Recently on the local radio, they talked about work-life balance and burnout.

They said, that the new generations mostly tend to prefer living to work rather than working to live.

First, I was grinning. "Yes, of course. Why choose the difficult way?"

But this thought immediately felt treacherous and I began to think deeper about the difference. What exactly is the difference? Do I work to live or live to work? And which one was better?

Working vs. Living

First of all, let's find out the difference between working and living. I don't want to get too philosophical and try to stay pragmatic.

We all have needs that we want and need to fulfil in our lives.

According to Maslow, the needs can be categorized into different categories and a bottom-up hierarchy from physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization to transcendence.

In my opinion, the borders between life and work become blurry here.

On the one side, work can be a part of these needs (e. g. esteem needs) and therefore of life.

On the other side, work could also be viewed separately from these needs. In this case, work would be the sum of all activities you are doing which allow you to fulfil your needs. For example, we earn money with our work and then can exchange it to fulfil our needs (e. g. eating, drinking, ...). We could also grow food by ourselves or produce something different and then trade it.

"Working to live" vs. "Living to work"

In my opinion, the main difference is the following:

Working to live means that you view your work separately from your life. You spend time working to earn money (to keep it simple, we blind out self-sufficiency or trading here, because they boil down to the same point). This allows you to fulfil your needs. For the rest of the time you are not working, you are living and fulfilling your needs.

Living to work means that work is an essential and time-consuming part of the centre of your life. Work is a need itself that you are fulfilling. The borders between life and work become blurry and maybe don't even exist.

Which one is better?

"Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life" - Confucius

Honestly, when I was reflecting on my past, I was living to work for many years.

Work was such an essential part of my life, that I even neglected many of my other needs for a long time. But still, work was feeling like work. I didn't pursue my own projects and ideas but was always working for other people and making their dreams come true.

After listening to the local radio show, I realized that I have a different opinion nowadays:

• Either, I want a great work-life balance, where the amount of time I can spend on the life part is substantially higher than on the work part (think of the 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferris).

• Or, I want to have almost no difference between work and life. This would be the case if I'm able to work completely on my own projects and ideas and these would generate enough income.

In any case, it's important to me that the "work" part can finance my preferred lifestyle.

Interestingly, I would define both options as "working to live". Because my main focus shifted from "work" to "live". Work is not an end in itself anymore for me.

In general, I think there is no real better option between living to work or working to live. It depends on your circumstances and needs.

I think a great way to find out what is better suited for you is to ask yourself:

When you are lying on your deathbed, how do you want to reflect on your life? How can you minimize the regrets?