#130 - work cannot fill a deficit of love

To love the work you do, lose yourself in it. Experience the same conviction and focus you had as a child when building a treehouse, or whatever activity was meaningful to you. As Paul Graham writes in this essay, this is the way to find joy in your work.

Work and play are intertwined when you are a child; work is play and play is work. However, this distinction tends to disappear as we grow older. Paul Graham argues in his essay that this distinction need not be lost when we reach adulthood. The School of Life expresses this sentiment well in this video: "Work cannot fill a deficit of love."

You cannot fill the void of love and connection with life by striving for a higher reputation and more money. When you allow your inner child to take control and live a life based on love for what you do and the people around you, you can truly free yourself to live a more meaningful life.

You can then apply temperance (one of the four Stoic virtues) in every activity you partake in. And then decide when it’s time to push the gas pedal, and when it is time to press the break, with the innocent and decisive conviction and courage of your child self building a treehouse.