What's this life?
I'm doing the exact opposite of what I have decided not to do.
Even though I realized that there is not much time that we have in this world, to spend together, to get to know each other and to live amazing things, I still ignored everything of these and took the other decision.
Now I quit playing the game that I was anyway rarely playing, I reduced the time I've spend with the others and started to work more, stay overtime at my job, and work even at home, trying to gain more knowledge that wouldn't help me more anyway.
I know that in this life I will not even have time to apply this knowledge that I am gaining, but still, I feel like I am waisting it if I am not dedicating myself to studying more.
Maybe this is all because I haven't found inner peace yet, or I will not find it anyway, ever, but it is still a nice try.
Now, let me ask you one more thing:
With what kind of tears are you crying the life that you never had?
Some posts that you might be interested in:
Short answer: Balance!
Longer answer: Work is important, but it's not everything in life. The good things is you see there's a problem and you're young enough to do something about it. Work/study help you get a better job in a better company and all that, but in the end companies only care about your work, not about you. Only the people you surround yourself with will care about you.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree.
In my opinion balance leads to regrets. You regret not taking a long romantic trip with your significant other, instead you took the short trip. You regret that you didn't spend quite as much time with your children. You regret that you didn't take risks at work, or with investments, so you missed promotions and instead you work hard to maintain your basic income, which further takes away your time from "real life." You regret that you didn't commit to the big projects that outlive yourself.
Everything becomes lukewarm, and nothing is hot.
My employer sells the idea of "Work-Life Balance" to its employees. Those that buy it are the most unhappy that I see. They seem bitter about working 50 hours a week since they miss their children, and at the same time their projects and students languish because they don't spend 60 hours a week.
60 hours a week is definitely too much! I don't even know what to say. It seems that nothing is enough, we don't have enough time to live our lives. Whatever we chose to do, I am sure that we will always wonder what would have happened if...
I knew you could explain it better! :)
Indeed there is much truth in your answer! I wanted to write also that part with the company that only cares about its profits, but I didn't want to show the dark side. Well, at least my co-workers appreciate my help :D
The short answer is that you can't have everything. You can have 100% of A or 100% of B or you can have 47.5% of A and 47.5% of B with 5% loss for splitting. (The more life commitments you swap between the greater portion of you life goes into loss moving between them.)
Another piece of advice is to make certain that what you're doing is worthwhile and something lasting. I mean, employers, particularly those focused on short-termed profit, tend to spend employees time on tasks that are immediately important, but not lasting. Avoid those tasks as best you can and spend your time on the long-ranged projects. If your employer doesn't have those, then consider looking elsewhere.
This advice can also be applied to other aspects of life. For example, if you commit to having children, really commit to them. Don't let the noise of life distract you from having a deep relationship with them. When you say, "I love you" always look your spouse/lover/children/parents directly in the eyes.
Regret, in my opinion, comes from the time lost to noise, paperwork, and waiting in line. There are years of life lost driving between home and work. Loss is unavoidable, but try to minimize it.
By the way, the advice I'm writing here is as much to myself as it is to you. I've been going through a period of reflection. (Post-tenure ruminations.) I'm getting the feeling that big changes are needed in my life to get it back on track. I'll probably be posting about this at sometime.
First of all, you should always do whatever you feel, whatever you can, whatever works for you. We are all different,so there is no one recipe for all...
One can't miss something that they never had,soo.. I don't cry for that, I just wish for better... We can't undo any of it anyway
Thank you so much, you are amazing people, I wish there would be more positive people like you around here!