What if You Just Want to Live, Not Work?

A “Going Places” reader asked me a question that I can’t stop thinking about:

“I am someone who is 'anti-career' (I go through seasons of trying different things out to meet my emotional and financial goals at the time) so I didn't think I would find value in your newsletter. I was obviously wrong, but I wonder if you have anything to say about how to stay motivated in a capitalistic society when all I wanna do is LIVE, not work?”

🙋‍♀️ Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by a similar thought?

I’m not going to pretend to know the universal answer to our deeply capitalistic systems and world of work...

…but what I can offer you is my own approach to finding a deeper meaning in my career, one that has helped my readers and clients reframe their attitudes toward work, too. 

A reframe that does not ultimately drive me to ~*work harder*~ at the expense of my own mental and physical health, nor one that guilts me into believing that “the only way to do great work is to love what you do” (lookin’ at you, Steve Jobs).

It’s an approach that I call the Meaningful Work Equation: