When Steve Jobs gathered together an elite team to build the Macintosh, THE computer that most changed the world, he had them all wear a T-shirt proudly proclaiming, “80 Hours a Week… And Loving It!”
Steve put his team up in a building of their own apart from the main Apple Campus with a pirate flag on top, complete with a grand piano and motorcycle in the lobby.
Every member of Job’s Mac team flew first-class. They got all the popcorn, pizza and soda they could consume. The one thing he absolutely required of everyone: Play computers games at least an hour a day. No exceptions. Steve literally attempted to build FUN into the machine, and that legacy persists, even today, at Apple, Inc.
When Work Is Play, and Play Is Work
Richard Bolles, with his incomparable guide, What Color Is Your Parachute?, has become the world’s foremost career development expert. It is not far off to claim that he invented the field. Bolles has done over 40 editions, and concludes the formal part of each year’s issue with a meditation on work-life.
Bolles suggests that you haven’t found your ideal vocation until your work becomes play, and play work. They can so blend together that you can’t really tell the difference.
To that end, Bolles helps his readers identify the skillsets that give them the greatest satisfaction, and then shows how these very skills will lead them to perform at their best. He emphasizes that you consider doing things for their own sake, regardless of the paycheck.
When you truly get into something, you are most likely to do it well, no matter what it is. If you look at the world of arts and crafts, not all artists are starving. Just go to Sedona, Arizona to find some of them who are doing extremely well.
When I turned 40, I identified movies as a major interest and came to the conclusion that digital media would be the best way to enter that world. Although my forthcoming career went through many twists and turns, including outright reversals, it was never quite the same once I settled on a single fascination.
Work without Play Doesn’t Really Work
The paradox today is that many of us work virtually, freed by our mobile devices and the Cloud, where we can work truly anywhere. Our society in a little over a century has moved from farm to factory, and from factory to office.
Today, many of us find our true office at Starbucks. We don’t like being isolated. However, we are now free to choose our own community. You will find one just around the corner, any corner.
The downside of this newfound freedom lies in the 24 x 7, always-on culture that has emerged. The television set monopolized our time for decades, but it did nothing compared to the new screens: desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone.
Now that we have more fluid jobs and flextime has become more the rule than the exception, we experience unremitting pressure to produce, much like the endless array of books and papers during my school days. I always felt guilty on the weekends. I should be reading more. That was enough to make me a lifelong bookworm!
Advanced technology is a wonderful servant, but a wretched master! It seduces us to watch the screens whether for work or play. We too easily forget the sleep and nighttime settings on our systems and devices that would let us take a real break.
What time management experts have discovered is that the harder you work, the less efficient you become.
When you lose all sense of play, you do your worst work. You make more mistakes. You become less creative. You get a headache. You even get sick, in which case your workload is totally set back.
My partner (at Conscious Owl) has an electronic desk that lets her stand while she types off the keyboard. Some people go so far as to put a computer on a treadmill. They do this to truly work out while they type.
When you sit too long, exercise is play. When you isolate yourself too far with your mobile device, socializing is play.
Mixing things up is key. Or better yet – integrating things is what works best.
Play without Work Puts You to Sleep
On the other hand, the dream of vegging out on a tropical beach drinking endless Margaritas and Pina Coladas masks just how boring this can get after six months or so. You really start inventing things to do. After seven days on vacation, I often feel this way.
Even if your greatest joy is reading whatever you want and learning what interests you at that moment, you eventually want to impact the world in some way. You want to move, touch and inspire people. You want an opportunity that resembles a job, even if you don’t get paid for it.
Careers and jobs provide us with meaningful roles in society. This is a big part of the whole joy of living. We want to be of service to others. We want to make them happy, as well as ourselves. This is fundamental to any healthy relationship.
Work as Worship
In ancient India, people worked within the caste system such that their role in life and job functions were largely pre-determined. Their joy lay primarily in life itself as a form of celebration.
People, whatever their caste, placed supreme value on union with God. They sought that union in reverent devotion to their favorite form of deity, as well as loving service to others. They found God in each other.
Work can be a celebration like nothing else.
As Richard Bolles hinted, you don’t need to work to live; you can live to work. The manner in which you work can be a celebration and a play. You stop working exclusively for a paycheck and start working primarily to make a difference. You enjoy every moment of your life as a sacred gift.
One alternative community I encountered a few years back taught people to take their pleasure while they can. On the surface, this might seem hedonistic and hopelessly indulgent. Just below the surface, you begin to realize that this is a profound insight.
Every moment can offer some kind of pleasure, some kind of joy. It might be a gorgeous sunrise or the ocean breeze. Even a short escape… for an hour or so… can create the needed balance.
Life as Play
We ultimately realize that we are here to awaken, create, play and celebrate. We awaken to our Source, our only True and Ultimate Identity. We create new possibilities with our heart and our mind.
We play every day with everyone around us. We, then, celebrate, not only with every holiday — Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve — we celebrate with every morning that emerges, with everyone we greet, with every meal we share.
We are here, not only to play, but also to participate in a play. We are on stage to entertain our divine Self, both the producer and the spectator. We are the lucky ones that get to perform. Some of us realize we have been assigned to a love story. The more we love, the faster we discover we are divine.
Work and play are always in a dynamic balance from hour to hour and day to day. No one can tell you what is right for you. Your body and your heart will lead you (and a little bit of planning).
Why not close your eyes at the next opportunity, feel your breathing and let the world dance within you?
* Let us know what's your work and play life looks like (in the comments area below).
Paradox: Balancing Work and Play appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.
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