Alarm goes off. Wake up. Do the morning routine. Go to work, because, you know, we have to. Work. Work. Meeting. Pretend to work some more. Work. Head home. Maybe spend time with friends talking about work and the stress it creates, but, you know, you couldn’t live without work.
That is not living. That is a life accepting the indoctrination of a consumeristic life without questioning what is really going on in this world. So, what is living?
Play.
Sucking on a ice chunk from a glacial calving while kayaking in Alaska. Photo by Dalton Johnson
If you just scoffed to yourself and rebutted with excuses, self-deprecating thoughts of being suck, and acceptance that your position won’t change, look inward. For only inside of ourselves can we really find the joy of living and acknowledging we can play as much as our hearts desire. We can be curious and change our living situations. While looking inward, we start to realize all the “things” we need are a convenance that we desire because doing the “hard thing” often takes time and is slow. Very slow. Requiring knowledge.
To give an example, you can learn to plant a garden and grow your own food, but that takes time and care. You have learn about soils and what can grow in which season. How to water and care for plants. What crops can grow together and how to keep pests away. That skill acquisition could free you from the grocery and spending money on processed foods, but it also means limiting your time out with friends getting drinks, or going on vacation. Because, somebody has to water those plants.
Would you consider growing a garden playing? If there was an occasional mud fight with a loved one, maybe, but for the most part, crawling on the ground and plucking weeds sounds more like work than play. But, it is a mindset. Just like if we decide to cut down on our living cost and move into a van, living that social media glorified vanlife, so we can pursue a life of creativity might not be what you initially thought it would be like.
Jumping with joy after finishing a personal challenge to climb all of the Sawatch 14ers in Colorado. Photo by Dalton Johnson
Is the utopia not to work?
No. Working provides humans with a sense of community and belonging that we need as a social beings. However, that work does not and should not be destructive to our lives. Work should improve our lives a small amount each day. You could call it 1% improvements, if you want, but the reality of a linear life is not practical. Sometimes, we may jump up a 10% improvement in life and the next day fall back -8%. That is okay.
What the utopia of life work-life balance should be is a thoughtful development of skills that you want to hone mixed with have to hone. Each skill brings us closer to becoming an autonomous human so we can learn on our own, think on our own, and live on our own. Skill stack into a better human.
Like I said, this is a utopia.
Also, if playing was our only form of work, our perspective would shift and play would become work. Think about that for a few seconds.
Work is only a subject term that implies a lack of fun. Yet, play is synonymous with fun. We have to do hard things to survive, but we should not be dedicating our whole lives to something and still not being able to live. If that is the case, why would you do anything?
A false sense of hope? Maybe.
Lack of knowledge something else exists? Maybe.
So, what would the work utopia be?
You have to take the time to define that for yourself.
For me, that is to travel around the world, telling and sharing stories about the intersection of humans and nature, meanwhile living as close to carbon neutral as possible with the love of my life.
From a 10,000 foot level, that sounds glamorous, but, I can tell you, sitting behind a computer day in and day out constructing stories, editing, marketing, and all that jazz gets tiring and feels like work. Then, I step back, and realize, I am living my dream, just at a smaller scale for the time being.
Typical Over-Commitments That Trap us
There is no way around it, commitments trap us for a duration of time. Even if you are reading this, thinking you are a smarty pants, saying, That’s why I don’t make commitments, that is a commitment to not making a commitment. Still a commitment. Knowing how commitments can effect us is what matters. When we know what a commitment entails, we can decide if it is for us or not. So, when taking on commitments, take some time to think about the little things making up the commitment and ask yourself if that is what you want to be doing.
A few questions to help you understand a commitment better:
Can you get out of the commitement? If so, what does that take?
What is the duration of the commitment?
What are the benefits?
What are the downsides?
How much control do you keep during the commitment?
Come up with scenarios that break the commitment, but are good for the overall.
An extreme example: You promise never to cheat on your partner. One day, they are taken hostage and to free your partner you must break that promise, otherwise the captors will kill your parter. You should break your promise and cheat. Not an ideal situation, but it should be done.
A few over-commitments to look out for:
Large purchases that require you to work in a space does not foster growth
Commitments into perpetuity without renegotiations because you never know what is going to happen 10, 20, 50 years from now
These two types of commitments are hard to recover from and often hold you back from achieving personal autonomy.
It’s not always perfect, but that is a life of learning and growing. Photo by Dalton Johnson
Some Areas Of Play To Try
Play is in all of us, we just have to let down our barriers and open ourselves to the opportunities. Some of my favorites ways of play are listed below:
Rock Climbing: Rock climbing is like a mirror. The rock does not change often so when you approach a climb, it reflects back to you where you are at in life. This reflection comes in both mental and physical abilities. In many ways, I find this reflection to be beautiful.
Surfing: Surfing is the opposite of rock climbing as it is always changing. The art of surfing showcases how you handle adversity at that moment in your life. That is why I love surfing.
Hiking: Hiking is an escape back to your roots. If we are on a trail, or wandering in the woods, a hike cleanses the soul and provides a little bit of exercise.
Photography: Photography is the act of seeing. If you apply an editorial view, aka not curating something, when taking photographs, you learn how to see the world for what it is and how it fits into a single frame. Photography is the act of noticing the little things that make the difference.
Stargazing: Stargazing is an act of awareness, recognizing how small we are in this vast world. When I look to the heavens, it’s almost impossible to not acknowledge how vast this universe is and just how small we are. A humbling endeavor as a human.
A blue-tongued selfie after eating wild blueberries while backpacking in Alaska. Photo by Dalton Johnson
In the end, my goal of writing this article is to bring your awareness to your reality that you can take charge of your life and your path if you are willing to do the hard work of growing. Each skill you add to your tool belt bring you that much closer to becoming an autonomous human who can function by themselves. If you have any questions, or thoughts, shoot me an email: dalton@daltonjohnsonmedia.com
