Work and Identity

I was back in Malaysia, and a friend asked me: “Won’t you get bored of retirement after 6 months of travel and such?”. It is a very relevant question, and I thought about it for a while.

I answered that travel (in many cases) is more like entertainment, and you lose the dopamine hit very quickly. I then said that it is more important to find things to do, i.e. hobbies where you need to build up a skill or capability over time, e.g. playing music, playing a sport, etc. Basically find things to do that can grow with you over time. Of course, I am generalising here, I am sure there are different ways of travel that can be more like building up new capabilities over time.

This lead me to think about this quote:

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from." - Seth Godin

I personally value the travel experience quite a bit, in terms of opening up your mind to new cultures and ideas, less of escaping from current life. I personally think travel is a big part of life.

And that brings me to the question of work, and how we spend our time outside work. Anecdotally the modern work is pretty intense, competitive and gruelling. Data on US workers show that white collar workers are spending more hours working including weekends. Interestingly the data from Bureau of Labor Statistics above also shows the amount of time “watching tv”, which accounts for 50% of leisure activity.

If you just look around, we are quite attached to our phones, whether it is for work or leisure. How we spend our time really shapes our future habits and life. There is even a movement where people are asking each other to “touch grass”.

So, if we spend the majority of our time doing work, and our identity is tied up around work, it could be a big issue when we stop working. I personally believe it is important to create more diversity in our lives. Hobbies are definitely one way to start, and that could lead to joining a group of other people or communities. Obviously, a lot of communities are around specific beliefs or religions. That is another way to be part of something bigger that yourself and contribute back.

For myself, I am spending more time reading books such as classics like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I am also playing the guitar again, and learning old songs from folks like the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Finally, I love the outdoors, so spending time running, cycling and hiking is something that I really enjoy.