Sunday, November 16, 2008

What is a good lifestyle?

I have worked on a Sunday for 16 hrs no-stop on conference calls, emails and break out meetings. Sometimes I wonder, why do we work so hard, give our time, our energy, our commitment, almost our soul to our jobs.....is to survive? or for a great lifestyle? Who defines what a good lifestyle is? I have a a beautiful home, 2 expensive cars, a great husband but we spent more than 10 hrs at our jobs, a few hrs with oursleves, 6 hrs of sleep, and what is remaining we spend with our loved ones....is this fair? People we love most, we spend the least amount of time with them on a daily basis....and the higher you climb the corporate ladder, the more the job owns you....so what really means by good lifestyle? Loads of money in the bank, a fancy CXX title, expensive clothes and jewellery.....etc etc....I dont know I dont have an answer for that question...but yes one thing is clear in my mind...a good lifestyle should definitely include peace of mind and time....
My curiosity to understand what this heavily used words means....made me do some reserach on the internet and google being my best friend...here is what some people have to say -
"Lifestyle is expression of life"
"Lifestyle is a way of life a person has chosen"
"An individual’s typical way of life, including diet, kinds of recreation, job, home environment, location, temperament, and smoking, drinking ..."
and so on so forth...
But what is a society's norm of a good lifestyle? After talking to some people, I realised nobody really knows and mostly people associate it with loads of materialistic things...a person may have the best home, car, clothes, etc..but we never know what the state of their bank balance is...so i think for me all the good money is for sure very vital but with it there should be a secure future, lots of time to invest in my loved ones and the freedom to control my time and money.....
I know I will achieve my idea of a good lifestyle someday....but sometimes wonder if at that time my definition or expectation from it will change to some other things....Question, Question!!