Not Scary Anymore
An old friend, one I haven't seen in nearly a decade, sent me a text out of the blue: "It's not scary anymore!" My initial reaction was to brush off the seemingly errant text as a mistake. It's not scary anymore? That's a bizarre text from someone I haven't seen in a decade. Then, another text arrived.
In short, this friend said they had been listening to the podcast and reading the blog for years. One of the biggest takeaways over that time has been this weird notion that we ought to find meaning in our work. It's an oddly countercultural topic, and as I've pointed out time and time again, it's a rare state to live in.
"It's not scary anymore!" Turns out, after treating work as a necessary evil for more than 20 years, this friend finally decided work needed to play a meaningful role in his life. After much soul searching and a process to humble himself financially/materialistically, he and his wife both decided to find meaning in their work.
This culminated in both of them finding new jobs within the past year. One spouse took a massive pay cut, and the other experienced a lateral financial move. Dinner table discussions used to involve dreams and aspirations of retiring early. Today, though, it looks different. They each share stories from their meaningful work days, dreaming of what the future might hold in these respective roles.
"It's not scary anymore!" The term Sunday Scaries was all too familiar to this couple. After a long and fun weekend, both of them would regularly get crushed on Sunday afternoons by the reality of what's coming tomorrow. Oh crap, here we go again. Let's brace ourselves for another week of stress, misery, and emptiness. Week in, week out.
I received another text from him last night. "I never realized Sunday nights could be this enjoyable." So good. The Sunday Scaries have been replaced with hope, optimism, and excitement for what's to come.
This made my day. This made my week. This made my month. Heck, this made my year! We don't have to perpetually suffer the Sunday Scaries until we can find an off-ramp to retirement. Life should matter today.....not just someday. A world exists for each of us where we go to bed excited for what's to come, and pop up out of bed to get the meaningful day started. That starts with our work. Other things definitely matter, and we must have meaning outside of work, but if we're going to spend 1/2 of our waking hours at work, it starts with the work. Please allow your work to matter. Please give yourself permission to pursue work that matters.
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