How much of our lives are we exchanging for our career?

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” ― Henry David Thoreau.

Is what you are receiving from your current job or career worth the amount of life you are exchanging?

Does it feel like a fair trade to you?

This is a highly individual question, and there are no wrong answers.

I’ve been thinking lately about why we work beyond what’s necessary to meet our needs.

First, each of us has different financial needs, depending on our individual and family circumstances. So, we need to earn different incomes to meet those needs. And these needs change throughout our lives.

Second, each of us want to provide a comfortable life for ourselves and our families. And what constitutes a “comfortable life” varies for each of us.

Third, work tends to provide a sense of purpose and community. It gives us a way to contribute and spend our time meaningfully. We can also find this through unpaid activities, but many lawyers, especially those who are working parents, struggle to find the time and energy for activities that provide a sense of meaning, purpose, and community outside of work.

Our culture encourages us to earn as much as possible.

I remember people being shocked when my husband and I chose to cut our salaries in half to pursue work we found more meaningful and fulfilling.

He went from Big Law to in-house and I went from Big Law to coaching and leading workshops and retreats.

With each decision that reduced our income, we became happier. Not because we made less money, but because we were no longer trading things that were more valuable than money.

We always earned enough to meet our needs, but, at times, not much more.

The amount of life we were trading when we worked full-time in Big Law eventually became more than either of us was willing to trade.

There are certain things that, in my opinion, are too valuable to trade:

– Health and wellbeing
– Unhurried time to be fully present to our loved ones, friends, ourselves, and the natural world
– The time and energy to cultivate all aspects of our human wholeness
– The time and energy to fully experience the beauty and wonder of life

What constitutes “the good life” varies for each of us and changes throughout our lives.

But at any moment we can benefit by asking:

Is what I am receiving from my job worth the life I am exchanging?
What, deep down, do I really want?

If this raises more questions than answers, I invite you to explore my free Career Alignment Map that can help you discover what matters most to you and how to create a career that honors that.