full time leisure is not the path to happiness
Full time leisure is not the path to happiness
This may sound like an obvious thing to many who are well on there way down the Financial Independence path and have absorbed much of the philosophy surrounding it, but I think for those still firmly stuck in their cubical farms it is not something that would come to mind naturally. Even if they read it on some random blog someone sent them they might initially dismiss this statement as absolute hogwash 1.
If I remember back to my “pre-enlightenment” days, before I knew FI and early retirement was a thing, and even for the first couple of months of going down this path, I still thought that the ultimate goal was to loaf around, play golf and generally just indulge yourself, as this is the received wisdom of the crowd which seems to have been adopted from the American Dream to our little island, like so many other ideas have been.
But it soon became clear, at least it to me, that this is not the sort of thing you want to be doing for long term happiness, and I’m writing about it today for two reasons: i) I don’t think I’ve ever written about it before and ii) It came to the forefront of my mind again fairly recently as I had a couple of months of practically pure hedonism, which as fun as it was still left me with a feeling that my life was kind of missing something.
Consider that during this period, I had 4 weeks off work and downed tools to pretty much any other projects I have going on (Matched betting, this blog, etc…), could the missing piece of the happiness puzzle be… dum dum daaaaaaannnnn….
Work!?
“Sacrilege! Burn him at the stake!” I hear the hardcore retirement-ists say…
But apart from my little bit of anecdotal evidence, there is mountains of other evidence and literature in both the FI sphere and the wider world to back this up.
Before we go any further though, let’s be clear we are talking about the kind of leisure you might describe as “casual leisure” as opposed to “serious leisure”, these definitions are taken from the Serious Leisure Perspective:
- Casual Leisure – is immediately, intrinsically rewarding; and it is a relatively short-lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. It is fundamentally hedonic; it is engaged in for the significant level of pure enjoyment, or pleasure. Examples of this are relaxation e.g. sitting, napping, strolling; passive entertainment e.g. TV, books, recorded music; active entertainment e.g. games of chance, video games; sociable conversation, and sensory stimulation e.g. sex, eating, drinking.
- Serious Leisure – is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer core activity that is highly substantial, interesting, and fulfilling and where, in the typical case, participants find a career in acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience.
Serious Leisure can easily lead to being paid and the IRP 2 don’t like the sound of that, so that doesn’t count as the kind of casual leisure (which I will now just refer to again as “leisure”, much to everyones relief!) we’re referring to here when we say “Full time leisure is not the path to happiness”.
OK so with that said, here is some (quite a lot actually!) evidence, should you still need it that doing some kind of work that you find motivating is actually good for ya and why full time leisure will probably actually end up making you kinda miserable…
You may get bored and your brain cells will die a slow and painful death
Done By Forty’s post on Boredom, Cognitive Ability, and the Mental Retirement Effect has got some doozies in it such as:
And what about when they’re just resting, like Satchel Raye hanging, out on the beach in Florida?
GILBERT: The answer is about as unhappy as when they’re working or commuting.
As well as this, it suggests that if we don’t engage our brain with some kind of hard to think about problems there is a genuine cognitive decline on average. This seems to ring true to me… use it or lose it, right?
The same can be obviously said about the body, so too much relaxation will make you end up flabby, bloated and feeling like a lazy turd floating around a swimming pool. And this also links back to the previous point with the popular aphorism “healthy body, healthy mind”.
The obvious takeaway here is if you are going for full time FI you need something “work like” to keep your brain occupied and you need to schedule in regular activity and exercise to keep your brain. I don’t think doing Sudoku is going to cut it here, it needs to be something bigger like a project with a goal to work towards, and with many moving parts to think about.
You might find work is an integral part of your identity
Maybe you do a generally satisfying or all encompassing job such as The Happy Philosopher who is a Physician?
He was burnt out and unhappy but when he started down the FI path he realised he didn’t actually want to give up the huge part of himself that he’d given to being a Physician and helping people, so he re-engineered his working life into a job share where each person does 50% each… Sounds great! Even better… he then realised that his unhappiness was not down to the job per se, and that it is something to he needed to work on, so he did and is now much happier because of it – hence the name of the blog, I guess 🙂 . I’d thoroughly recommend that you listen to more about all of this in his MadFIentist podcast interview.
Or maybe you are just like Jim from SHMD who just discovered that work, along with it’s scheduling, team work, social structure and other positive attributes are something that you need in your life to remain happy? If so then that’s all good!
And I think we all have a part of this in us to a certain degree.
I think Jim is a fair bit further towards the dark side of the scale than I am, but I definitely felt the force ( 😉 ) of it even with just 4 weeks of no work and unrepentant, unscheduled fun times. So maybe after all, to take this ridiculous Star Wars metaphor to it’s logical conclusion, you know… he is my father and all of that.
Full time travel can get boring and tiring
This is the dream of many aspiring FI seekers… to travel the world, in perpetuity!
Many seem to have cracked this and are loving the lifestyle such as the GoCurryCracker crew, and that is even with GCC Junior in tow!
However there are plenty of others who have had their fill of travelling, admittedly for a decent amount of time, and then felt the pull of getting something a little more productive back in their lives, such as the OurTour couple 3.
The latest update on the guest post they wrote for The Escape Artist is telling:
Well, I’m getting geared up for a three month contract… We don’t need the money, but I need the focus of work for a while, and the money will no doubt find a home
Likewise, the MadFIentist agrees. He travelled with his wife for 3 months and after all of that one of his primary thoughts was “It’s good to be home”, a long quote here but there it’s all important to take on board:
At the end of it all though, I realized how much travel helps you appreciate home…
Another reason I’m happy to be back is because it’s hard to be productive when you’re constantly sightseeing, figuring out where to eat next, looking for flights, etc. so I didn’t get much done when I was travelling.
I’ve realized that I get a lot of happiness by making progress on projects that are interesting and important to me and I’m able to get more done when I’m in a routine so I’ve come to accept that perpetual travel is not on the cards for us.
You will always want what you can’t have and when you get it, it probably won’t make you as happy as you thought it would 4
There are two very important things to take away from that overly long subtitle, so I didn’t want to leave either out of the *bold-y goodness*.
We always want what we can’t have – I’ve written a whole post about this called The Grass is Always Greener Syndrome and it will forever be true of the human condition.
If I am working full time, I want to quit work.
If travel is limited (because of work most probably) I want to travel full time.
Etc…
The way this seems to work is that if I am a bit unhappy for whatever reason then whatever my life currently looks like I will blame it on that and fantasise about pretty much the complete opposite lifestyle and think this will solve all of my problems.
When you get it, it probably won’t make you as happy as you thought
Whatever next big thing you are planning for that you just know will bring you eternal joy, the reality of the situation is that it most probably won’t, and there is plenty of evidence for this from huge swaths of Psychological studies 5. The results are in, the happiness measurement needle of:
- People who have big windfalls like the lottery drops back to normal levels after just a year
- People who suffer trauma are just as happy on average after the traumatic event
- Hedonic adaption is alive and kicking
- If you buy a new trinket or large toy (e.g. car) the effects on your happiness are very short lived
We can infer from all of the above that a major lifestyle change to full time leisure will be fun for all of around 3 months and then the shine will wear off and you will be no happier than before.
Just like The Happy Philosopher found above you can work on your Happiness regardless of your work/life situation and turn yourself into a more happy person, so let’s stop the fetishisizing over this full time leisure thing and crack on with that instead.
final thoughts
There is a lot to take away here but the main point is hopefully quite obvious by now. By all means plan for the future, look forward to FI and all the extra time it will bring you, and certainly take some downtime and have fun whenever you can, but also make sure you plan some kind of *work* that makes you feel productive and your life is meaningful.
With all of the extra time FI (or even part time FI) brings this can be whatever you want so can let your mind run free, and that cannot be a bad thing! 🙂
Notes:
- Hogwash is my new favourite word by the way so be prepared for massive overuse of it in future posts 🙂 ↩
- Internet Retirement Police ↩
- Featured on the now infamous Channel 4 show! ↩
- #longSubtitleAlert – sorry about that. ↩
- Sorry, no references here, there is this thing called google if you want to read more! ↩
Discussion (29) ¬
An astute observation TFS.
I think the wanting to feel productive and attain a sense of achievement is the underlying driver. Some people get that from their jobs, others travelling or volunteering, others from ego projects like DIY or restoring old cars or whatever.
For me the challenge with seeking it at work is all the associated administrivia and noise that goes with it… such as the commuting, the meetings and conferences calls, the status update meetings and the like. Aside from those things (and the pointy headed bosses, and the gossipy co-workers) most jobs have the potential to be fulfilling to some degree if we let them be.
Hi Slow Dad,
Yea I agree that there is no reason why you can’t get all of that stuff without an actual job. It’s just something that I feel needs pointing out every so often lest people think we’re all about just quitting what we might call “life” and sitting around watching TV and dying a slow and boring death 🙂
Thanks for your valuable contributions as always!
Dear TFS-Hello from coastal North Carolina- This is one of the best posts I have ever read on ANY site about FI! To have PURPOSE – a meaning for one’s existence- is key to a fulfilling life- for me that meant becoming a professional artist! Life is a balance. Too much of anything can be too much! I also totally enjoyed your post about living on $10,000; It led me to read in Rodale’s Organic Life about Eric Gilllard who leads a meaningful life on 6,000 a year (it’s worth a read for sure) and I have taken a personal challenge to get down to 10,000 a year and am not too far off! Thanks again for a fantastic message!
Awww… come on Jean I bet you say that to all the posts about FI 😉
But thanks ever so much for the very kind words there, that has put a smile on my face. And a professional artist eh… you are clearly awesome! I wouldn’t mind going back to the more physically creative side once I’m done with computer programming as I used to love it when I was younger.
Glad you liked the old post, I wish I could say I was walking the walk but unfortunately we’re almost doubling that figure now, but it still serves to point out what is *possible* at least if you pick the right area to live in at least. Good luck with your challenge!
Thanks again! 🙂
I’m Jason, one half of the ourtour couple mentioned above.
This post about nails it. We hit FI roughly 2 years ago and spent most of it travelling. That was on top of a 2 year ‘sabbatical’ we’d had before FI occurred to us, so we’ve spent almost 4 years travelling. And now I’m back at work. Why?
Because what we were doing was no longer a stretch. We’ve visited about 1000 places and slept in over 800 of them, from the Arctic to the Sahara. Not all of this was ‘fun’, but a lot of it taught us about who we are, about where we come from, about political systems, lessons from history, architecture and a hundred other topics. But after 4 years of doing essentially the same thing, the challenge was no longer there. We need a new challenge.
I’m at work as a filler, if I’m honest. I’ve not gone back to regain a sensation of working as part of a team, of ‘producing something’ or of being challenged. What I’m doing on a day to day basis is what I was doing early on in my career. It’s not a challenge, but it is creating more excess funds while we work out that next challenge.
My point is this: after getting to FI, you’re effectively presented with a blank sheet of paper onto which you can redraw your life. We drew ours, and found that we had to keep redrawing it over the months and (now) years. It’s an ongoing question: what do you do with the 100 hours of potentially productive time you have each week. Volunteer? Start a business? Play snooker? Do charity work? Travel? Teach yourself guitar? Learn Italian. Going back to work can, again being honest, be an easier option that the more difficult act of finding motivation to do something new, or it’s an imagination-avoiding activity.
Don’t get me wrong: hitting FI is fantastic, and I feel no regret about it. We always planned to do some work from time to time, but I underestimated the difficulty of filling all of those hours, month after month, with something which gives me a sense of meaning. I’m still on the look out for the next ‘thing’, and I suspect I will be as long as I live. It’s like climbing mountains (not that I’ve ever done that) – once you’ve topped out on one, you need to find another.
Cheers, Jay
Hi Jay,
First of all sincere apologies for taking so long to reply to your excellent reply!
And thanks for taking the time to add your experiences and opinions, there are a lot of valuable gems in there for everyone to take away.
I guess it’s the human condition, the hedonic treadmill at work again, but instead of getting used to our new car or shiny new gadget you quickly get used to any new situation you find yourself in however challenging.
Definitely something for us all to bear in mind as we navigate the waters of life and especially as we near FI!
Looking forward to hearing about your next big adventure/project.
Cheers again! 🙂
This is a great post – I sometimes wonder if all the FI chat is a means of avoiding/postponing the *real* question of ‘what should i do with my life’. As is hinted at here, and explicitly stated in an episode of men behaving badly – ‘when theres always biscuits in the tin, wheres the fun in biscuits?’
I had a useful experience in my early twenties. I was living in the sand dunes, windsurfing every day, perfect waves and winds. After a several months of what should have been my ideal life I was bored shitless. Its a lesson I’ve tried to remember – ‘variety in all things..’
The other two involve skydiving:
‘Mind like a parachute, works best when its open’
‘If at 1st you don’t succeed, maybe parachutings not for you?’
A very good point Rhino!
Thanks for sharing your experiences, definitely some valuable takeaways there and I particularly love the second skydiving maxim… will have to try to remember that one and use it in conversation 🙂
It’s back to the basic “variety is the spice of life” saying. We need variety in our lives to feel we have choice and not monotony.
To mix it and travel, work, rest, volunteer, whatever it is that gives us meaning and stops us from becoming brain dead.
That’s the goal of FI for me. Choices and variety, not having to do the same thing year in, year out.
Sparklebee you have nailed the whole article in one sentence. I should have just written that and saved everyone the time of reading my drivel 🙂
Thanks and sounds like we’re both on the same wavelength
Yeah, I definitely made a mental note when Mad Fientist said that three months of travel was a little too much and two would’ve been fine. There was another guest either on his podcast or the Bigger Pockets podcast that traveled for six months with his wife and said he got so bored and exhausted by the end of it. All the planning involved and finding the sites to see.
Our own FI plans are coming slowly into focus. It does involve more travel, but nothing so expansive and definitely not the life of constant travel and some people do. It also probably involves working, although maybe at a dumb job somewhere interesting. It helps that I have a laundry list of hobbies/projects I want to try, so I hope to be fully prepared when it comes.
Yes having done 4 months myself and at a much earlier age which was definitely enough for me. I don’t know how people can do a whole year especially if they don’t move on that often, how many churches and other land marks can you see without getting a little bit bored? The whole point of the seeing stuff like that is that it’s novel, there is definitely too much of a good thing in this case I think.
Always great to have an extensive list of hobbies! I feel the same although might be a while till I get to try them at my current rate 🙂
First, thanks so much for the mention. Very humbling.
I think your post really shows the difference between what most people’s true goal (happiness) and what their stated goal is (leisure/comfort/freedom). They sound related and maybe even similar, but there is a lot of research indicating a lot of leisure time is quite bad for us. We seem to be wired for some meaningful work and challenge, so our FI might be best suited to be organized around that.
For whatever reason, there seems to be a lot of pushback around that kind of research though.
Nonetheless, I think we’d all benefit from really thinking about our ideal life if and when we no longer really need money. I, personally, have a lot of work to do on that front. 😉
Hi DbF,
I guess the pushback is mainly from people with very limited spare time and so the outlook from them is that obviously leisure/comfort etc is priority for them when they get any small amounts of spare time, which makes sense. But if you all of a sudden gave them 50K a year and said do what the hell you want, they would find themselves very unhappy if all they did was mess about having “fun”. Just take a look at the lottery
loserswinners for evidence of that.Yea agreed, you can never think about this sort of stuff too much IMO!
Cheers!
I really enjoyed reading this post and the comments and could relate. I quit my day job around 5 years ago and although it’s taken me a long time to reach it, I’m now at a point where being at home by myself isn’t always fun. It can get lonely at times. That said I know I am incredibly lucky to be able to decide what I want to do with my life and I wouldn’t change it.
That’s kind of what I worry might happen if I ever do properly RE, although I’m sure the huge positives do outweigh a few teeny negatives like that in the long run….
Just seen the new look for the blog… looks fantastic! Well done! 🙂
Hi TFS,
Spot on – who would want to retire and just lounge in front of the tv all day? I would become a raving alcoholic and go insane!
I know for me work is a really important part of my life – I both love and hate it at different times 🙂 What would I do with the 12+ hours a day not working would free up? I honestly have no idea, but I can worry about that as I get closer to FI – even if it means continuing to work!
Cheers,
FiL
Hi FiL,
You are definitely much further along the “work – leisure” spectrum (towards work, obvs) than I am by the sounds of things but I can definitely see where you are coming from hence the post. I can totally think of many fun things I’d like to do with the 12 hours of my day but I reckon many of those things people would consider to be work anyway, which again is kinda the point of this post.
For example, I would love to get back into making music. Yes it would be great to do this just for the fun of it and that would be the primary reason I would do it, but surely most people would consider sat in front of a computer for hours upon end composing, writing, playing, tweaking controllers and parameters and mixing down, work… no? And then obviously I would put it out there on soundcloud or wherever else where someone might end up picking it up and I might get paid so then it would definitely be classified as work.
Anyway, I’m waffling again now so will leave this point as unfinished as well as I started it which is not very well at all… haha
Tadadaaa… You write what was cooking in the back of my mind. I am about to finish an almost one month off period… Halfway through, I wrote a post about it, similar conclusion.
I like the adding that you do about serious leisure. The-at is the pice of puzzel I was missing.
Hi Amber Tree,
I read about your month off but I think I forgot to post a comment on there. Apols! Sounded very interesting and good to see someone like you is my wavelength…
Cheers!
Nah. Work is overrated, though if you if you have an external locus of control perhaps not.
Work is not the purpose of life. It is a simulacrum at best. IMHO and all that. As you get older there is the point which Carl Jung cited as the turning inward.
You are young, but hopefully you will reach my age 😉
Work is a crock. It has it’s purpose – to make your fortune. Once you’ve done that, it’s time is done IMO.
Nice quote there ermine and I can already see that this is so true even comparing outlook from 10 or maybe even 5 years ago!
I dunno… Maybe I’m just trying to justify my current situation where I’m not exactly full steam ahead towards FI? But either way life is good (as in, much better than before I started along this journey) so I’m certainly not going to complain too much about having to work 75% of what “normals” have to.
Great post TFS and enjoying reading the comments too. During my recent time of unemployment, before I was seriously looking for work, I very much enjoyed my free time, partaking in a lot of ‘casual leisure’. I stopped myself from looking into ‘serious leisure’ because I knew I had to devote time to job hunting and get back to work. But certainly, when I no longer need to work, I’d be filling my spare time with lots of leisure, including the serious variety. If it’s a kind of ‘work’, then it’ll be considered a hobby of sorts.
In my mind, I have plans to travel but don’t envisage being away from home too long, perhaps a month at the most at a time. The holiday I had when I was made redundant was one of the best I’ve had but after 1.5 months, I really missed home.
Glad you liked it weenie.
Yea it’s good to have breaks like you got (assuming you got another job, which you did!) so you can really get a taste of what ER is going to be like, and start to make plans in your mind or even alter your mindset about what it’s going to entail. I think I first envisioned it to be this magical land where I’d get up and just do what the hell I fancied on the day but I think that sort of life is going to be ultimately unfulfilling for my personality type so I need something more structured built in, even if I am structuring it myself I need to be conscious of actually doing it!
Cheers 🙂
I love the post. Nothing wrong with feeling happy and contented at at home.
Glad you liked it Sez! 🙂
Just realised I haven’t replied to loads of comments on this thread… will go through them now haha.