Are you living to earn or earning to live?

This is a story of a math school teacher who is working in a school. In his free time, he does private tuition. His day starts at 6 in the morning and ends at 11 in the night.

He was living in a suburb of Mumbai. His school and private tuitions were in South Mumbai. He shifted his residence from Mumbai suburb to South Mumbai. His strategy was to save commuting time and do one or two more tuitions in the saved time. No doubt it was a smart strategy.

This is his life schedule for last 25 years. He is now 50. His children have grown up going to colleges while he continued to remain busy with his 6 am to 11 pm 7 days a week schedule.

His only logic of this kind of tight schedule was; we need a good amount of money for our retirement.

We become so obsessed with money that we spend our prime time only and only earning money. Money is important, but living a life is far more important.

Are you spending your life only earning money for your retirement? It’s the time to pause and think.

Earning money and living a life of which we dream goes hand in hand. Retirement at 60 is the Government rule, but that does not mean everyone is going to live for 60 years. That does not mean everyone will have a healthy retired life.

Work life balance is the rule of the game. Work-life balance daily, weekly and throughout the life. Our life is about work-life balance.

How to balance both is a challenge. Here are some pointers.

1) Keep your dream alive:

“A positive attitude can really make dreams come true – it did for me.” David Bailey

Like our Math teacher, many people have forgotten their dreams. In managing their stressful career they have given up their dream, assuming it as impossible to pursue.

Don’t do it. Keep your personal passion alive. Whether you want to become a writer, singer, and musician or want to go on treks. It could be anything you always wanted to do if you had enough money.

Many successful people, whether writers, musician, actors, sports person, politician pursued their passion while doing a full-time job.

We all have seen the movie on the life of M.S Dhoni. His life journey is an inspiration.

2) Keep doing your dream in your free time:

Once you keep your dream alive you will find time to pursue it. Whether on Sundays, holidays, late at night or early in the morning.

Many artists pursue their work early morning before they go to the work. Waking up 2 hours early daily can change your life forever. You can achieve great things by consistently doing daily for 2 hours.

Steal time to do what you love doing.

3) Stop wasting time:

This is another way to find the time. Gossiping, watching TV, unwanted socialising are some of the major leakage points for our time. Plug the gaps. You will have time to do what you love to do.

Our life is a summation of our time. Time wasted is life wasted. Successful people who we know do multiple things are the best managers of their time and priorities.

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4) Remember it is a hard work:

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” Colin Powell.

It is not easy. But your will to do makes it easy. Your will to succeed is the game changer. Imran Khan pursued for 22 years to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Fulfilling a dream is difficult.

Whether it is Imran Khan or people who climb the Mount Everest, nothing is easy. Climbing the Mount Everest is a dream for many like becoming an artist for others. Both take time, physical and mental preparedness.

Even if you want to pursue your dream for yourself. You do not want to become famous or popular. Yet, doing it while having a full-time job is hard work. This is the reason many give up. They repent after retirement but we only live once.

There are dreams which can be pursued after retirement but age has its own challenges.

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5) The fruits are sweet:

Finding time to pursue your dream is difficult. Yet when you find the time and prioritise, the result you get is sweet.

The sense of achievement is huge.

It changes your life. It balances your skewed life. You realise the importance of pursuing your dreams. The money will remain important in life but you start valuing other small but important things in life.

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” Oprah Winfrey

Don’t let your earning priorities shun your dream because life is about living your dream. Focus on earning but don’t lose sight of living.

We at Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance are in the business of protecting people’s dreams and aspirations. Our resources are dedicated to helping people fulfil their dream and mitigate the hindrances.

Share stories about your dream. Let the world know what it took to pursue your dream. Let this be a platform for people to help and motivate each other in fulfilling their dreams.