Living to work, or working to live?

Jonathan Fields, the author of Career Renegade, has written an article analysing just how poorly the emotional states of most workers in the U.S. are. What is most surprising are the three largest statistics he cites: 85% did not feel strongly energized by their work, 70% were not inspired by their employers, and 42% were burned out. The statistics were collected in 2005, which was not too bad a year. The economy in the U.S. was coming back after the shock of September 11, 2001, and easy credit lead to the global boom that later became the infamous bust we are currently in.

Fields attributes the poor attitudes to people's obsession with accumulating, through buying, excessive amounts of material goods that offer them a temporary high in the form of imagined belief that the new item in their life will make them happier than before, only to find out that their life have not really changed at all. The theory makes sense and Fields' recommendations of focusing on what is important in life is very similar to the suggestions made in the Thriving on Less ebook.

I believe that the main problem is excessive focus on work instead of life. If people put in more time into hobbies that they actually enjoy, that inspires them to be the best that they can be, and energizes them for all other aspects of their life they would not need to seek such things from their employer. Furthermore independence from work, or bank balance statements, being the sole source of one's feeling of accomplishment will naturally take one's anxiety away from work related issues thereby improving quality of life as well.