You know what happens when you don't have fulfilling work? You get bored, anxious, complainy and depressed.
Yes, work-life balance is important. But it doesn't mean bringing the bare minimum effort to your job/chores and then cramming as much mindless hedonistic crap as possible into the rest of your day. That is never going to make you happy.
Tough work, meaningful work, the work you bring your a-game to. The work you take a step back to look at and feel a sense of accomplishment. A sense of connection. Your day should be filled with such work. And then, as little treats, you can give yourself moments of rest. Moments of meditation and calm. Or moments of complete silliness and play.
That is what the balance actually means. Do not live in fear of hard work. Seeking out more leisure time won't make you feel better. In fact, it actually makes those moments of peace less impactful.
Think about it this way, if you take a vacation and spend a few days on a beach, it feels fresh, new, and fun. But if you were to spend all day every day there. You'd begin to complain... the drinks aren't as good as they used to be, the beach is too crowded, the service sucks, etc.
Now, this thing that used to be wonderful and special has overstayed it's welcome. And you can no longer understand what it was that made it so special. Your avoidance and rejection of hard work has not only made any work you do bitter and meaningless, but it has made your free time bitter and meaningless.
Life is not a set of scales. The balance was never meant to be 50/50. Make these adjustments in your life, and I guarantee you will begin to see where I am coming from.
Listen if the study of ancient humans doesn’t make you at least a little bit emotional idk what to say.
I started crying today at the museum because they had reconstructed the shoes of Otzi the iceman.
Either he or someone he knew who cared about him made these shoes out of grass and bear skin and twine and he was wearing them when he died over five thousand years ago.
And a Czech researcher and his students did reconstructions of these shoes and wore them to the same place where he died to test them out and they were like yep! These shoes are really cozy and comfy and didn’t give us blisters while hiking!