of Martyr-like projects. Look at the overall balance, and see what it would take to shift the value of the portfolio of projects towards the top-right.
For those in traditional employment, the challenge becomes one of evolution. How do you build on your strengths, talents and skills to either redefine your existing role or shift into a new role which offers a better balance – a shift towards the top-right.
A starting point for this is to take an inventory. What do you have which you can take with you on the journey? What skills and experiences have you amassed to date? What are your innate strengths? The concept of strengths (and building on those as opposed to addressing your perceived weaknesses) was first popularised by Marcus Buckingham et al in books like “Now, Discover Your Strengths” which is referenced
elsewhere on this web-site. From past personal experience, I have always enjoyed the approach as adopted by
Sue Moore (http://www.amadeusnetwork.com/) and
Mike Pegg (http://www.thestrengthsway.com/) and I find the daily RSS feed from Mike’s blog a useful reminder of how to apply a strengths-focused approach. The inventory, then, is your kit-bag, your “Wanted On Voyage” trunk.
There are a great many maps around which illustrate what the world looks like and what, possibly, it will look like over the next few years. Again, I have referenced some of these in the
Brain Food section of this site: The World Is Flat, The Long Tail, The Sovereign Individual, The Elephant and the Flea all explore the dynamics of the world; its opportunities and challenges. Anyone planning to embark on a journey is well-advised to take at least a cursory look at a map lest “There” is not actually there when they arrive.
And then, of course, there is the courage needed to take the first step.
Foot-Note
From “The Game (Parts 1-5)” featured on 1975’s HQ album (in the US, the album was called “When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease”). 10,000 years is the approximate age of civilisation. When you consider the millions of years over which natural evolution takes place, you can begin to see why we humans are ill-adapted to the world we have created.