Working to Live

There is a conversation with Andie and Nigel in "The Devil Wears Prada" that seems a little to relevant to me right now. Andie mentions to Nigel that her "personal life is hanging by a thread". Nigel then states "That's what happens when you start doing well at work darling, let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke, it means its time for a promotion". Given my personal life, I think that I am in need of a promotion. Its interesting to see how often times we tend to succeed in one area of our life, while other areas of our life tends to slowly dissipate until you get to the point where you are not sure how to revive it again. I was taught to be a strong person, who is a hard-worker and is able to do things on their own. I have been able to accomplish that, but then I have also begun to allow work to control my life.

Many of you may or may not know this, but I work Full time for the State of Utah and then part time for KinderCare. I was thinking of how I have begun to allow work to control my life today as I was working at KinderCare(which happened to be a day off from my full time job). I came to the realization that I am devoting myself to a company that rarely goes above and beyond for their employees. I understand that I only work at KinderCare a couple hours a week, but regardless of the amount of hours that I put into working for them, I feel like I am giving to them as much as their full time employees when looking at the whole picture. With KinderCare, I work what I am able to, given the time and energy that I have available to give after the 40-50 hours a week that I put in with the state. There are goals that I want to accomplish both financially and then my own drive to succeed in all that I do that causes me to work as much as possible.

My Aunt Becky once mentioned to me the concept of 'Working to Live' vs 'Living to Work'. I have always wanted to be the type of person who is 'Working to Live' but sadly, I have become the latter. I devote myself to my work, which I have allowed myself to become encompassed in for the majority of my time. Its one of those things that if I were to stop working, I would have no clue what I would do with my time. I often think of taking a vacation, but then the thought of taking a week off and then having to go back to work, then working twice as hard to catch up, or causing my co-workers to complete my work while I am gone causes me to think twice about going on one.

In the movie mentioned, Andie sees her life fall apart, betrays those close to her and becomes someone she has never wanted to be. She did this all for the the thrill of chasing something that she never knew she wanted until it fell into her lap and then once it did, she regretted it because of who it made her become. She falls, yet she is able to catch herself and finds herself making the changes needed to become who she use to be. I have yet been able to do that. Being able to learn how to 'Work to Live' instead of 'Live to Work' is an important view in life that many people are trying to overcome each day of their life but often fail to. Myself included.