Work, Retire, Die

Today a well known sportscaster, George Michael, died. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, I don't really know anything about him. Not only do I not know who George Michael is, but I have little or no interest in sports in general. Okay, that's not entirely true since I live in Green Bay, WI and you have to be a Packers fan or else. But as a general rule, sports is a boring waste of my time.

So why do I bring up George Michael's death?

George's death is a perfect illustration of my worse fear in life, work, retire, and then die. George worked until 2007, retired, battled cancer for two years and then died. I can think of nothing more tragic than this.

This could be because I choose not to be defined by my work. I am more than that. I want to strive to be more than that. Work is something I do as a trade-off for the things I need or want to purchase in life, nothing more.

I suppose it's possible that you enjoy your work so much that you are willing to do it until you die, but I think that you might consider doing something more important with that time.