Why do we work 75 hour weeks

Not the normal travel post . .

I understand that this is not the normal find of travel blog, this blog is about my trip around the world. That journey began when I started this blog. Or maybe even before. This blog is a process for me, my post about saving to travel around the world is a great example of thinking things through with my blog. I have also started a blog carnival about planning a backpacking trip around the world. It’s not only about my journey around the world but also about what I need to do to start the journey of a life time. I have had a particularly busy week and worked very hard and for long hours. In this post I am asking myself 2 apparently simple questions;

1. Why do we work so hard?
2. Is working so hard really worth it?

Firstly doing this amount of work is almost contradictory to the way I want to live my life and the things I want to do. I am certainly one of those people who work to live and not the other way round. This is of course why I want to travel around the world. Living is about getting the things you want out of life, for me and allot of others out there the things I want I believe I can find in travel.

We do what needs to be done

This I think allot of travellers may be able to relate to. I am sure there are people out there who have either got themselves into or have fallen into some real tight spots when they have been travelling. In order to get out of them you have to do whatever is necessary. Working as a manager of luxury hotel I have to do whatever is necessary to ensure the guests have the best experience possible. Its getting out of tight spots.

If someone is off sick, I have to work. If a lock is broken on a guests bedroom door I have to climb a very steep ladder at 11 o’clock at night to go through a small window and open the door, then fix the lock and go home 2 hours later than I was planning. If the guest wants something we don’t have, or just wants something, I have to try my hardest to get it for them.

I know what you’re thinking; you don’t have to do any of those things. You’re absolutely right, I don’t. The point is I can do, so why not do those things? If I did not try and give everything I do 100% would I be who I am? If I don’t put everything I have into all that I do, am I making the most from my life? Am I taking the most from my life?

Working long and hard benefits me

In the 21st century, a lot of people, not all, are looking out for number one. I do it, you do it, we all do it to varying degrees and in different ways! I try and make the most out of situations which are presented to me; I use situations to my benefit. I use everyday life as a tool for personal development while having as few regrets as possible; instead I like to view things I have done wrong or badly as missed opportunities which I am able to learn from. That way even the bad stuff it is not a wasted experience.

Everybody is different, which is great, as a bit of a thinker and a people person it gives me loads to try and get my head round. Getting back on track thought . . . . . there are so many people who will not do the extra. They see no reason too, after all what thanks are you going to get, who is going to notice. I like to think that what I am doing here and now will one day be useful to me. Going back to the crazy chain of events that occurred last night, I have now seen the inside of a door lock, I understand how it works. I’m not planning on being a bank robber but I am sure that will be useful. My 75 hours of work this week have given me something! (There have been a number of other things, this is just the example, 75 hours work and I know what the inside of a lock looks like, well worth it!!!!)

Its good for me to know that whatever I have learnt the long hours of work are not wasted, my life is not wasted.

To travel, money makes the world go round after all . . .

I was speaking to a friend, no colleague . . . .  you will understand my uncertainty about our relationship when I tell you what he said while we had a very nice glass of Australian Shiraz after a hard night work earlier this week

‘I need a better paid job, I need to get out of here because money is what makes the world go round, without money you have nothing. .  . I get shit money. . . ’

Money makes the world go round . . . money makes our modern, commercialized, self indulgent world go round, yes maybe it does. It would be naive and unrealistic for us to think that money plays no part in the world as we know it today. But do we have nothing without money?

I wrote this quote to return too during or after my journey, I wonder how I will change through travel…

I don’t work crazy hours to have money. Right now, this year, and for the last 3 years I have worked to travel the world. It’s taken longer than expected and it’s harder than expected! I do it for the dream, the dream of travelling the world, the dream I am going to live. Enough said . . .

There is an easier way. . . .

I was going to write a long paragraph in here full of tips tricks and bull shit to make your life easier. The truth is after the bove it doesn’t really matter. I am sure there will be a week over the next year where I do very little and get noticed for something I have done very well, this is not the place to write about it, right here and now . . .

This post is about why I work hard, why I do what I do. It’s so simple really.

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