Psychologists tell us that once our
basic needs are met – food, clothing, and shelter – in
order to be truly happy we need work, love and play.
Well, there’s no argument to be made against love and play, but work?
A lot of folks might tell you that they could be perfectly happy without
work - probably a lot more so. And it’s true, that for a lot of us, work is
just what we have to drag ourselves through every day in order to afford the
first three necessities - not to mention the countless other costs and expenses
of modern life. (Alexander Graham Bell could never have imagined the size of a
modern phone bill!)
But if you think less of work as forced labour and more as meaningful and fulfilling effort that you put toward accomplishing something that is important to you, then the good doctors have a point – that kind of work produces happiness. The big problem is that, in many cases, doing what’s important, meaningful and fulfilling to you, i.e. what you love to do, doesn’t always produce a pay check. So, in order to fund the three basic essentials, you have to spend more of your time doing something else, something you may not like doing quite as much – working.
