I just had my mind blown. I came over here to blog about the work hard/play hard concept and era of my life I am in… then realized I might not interpret that concept the same way as everyone else.
In my mind “work hard/play hard” meant you were working really hard when you were working, and playing really hard the rest of the time (maybe almost to excess). Which sounded exhausting to me. Like when do you rest?!
But then when I googled work hard/play hard the top result said “The phrase ‘work hard, play hard’ refers to the practice of having a good work-life balance and prioritizing both professional growth and personal enjoyment. People who embrace the work hard, play hard lifestyle give equal attention to reaching their career-related and personal goals.”
Huh. That description makes it sound less intense than it was in my mind. I mean, I have “doing less” as a personal goal. And I am all about work-life balance.
But then other searches supported my original interpretation of work hard/play hard, one even adding “rest harder” at the end.
ANYWAY. Let’s get out of that rabbit hole. This was meant to be a short post. Oops.
What I was going to say is I feel like I am in a work hard/play medium part of my life and I want to be in a work lite/play medium part of life… but I don’t see that changing for a while. At least until the holidays, for an interim break. Then back at it.
Work is making the days fly by. I have little actions each day that give me a sense of accomplishment and purpose, but it still freaks me out how fast the days are going. Like life is flying by and it’s just… work. It’s not even something I typically share with people outside of work. It’s a separate part of my personality that I mostly shut down when I’m off. AM I WASTING MY LIFE AWAY.
My days are feeling monotonous/routine, even though they technically aren’t, when you look at the fine details. Every day at work is completely different with new unforeseen problems. My days never go how I think they’re going to. It’s kind of nuts. The monotonous/routine part about it is that I wake up early each day to work out, work all day, then try to have free time and do it all again the next day.
So when I’m off from my full-time job I am OFF and don’t think about it at all and just focus on resting, having fun, and part-time work. Ya know, work hard/play hard.
What is this post even about. Thank you for witnessing my existential crisis and the beginning stages of burnout. Yes, I will book some therapy for this month.
Recent playing:
I was going to make an intelligent comment but then I saw the cat mural and my brain is now full of kittens. So your post made my day 2000x better.
Okay, getting a grip now and not thinking about kittens…not thinking about kittens…I am not thinking about kittens…my #1 complaint about my adult life is how fast the days go by. Like WTF I am not going to get this time back. There are just a few periods that I have had in my adult life when time went at normal speed, and those were intensely happy times. The rest of it has gone by in a blur. I’m a bit older than you…eh like by about 10 years thank you for not mentioning it…and I’m doing the math on how many quality years I have left and how fast are they going to go by and I do not like how the math is mathing. I don’t have the answer either so thanks for reading my rambling “I see you” comment and I am completely not thinking about kittens.
Aww! I’m glad you like that mural. It was such an awesome surprise find for us that day! KITTIES!!!!
And I am so so glad you get my rambling. That was exactly my thinking, and I appreciate you summarizing it so succinctly. And yes, we don’t need to get into age differences – what you’re feeling is valid no matter your age. And you pinned it down – it’s the blur and the flying by and that it’s stuff I don’t necessarily care if I remember. Sigh. HOW DO WE FIX IT.
I see you, too. My work environment is similar – so much to do and different every day so that the time flies by… I wonder about my younger colleagues, who work full time, they must feel like you do.
We have already had several colleagues out for months on burn-out leave…people are out sick all the time. It’s not easy. I am so glad I am working 50% – I don’t know how they manage to do it full time.
Good for you for being proactive about it and getting some therapy to help you deal with this!
Tell me more about burn-out leave! I’ve been talking to a friend in Europe who took a special type of leave for something similar. We don’t have that here!
I am glad you are working 50% too. Do you feel like you are able to leave work behind when you leave (and not think about it)?
We do spend a lot of time at work, don’t we? More than we spent with our loved ones sometimes and I think that puts things in perspective because while work can be fun and rewarding, isn’t spending time with people doing things we love so much more rewarding? Work life balance is hard, man.