For all the hype about "going for gold", we're so weary at the end of the day that going for the sofa is as good as it gets.

Yet most of us cling to the notion that there is a way to live life that makes more sense, that brings more fulfillment and has more meaning.  There is another way. There is a way to live an authentic, productive meaningful life - and have all the material comforts you want or need.  There is a way to balance your inner and outer lives, to have your 'job self' to be on good terms with your 'family self' and your 'deeper self'.  There is a way to go about the task of making a living so that you end up more alive.  There is a way to approach life so that when asked, "Your money or your life?" you say "I'll take both, thank you."

We aren't making a living, we're making a dying

For so many working people, from people who love their work to those who barely tolerate jobs, there seems to be no real choice between their money and their lives.  What they do for money dominates their waking hours, and life is what can be fit into the little left remaining time.

Consider the average Australian worker.  The alarm rings at 6:45 and our working man or woman is up and running.  Shower. Dress in the professional uniform - suits or dresses for some, overalls for others, whites for the medical professionals, jeans for construction workers.  Breakfast, if there's time.  Grab commuter mug and briefcase (or lunch box) and hop in the car for the daily punishment called peak hour traffic.  On the job from nine to five.  Deal with the boss.  Deal with the coworker sent by the devil to rub you up the wrong way.  Deal with the suppliers.  Deal with clients/ customers/ patients.  Act busy.  Hide mistakes.  Smile when handed impossible deadlines.  Give a sigh of relief when the axe known as "restructuring" or "downsizing" - or just plain getting laid off - falls on other heads.  Shoulder the added workload.  Watch the clock.  Argue with your conscience but agree with the boss.  Smile again.  Five o'clock.  Back in the car and onto the freeway for the evening traffic.  Home. Act human with mates, kids or roommates.  Eat.  Watch TV.  Bed.  Eight hours of blessed oblivion.

And they call this making a living?  Think about it.  How many people have you seen who are more alive at the end of the work day than they were at the beginning?  Do we come home from our "making a living" activity with more life?  Do we bound through the door, refreshed and energized, ready for a great evening with the family?  Where's all the life we supposedly made at work?  For many of us, isn't the truth of it closer to "making a dying"?  Aren't we killing ourselves - our health, our relationships, our sense of joy and wonder - for our jobs?  We are sacrificing our lives for money - but it's happening so slowly that we barely notice.  Graying temples and thickening middles along with dubious signs of progress like a corner office, a private secretary or tenure are the only landmarks of the passage of time.  Eventually we may have all the comforts and even luxuries we could ever want, but inertia keeps us locked into the nine-to-five pattern.  After all, if we didn't work, what would we do with our time?  The dreams we had of finding meaning and fulfillment through our jobs have faded into the reality of professional politics, burnout, boredom and intense competition.

Even those of us who like our jobs and feel we're making a contribution can recognise that there is a larger arena we could enjoy, one that is beyond the world of nine-to-five: the fulfillment that would come from doing work we love with no limitations or restraints - and no fear of getting fired and joining the ranks of the unemployed.  How many times do we think or say "I would do it this way if I could, but the board members or the boss wants it done their way"?  How much have we had to compromise our dreams in order to keep our funding or job?

We also put up with this "making a dying" existence because we think we have no choice.  "Another day, another dollar".  "Everybody's got to make a living." The "nine to five until you're sixty-five" pattern, so recent in human history but so pervasive today, seems like the only choice for someone who is neither a sports or entertainment superstar nor an eccentric.  After all, there are bills to pay and an identity to maintain, and besides, what would I do with my life if I didn't have a job?