Life's Work or Life for Life's Sake?

I'm very proud of what I do for a living, and quite happy with the paycheck, but I could walk away tomorrow.
It doesn't mean I don't love what I do, just that there's more to life than my career.
I really treasure the time I spend with my young children, my wife, and close friends.
I want more time to do that.
I don't think anyone is going to name a bridge, or a hospital after me, nor am I ever going to be known nationally or internationally.
I'm perfectly content to do a good job at work, focus what's left of me on my family, and live my life that way.

 

My family is my life's work. If, at the end of my days in this body, it can be said of me that I was the best husband, father, ancestor that I could have been, then will I be successful. Along the way, if I can influence or guide individuals' spiritual growth, then I will be allowed the privilege of being an ancestor to them, too.

 

I am the travelling path type. I have no great desire to leave my imprint on the world. If I've made any type of a difference along the way, I am completely oblivious to it.

 

Some thoughts:

ive heard htis put another slightly different way also... Live to work, or work to live? i definitely work to live, meaning, my job is a means to other goals, mostly recreational goals

I agree with altermoose, that my family is my life's work, but i prefer to think of family as an extended notion. i hope that when i leave people they can see aspects of my character worth emulating, or at least appreciating. I hope that when i've passed, my children use how i lived as a guide to their own lives. not thaat i want them to live the same life as me, but rather that i want to them to see that i lived my own life, and what it takes to do that. i want them to recognize sacrifices, and the rewards that come from them. i could go much deeper, but it would just occupy space here...

in terms of goal setting, i live by somewhat of a bucket list mentality... i dont have a culminating life's work ambition other than my family, but i do have goals i intend to see accomplished before i die. i want to run the baja 500, i want to see everest (no desire to climb it), i want to have sex in a public place. i want to rebuild a vehicle form the ground up (almost done with that one), etc, etc, etc... oh, and i wanna save a far away planet from total annhilation, like in a sweet sci-fi flick... LOL j/k... although it would be cool

the list really is a mile long, and ranges form "silly" to "profound", and form "too easy not to have already done" all the way to "no way, dude" the challenge is to see how much i can get done... so i guess its a journey as opposed to destination mentality...

 

I grew up in IL, first saw the mountains when I was 12, and have been enamored with them ever since. I am more goal oriented, than anything else, and the goal has always been to live and play in the mountains. I take work seriously; but it is just a means to that end.​

Other than raising two daughters, I have no life's work. It took a few decades; but I've accomplished my goal, I just have to finish paying for it.​

Do you see these two mentalities as mutually exclusive, or is there room for overlap?​

I'm not sure where I fit. Off to the side, probably.​

 

I am a go- with- the- flow external person, but I am very calculated about how I want to spend my time. There are activities in which I engage that keep me sane and help me to cope with the difficult knowledge that we are forever marching closer to our finale, but the only thing I really live for or look forward to are the moments that seem strangely correct. The moments, and there are many, when I am doing something or with someone, or when someone says something or does something that just seems so right, that the rest of the world dissolves. They are moments that confirm an internal knowing that things will all be okay, and that all questions have already been answered.

Off topic, maybe, but who cares?

 

What do you live for?

To be a positive influence, or at least not a negative influence, on myself and those around me.
Do you have a major project that you consider your life work?

I was always fiddling around with human evolution. A childhood interest in psychology and performance arts led to exploring and researching connections between linguistics and behaviour. My life's work has been to continue developing them in the field of private and public performance.
Do you have one thing that you're always looking forward to?
Hugs and great conversations. Oh ... and long walks, especially those that include hugs and great conversations.

Or are you a person who simply lives life, traveling on whatever path seems to be laid out before you?

I'm so enjoy the goal of developing and testing 'navigation tools', that all paths are equally relevant. There's fulfillment to be found on any of them.

Do you see these two mentalities as mutually exclusive, or is there room for overlap?

A few qualities can cover a multitude of things. I am attached to the qualities, which means that I am not attached to one 'thing' more than another.
Practical example: Piano, singing and guitar were my first instruments. At some point, the skills of musicianship ... the patterns which connected my relationship with the instruments ... became the brightest stars in my firmament. These days, I'm excited by any instrument I can get my hands on. The instruments - the 'things' can overlap or swap, because I'm always in contact with exploring principles.

I might have a few questions to ask, later in the thread, but for now, I'm not awake enough to formulate them.

Take care

 

Sadly, recent time sheets have revealed that I apparently live to work.