Is Your Work Really Fulfilling?
September 19, 2012Saving money isn’t easy, and every now and then I need to remind myself why I do it. I watched the national political conventions a few weeks ago and heard a lot of speakers talk about the “dignity” you feel from having a job as though the mere act of doing work provides personal fulfillment. I am deeply sympathetic to the millions of American struggling to find work in order to pay bills and to those who need every dollar they earn just to make ends meet. At the same time however, almost every day I meet people who tell me how much they don’t like their job or don’t like going to work. I find no dignity, only profound sadness, in thinking that most people will probably spend day in, day out, for most of their lives doing something they really dislike, dreaming instead about doing something else.
I’ve recently been using my Netflix instant account to watch a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a TV show that’s set three hundred years in the future. There’s a device on the show called a “replicator,” a futuristic computer that can quickly create food, clothing, and shelter out of thin air for anyone who needs them. As a result, no one “has” to go to work to support themselves because the cost of providing for basic needs is essentially zero.
Instead, most people live on their own terms, doing things with their lives that they believe are meaningful and enjoyable. The message is clear – you should not be content with how you’re spending your time unless it gives you satisfaction and happiness. It’s is an inspiring vision for what our society should hope to become.
You might be thinking this is great for television but doesn’t really apply to our lives until we invent this future technology. Suspend disbelief for a moment though and imagine we were in fact living in a world where supporting ourselves costs very little and money wasn’t really needed to get food, clothing, shelter, and other basic needs. Ask yourself whether in this scenario, you would continue to work in your job or you would prefer to pursue another opportunity.
If you feel that once your basic needs were met, you’d prefer to do something else, I’d urge you to consider the following. Even if we haven’t reduced the cost of living to zero, we’re still living in an age where technology and mass production has made sustaining our basic needs cheaper than at any time in history. And if you’ve been reading my blog, I hope I’ve begun to persuade you that as a result, our needs can indeed be relatively few and inexpensive. In other words, we may not be living in the era of Star Trek, but for those of us who refuse to inflate our lifestyles with expensive tastes, I’d argue we’ve gotten pretty close.
If there’s something you’d rather be doing than going to work at your current job, it is worth your time to take a long, hard look at your expenses and spending habits and decide whether the extra money you’re earning is worth restricting yourself to years of working a job you don’t like. I look forward to a future where instead of politicians telling us we’ll find dignity merely by going to work for forty years, we’ll all be encouraged and will feel free to pursue whatever we believe gives our lives meaning and enjoyment, which can include going to work, but also includes anything else such as learning new skills, starting a family, running a business, or traveling the world. Living a life of low expenses and high savings rates is the first step toward removing yourself from the conventional way of doing things and getting you toward doing the things you’ve always dreamed.