Your Goal Should be Contribution, not Happiness

This will appear on AOL.com a week from tomorrow but I thought you might like an advance look.




Work-life Balance is Overrated




Your goal should be contribution, not happiness


by Marty Nemko



Most people view life's goal as to be happy. I believe that's misguided.



If the goal is happiness, one could, for example, spend all their time gardening,
watching comedies, having sex, etc. Yet if people did that, the planet would be
far worse: patients would die, homes wouldn't get built, the Internet wouldn't have been
invented, etc.



Mother Teresa didn't work in the stench of Calcutta streets, ankles bitten by
scorpions, because it made her happy She did so because she realized that helping humankind was
far more important than her being happy. Cardiologists that choose to work
nights and weekends to keep more patients alive realize their life is more
meaningful than if they had opted for the vaunted work-life balance. Even the
supposedly lowly payroll clerk who, after the standard work week, takes work
home to ensure everyone is paid accurately and on-time is living a far worthier
life than someone who diverted that time to recreation.



And as I said in my
interview two days ago in Business Insider, contrary to what
advocates of work-life balance claim, long work hours do not lead to burnout.
Indeed, as long as you're doing work you're good at and believe in, you'll
likely be more energized from long work weeks than if you spent the
discretionary time with playing sports, watching the boob tube, or even the
current fad, yoga.



I'll be 63 years old next month and been working 60 to 80 hours a week my entire life, since I was a young teen. I cannot claim to be a happy person.
Like my father, I believe I'm constitutionally inclined toward mild
sadness. But I know that my life has been more worthwhile for having
forgone work-life balance in favor of having helped 4,000 career counseling
clients, written seven books,  over 2,000 how-to and public-policy articles
and blog posts, plus myriad other contributions.



I will continue to work until I drop in the service of things I believe will make the
world better. I do want to drop dead at this keyboard. A silly
canard is, "No one ever died wishing they spent more time at the
office." Indeed, most of the most contributory people I know and I want to
spend as much time as possible working. That's the main reason why CEOs continue working long after they've made enough money to last three lifetimes.



As Isaac Asimov, who had written or
edited more than 500 books(!) said when asked, "What would you do if you
knew you had six months to live?" He said, "Type faster."