What would you do if you didn’t have to work?
If you didn’t have to work, how would you spend your extra free time?
Maybe you like your job, so you would choose to continue working, even if you didn’t have to.
Or, you like working in general, but you don’t like certain aspects of your current job (e.g., rigid work schedule, bad boss, toxic company culture, too much stress). So you would keep doing the same type of work, but you’d do things your way.
Maybe you’d want to work on something that you believe is more important and impactful. So you join a nonprofit or start your own organization. It could be as simple as volunteering, helping out in your community, or finding another way to commit more time to a cause that you care about.
Maybe you have a hobby that you’ve been neglecting because work has been taking up all your time.
Maybe you’re an artist and you’ve been living a double life, working during the day and making art at night, or vice versa.
You miss school. You want to spend more time reading and writing. You have a hypothesis and you need to do more research to find out if it’s true. You want to learn a new skill, a language, how to play an instrument.
You don’t get to spend enough time with your family and friends. Without work, you have more space in your schedule for playing with your kids, going on dates with your partner, seeing your friends.
You haven’t taken a vacation in years. You don’t need to worry about whether you have enough PTO. You can plan a month-long trip to a part of the world you’ve never explored, experience a culture that is truly foreign to you.
You haven’t been taking care of your health. You get a gym membership. Go on a diet. Make a meal plan. Cook at home more often.
You want to devote more time to your religious or spiritual practice. You attend religious services. Practice mindfulness and meditation.
Maybe all of that sounds like work. You just want to have fun. So you go out more often. Eat and drink at restaurants and bars. Dance and socialize at clubs and parties. Attend concerts, theater performances, and art exhibitions.
Maybe even having fun feels like work. You’re burned out. You just want to relax and do nothing.
Or, you don’t know what you want to do. You’re filling the void with work, but you don’t know what you would do if you didn’t work. You need time and space away from work to open up the void, let yourself be bored, so that you can figure out what you want to do.