There is no way around thinking about work as an obligation. From the beginning of time humans have had to do things they did not want to do in order to survive, sustain, and even prosper. Work was built into the very fabric of life.
Our ancient ancestors may have had the advantage of not analyzing every area of our existence as we do. They lived out of necessity. They did not have the luxury to ponder, at least to the degree we do. Certainly they ached existentially.
Still the men knew that if they did not hunt or gather the family would not eat. They knew there was something driving them toward things they may not have wanted to do, namely survival. And today we are ultimately in the same dilemma.
We work for one reason ultimately: survival. We work for money. The money buys food, clothes, and shelter. We call them necessities. If we don’t work, we don’t have them. We are driven to find ways to make money in order to survive.
That instinct is ultimately good. We should survive. Life is worth surviving for. Think about what the will to survive is actually saying. Life is good. Existence is good. The continuation of life is good. The will to survive is the foundation of hope.
Somewhere in this will is the innate belief that living is better than not living. Obviously for some this is debatable. We have all experienced depressing times where we question this almost primal assumption about human beings.
But deep down we know survival is good because life is good. Surviving is sort of redeemed by the life that it is supporting. Scratch that. Not sort of, surviving is completely redeemed and predicated upon the life we are surviving for.
Bearing that life is mind may change the way we look at the hustle of surviving. For of course in today’s world we are not hunters and gatherers, we are entrepreneurs, innovators, technicians, anything we have to be at times to make a buck.
In all these things it will seem as though we have far developed or advanced beyond hunting and gathering. And perhaps we have. But ultimately it IS still that primal life urge that drives us. Only today with a sense of destiny of calling.
Over the centuries we have expanded hunting and gathering to include some very diverse options. Each option is similar in the sense that is something we choose. It is something with competition from others. It is something that can expand.
A small business can turn bigger. An entry-level job can be promoted. A new business can go from red to black. All these “careers” or hunting and gathering options have many choices within them. Really there are almost limitless choices to make.
How will WE hustle? How will WE survive? That we are surviving is important to remember. We believe life is worth surviving for, at least the kind of life we want to live. So we get to dream it up. We are not relegated to the field and farm.