Brain Spool

Work Life Balance

okay, so I must admit.. that not being able to have conversations, do business or make deals outside of the hours of 8am to 5pm frustrates the fuck out of me.  Not a little bit, but a lot.  It’s the mentality of “checking out” and doing business outside the norm as being “off limits” that makes me feel like living in Phoenix is perhaps a bad choice.

One thing that I love about the area is that its family friendly and good for raising kids, but that same plus is a major negative when looked at in a different light.  I think what kills me more than anything is this notion of “work life balance”.  Simply put if you are able to put work in one box and life in another box, you are doing it wrong.

Before you think I am nuts.  Think about it for a minute.  It means you are NOT passionate about what you do to earn your living.  It means at some point what you do feels like work and therefore you need to classify it as something not part of your life.  This makes me sad inside.  I think when you are really truly doing something that you love to earn your living,  that there is no way to separate the two.  Maybe that’s a bad thing, but best I can tell that is how the world gets changed.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not advocating not spending time with your family, kids or the likes, but this concept of “disengaging” is what is troublesome.  Who knows.  Maybe Im just mentally handicapped.

The key is not to “work” 80 weeks.  The key is to live.  Not advocating workaholic bullshit, simply saying shutting yourself off closes doors for opportunity and serendipity to happen.  If you feel the need for Work Life Balance.  Quit your job as soon as possible.  Stop doing what feels like work and start living life.  Seriously.  When you can find what you love to do and get paid for, your life will never be the same.  I promise.  So stop trying to fucking “balance” and start to fucking live.

Now that I re-read this, I think I might be full of shit, but i’m hitting save anyways.

Why Do You Live Where You Live?

NOTE:  Looks like Tumblr sucks and you have to have a tumblr account to respond.

If you arent able to answer the question here go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=N5WM_2fGRZiAiJaFnRi7pGDw_3d_3d

I’m curious as to why people choose to live where they live.  So indulge me and answer the question.  Why do you live where you live? Specifically, what drew you to move there and why do like being there.  If you don’t like living there still explain why you are there and what you don’t like about it.  If you are considering moving somewhere else include that too.  If you moved here from somewhere else please say where you were from originally.

This is by no means meant to be scientific, it is more my curiosity as to what motivates people to live where they do.  I have been doing a lot of research in this area and want to get some first person stories.  Please respond here, twitter or your own blog.  If you could @dneighbors on twitter with a link to your response it would be great.