A Radical Idea

The other day while writing a post for the C-Blog, I had a radical idea. It came to me while writing about Tim Ferris and his concepts of work and leisure. It had to do with workaholism and slack. The idea was a simple one but a profound one. It was this. You should pursue your leisure activities with the same dedication as your work.

I felt the earth move a bit when it hit me, but it makes a lot of sense. I am someone who believes in work and loves to work. It is like play to me. But play time is good, too. What is the difference between work and play? The answer to that is that work comes with a paycheck attached to it. Work is something we do for others while play is something we do for ourselves.

Leisure is important, but I don't want to denigrate work to elevate leisure or vice versa. I have been guilty in the past of shitting on leisure pursuits as a waste of time, but I have changed my mind since then. Seeing hard work and play as opposed leads to imbalance. Aristotle would be ashamed.

What has made me change my mind on this are examples of men who lead dual lives of both work and leisure. The first example is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, who runs the company. The man is a rock climber, surfer, fly fisherman, etc. His business grew out of the sports he loved and also helped support him in the pursuit of those sports.

The second example is Jimmy Buffett, another surfer, sailboater, pilot, and musician. People will claim that Buffett is the epitome of laidback, but the guy works pretty hard putting out albums, performing shows, and seeing over his various businesses.

The third example is Eugene Fama, an academic and a principal at Dimensional Fund Advisors and an ardent windsurfer.

The fourth example is Dean Karnazes who is a full time businessman, ultrarunner, and windsurfer who owns his own company.

I can go on and on with these examples. There is a certain common thread in all of these men. They are entrepreneurs which gives them some flexibility with their schedule. And they avidly pursue these lesiure activities of theirs. Their leisure pursuits are as important to them as their work. Talk about a flourishing lifestyle.

These men capture in real life the essence of what Aristotle called "the great souled man" or the megalopsuchos. They are not lazy but robust in their living. They work hard, but they play hard as well. They are Renaissance Men of a sort. They are not quite on Leonardo's level, but Leonardo couldn't surf. I think this balances out.

The conventional wisdom is that you work forty to sixty hours a week, play a round of golf on the weekend, and take your two weeks of vacation or what have you. I find this pathetic. I like the idea of catching a few waves before the beginning of the workday, squeezing in a run during your lunch hour, or scheduling a day of rock climbing. This is not weekend warrior bullshit I am talking about. I am talking about a full incorporation of work and leisure in a balanced but robust lifestyle. If a 71-year-old can run a company and surf, I don't see why anyone else can't do the same thing.

I know no one in the ordinary world that lives this way. Most of the people I know work and buy shit to collect dust in the garage while they watch football on TV. Or you have someone like me who lives to work but literally will not move on weekends or days off. I write and sleep. That is it. I can hear my inner Aristotle saying, "Pathetic."

All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy. The problem is not lack of time or money but a lack of robustness. I have been getting stale lately, and this really needs to change. The reason they call it recreation is because you are "re-created" each time you get outside. The other cool thing is that you are your own boss in these endeavors.

You should pursue leisure with the same dedication as work. I don't think this means 40 hours of surfing to go with 40 hours of work. But it does mean seeing these activities as being indispensable to your life. The problem is we see these as optional. My radical idea is that they are essential to a robust and happy way of living.

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