UNITED STATES—By now, I know most of you have heard about that trend of all work and no play, but why has that theory been constantly pushed in a society that seems to have more people playing than actually working? There are indeed some problems with the recent generations of wanting to play, play, play and not work. I’m not certain if its because their parents failed to instill in them that work is a critical part of our daily lives or if its because of the explosion of technology and the lackluster level or role models.
Yes, I use the term role model lightly because I don’t think a person should ever idolize someone; it’s an unhealthy obsession in my opinion. It’s better to be unique and original and pave your own path of success. I think its okay to respect someone or their journey, but trying to fully replicate their success to equate your goals is a disaster waiting to happen.
As Americans, we have to break down the inevitable time frame. There are only 24 hours in a day, and for most individuals work cuts into 6-12 hours of that day at least five days a week. Now factor in the amount of sleep that is also subtracted from a typical day which is anywhere from 6-8 hours. With both of those things being accounted for we have about 8-12 hours to ourselves, but for those with families and other obligations that amount of ‘free’ time is cut even more.
If you have children you have to worry about getting them to school, picking them up, preparing dinner, homework, extracurricular activities and before you know it, you might have 3-4 hours to yourself. At this point the idea of even entertaining some sort of ‘play’ is thrown out the window; you’re tired, you’re exhausted, your body needs time to recuperate.
People, who don’t work, don’t realize this. I can’t tell you how many times I hear it, over and over again, you have to just cut go out, party super hard. Trust me, I would love to do nothing more, but it’s not something I’m looking to do every single day for an entire month.
Is that lifestyle that exciting, and precisely what are you doing to live this lifestyle if you don’t work. To party is not free, its costs money and for most of us, the money is not an issue, its dealing with the aftermath of the party. Some might have to go to work the next morning, you might have partied too hard to the point where a day of rest isn’t enough.
I think limiting the amount of alcohol that you consume is important. Not everyone can control their alcohol, but I want to highlight you don’t have to drink to have a good time. We are forced to believe that, but that is not the case. Alcohol just seems to loosen some people up a bit more. If you work five days a week, I do believe you should have at least one day that you do whatever it is you want to do. Rather it’s hitting the club, dinner, a movie, shopping, cleaning the house, running errands, etc.
No one wants to live their life working without any time off. Remember work is apart of life, but its not what life is all about. If you don’t take a bit of time for yourself it will indeed impact your life in more ways than you suspect.
