Work-Life or Work-Fun Balance?

The work-life balance argument is always unclear to me. First, because it sits on the construct that work and life are separate wholes with peculiar parts. Second, and knit to the first, is the suggestion that overcompensation for one is to the detriment of the other.

I should think that neither of the above is true. Given, that a fact is false, doesn’t mean it can’t be true. And, since truth and falsity are relative, choosing one’s side of the fence paints a biased reality. Agreed.

All that, notwithstanding, I find it interesting that work-life balance does not recognize that life is a continuum of events - of time, and seasons. A time to be born, to be unconcerned about the summons of hustle and life’s harsh demands. A time to grow, to set the pieces for the time shortly before death. And, a time to die, where dreams are already exhausted, having been actualized, or failed at.

Life is a house for many events, a subject with many topics. In life, you find that you’re constantly making decisions, consciously or not. Decisions about priorities, and goals. Decisions about whether to succeed or not, and at what cost. Even, what kind of success. Different successes require different sacrifices. Pioneers face obstacles different from expansionists/sustainers. Learners without doing, face different trials from learners who do. The proactive have different hurdles from procrastinators. The size of your dream usually requires a corresponding size of sacrifice. But if we situate the argument on the premise of dreams and successes, it’ll narrow the width of the conversation. So, I won’t.

Rather, I believe that work is a part of life. The same way laziness is. Or, feeding, reading, dying and resting. To divorce work from life is to limit the definition of life. For life is the hill that houses work, or rest. For some, depending on their reasons, working is where they find their living. Some find theirs in reading. Example, a student in school who dedicates her whole life to reading is soon tagged as having no “life” when in fact that reading is the “life” she’s chosen. Some others might have chosen to party, have fun and read only when exams are close. Neither of the two is better than the other, or worse of. It’s the same logic for religious preferences. If you decide to sleep, wake up and think only about your after-life considerations, it does not make you any less than the person who parties, travels and work a lot. And vice versa. And to divorce the decision, to work or play, from the very essence of an individual’s life is discounting the true meaning of life. For life is not a thing of itself, but its essence is from the aggregation of events that make it up. That is why when a great cleric, or businessman dies, who had done great “work”, you’ll often hear s/he led a great life. What is referred to at that time is the outcome of her priorities, disregarding the sacrifices, because no one really cares. Check the stories of how the first iPhone was made, and many other great inventions. Only in a small circle are the sacrifices talked about. But the vast majority focus on the result.

To some, their veneration is in these results, at the expense of fun and rest, and I think this is fine. If yours is to prioritize rest over more work, that is also absolutely fine. But I don’t think any one side should disdain the other. You can rest and live long, you can overwork and live long. The entirety of life is shrouded in uncertainty. Celine Dion is currently battling a sickness which affects 1 in a million people. What are the odds!

Steve Jobs had a terrible work ethic, according to those who worked with him. But he’s remembered as a hero today, and tomorrow. And records showed that such was what mattered to him. He’s no better or worse than Ron Wayne (the third cofounder of Apple, who chose a life less stressful). Their lives were “balanced”, according to them. And that is always what matters.

So, the trade off for work is not life. It is fun, rest and quality family/friends time. The trade off for life is death. And, since working does not equal dying, or fun and rest would mean the same, you can only have a work-rest balance or work-fun balance or fun-rest balance. Never work-life balance.