Living Beyond Boundaries

Sunday is a weekend day or a weekday. For me, being Israeli, it's the first day of the week, especially since I own a business in Israel and the calls and orders start coming in. BUT because I was born in Europe and now live in Europe, it was also always a partial weekend day. So to accept it as a full working day doesn't jive with me. So it ends up being a mixed day of work and pleasure. If you know me, you can argue that every day of the week is a mix of work and pleasure for me, which I guess is kind of true.

While others who are into cycling or other sports can only afford themselves weekend workouts, I go for my rides during the week. But while I enjoy them, I don't see them as leisure or a hobby; I see them as part of my working week, and that is also the reason why I try and avoid going on bike rides on Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes on Sunday if I need to catch up on my weekly goal, but almost never on Saturday.

Then, eating out is supposed to be a leisurely activity, but what I learned from owning two companies in the UK is that eating isn't a recognised expense, as they understand that one must eat regardless of where they are and what they're doing. So whether I eat at home or eat in a restaurant during the times of eating, it makes no difference. Of course, dressing up and going on a date is a completely different thing, but then you might as well go for a walk along the river, and it's still special.

Then flying is synonymous with time off, vacation, weekends, but while I fly at least once a month, it's not for vacation, as I always work wherever I am. So you can call it workation. But is it truly a vacation if I'm going to another location to work, pay bills, and check the heating? And of course, go for my bike rides, again not on the weekend?

This desire for vacations, the culture of vacations, is due to a culture where we work to live. While much of Europe has this attitude and it's arguably better than living to work, it still implies that you go to work eight hours a day or more to pay for the life you want after work. Therefore if weekends and vacations were taken away, one would be very unhappy. And this creates and maintains a culture where it doesn't matter if you like your work, or even if you're good at it, all you need to do is show up, move your hands a little bit, get the net salary that has all taxes, etc. removed, and if you fight with your partner or neighbour or something Friday night, then your weekend is mostly ruined, and you feel cheated.

Human nature has the illness of either-or. Either you work like this and afford the life you want, or you don't work and don't afford the life you want. Either you don't enjoy work and enjoy life, or you enjoy work and don't enjoy life. You can't have both. And that is a lie. For you can have both; you can have everything. You can bake the cake and eat it. You can enjoy your work, enjoy your life, work and have free time—everything. It's all about how you define and frame it.

I haven't been on vacation once in my 20-year working career. I worked for corporations, but I never took my vacations because those who didn't made more bonuses. Then I worked as a contractor, and taking vacation meant less money. And then I became a freelancer and business owner, and vacation is as foreign a concept as the weekend was to British aristocrats.

This sounds like a horror story to the weekend and vacation mentality, but only because the understanding is that I'm always working, which I'm not. I'm working just about every day, but I'm also doing fun things every day. I don't come home exhausted, with only enough energy to watch a bit of TV with my dinner and go to sleep. I'm not even promoting entrepreneurship, for many such self-starters have that limited lifestyle and hide behind the concept of "I have to work every breathing moment." But I'm talking about a lifestyle that doesn't put things in categories, rather days.

Today is Monday, maybe my last day on earth; I will work, I will ride my bike, I will eat that burger or that pizza at home or at that restaurant, or that spaghetti bolognese at home. I will walk my dogs around the block or take them to the dog park or go to the forest. I can do it all in one day. Of course, if you choose a lifestyle, and it is a choice, of eight hours of office work, then you can argue that this is harder. But when I had this lifestyle, I still got five-hour bike rides in daily, just before work, and I still had my fun evenings after work.

Time is elastic; we all know people for whom going to the post office is a one-day project and others who do multiple things in one day. Again, this is a choice. The mind is lazy, and so is the body, so we want to do as little as possible, for we think doing much is somehow not good for us. But being truly productive is being truly free. For when you go to sleep at night, you fall asleep instead of playing with your thumbs because you are living less than you can, less than you probably want to, not realising the greatness of human potential. Namely, to have everything you want, every day—not just two days a week and four weeks a year.