Notes from books

Why do you go to work?
I t's a strange question because most people think that the answer is as plain as the nose on their face.
You go to work to earn money to pay your bills and to provide all the good things in life for you and your family.
That's the obvious answer, but it's not the real reason. Y ou go to work because that's what is expected of you. I t's as simple as that. I t's what has
been expected of you and me since we were knee high to a grasshopper. Y our family expects you to go to work, your friends expect you to go to
work, the people you work with expect you to go to work, your neighbours expect you to go to work, society in general expects you to go to work. In
today's society, we are conditioned - brainwashed even - into accepting a life of employment without question.
When you grow up you get a job. Everybody knows that.
I  call this Plan A.
In theory it sounds great. I f you work hard at school, secure a good job, set your sights on promotion, climb the corporate ladder, you will live
happily ever after.
The reality unfortunately is often somewhat different. For far too many people, Plan A means working longer and longer hours just to make ends
meet, being condemned to a life of wage slavery, drowning in a sea of debt, blighted by poverty of mind and spirit, and existing merely to work.

People
would rather suffer sleepless nights, a nervous breakdown, even a heart attack, than stop working because, according to Plan A, work is what we
do. In fact, as any doctor will tell you, some people would rather die than face the fact that their job is killing them.

Get out of a system that values you less than the share price of any PLC you care to name. Get out of the rat race that sees you working longer
hours and still unable to make ends meet. Get out of the debt that is like a yoke around your neck. Get out of the madness that has become our
daily lives.

What do you  think an alien would  think of our  "civilisation"  if  it  landed on Earth and discovered  that we place a higher monetary
someone who can punch a head or who can kick a ball than we do on someone who saves lives or who is prepared to give his or her life?

We don't have anywhere near the money that David Beckham has and so we retreat into our comfort zone and console ourselves by saying that
he is vastly overpaid for what he does, that it's a disgrace that footballers earn so much, no wonder match ticket prices are so high, the man's an
idiot, his wife's a . . . you get the picture.

 In exchange for a pay cheque, you sell your time to someone who
is buying it. And probably at a ridiculously low price too.

Just consider the language that we use to describe our lives. We work so that we can earn a living. Earn a living? Is working 40 or more hours a
week really living? And I  mean REALLY living because to earn that living we spend our priceless time at work. Most of our waking hours in fact. Y ou
spend your priceless time earning £5, £10, £20, £50 an hour, for the best part of your life and we call that "a living".

Not living live to fullest, just living

 I f you lose your job, sure it's disappointing. But you don't cease to
exist just because you've lost your job title.


I f you want to know about the potential of human life, talk to a child under the age of five. They believe anything is possible. When they grow up,
they'll own their own zoo. They'll fly aeroplanes. They'll picnic on the moon. And who's to say they won't do all that and then some?