INTRO - What is work?

ENG- activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.

a task or tasks to be undertaken; something a person or thing has to do.

Hi! I’m Diana.

I’m 33 years old,
I have three children I adore,
and I’m married to the love of my life.

I LOVE!!!
my family,
exercise,
nature,
adventures—
I love MOVEMENT!

I describe myself as:
positive
energetic
happy
healthy
proactive
kind
intense

I’m a FAN of doing everything within my reach to find the best possible balance across different areas and stages of my life.

Of course, balance is subjective—it looks different for everyone and depends on each situation. But it takes a lot of effort and flexibility to make it work in the best way possible.

1. It’s said that “work” used to mean simply survival—and that’s when we were just beginning to develop family and social dynamics.
    
2. Later, things began to evolve. Systems were established, and work/actions gradually took on a gendered division. Meaning:
    

• Women were assigned certain responsibilities
   
• Men were assigned others
   

So, in general terms:

• The woman became the creator of the home
   
• The man, the provider of an economic system
   

And the shared goal remained similar to the beginning: to work as a team in order to live a good life—to live, rather than just survive.

1. As time passed, things naturally changed—we’re made to evolve. And we arrived at a new and different place where gender roles and responsibilities are challenged or questioned. The traditional system is broken apart, and new dynamics and ways of dividing up responsibilities and labor are proposed.
    
2. Which brings us to the present—and I’m deeply interested in understanding and exploring:
   What does “work” mean today?
    

As we’ve discussed, change and evolution are inevitable, so we’re entering a new era where gender becomes secondary. But the system and the responsibilities—both shared and individual—are re-evaluated and approached from a different perspective.

If we go back to the dictionary definition:

Work is a physical or mental effort done to achieve a purpose or result—
An action or set of actions that a person or thing must do.

So, I believe it’s important to visualize, break down, and question what work means today...

Yes, work is work—(office, job—things that, by name and tradition, generate $ economic compensation).

But there’s a new “currency” in play: TIME—
Which, as we now know, is also a form of wealth, with a different kind of compensation.
Not lesser, just different—yet still essential.

Studying is work
Having, creating, and caring for a home/family is work
Building and maintaining true friendships is work
Taking care of your health is work
Managing money wisely is work
Nurturing a social life is work
Traveling is work
Helping others is work
Evolving is work

And with all these actions involving physical or mental effort—plus the practicality and evolution of technology...

Setting boundaries is work
Living in the NOW has become work.

But what happens when we hear the word "work"?
It usually triggers a very specific emotion or connotation:

• stressful
   
• negative
   
• exhausting
   
• draining
  ...and more.
   

So, we often associate it with something outside our comfort zone, or something that requires sacrifice.
And we tend to give most of our energy to the kind of work that generates financial compensation—out of necessity, or again, because of survival mode.

Since we no longer need to just survive,
We’re now called to constant change and evolution.

And from my perspective, the real challenge now is to LEARN HOW TO LIVE.

Starting with giving new meaning to the word work,
Removing the lens of victimhood, sacrifice, ego, or external ideals—
And instead, training our minds and bodies to understand that:

Work is essential, constant, and positive.
 

Seen as the set of actions that move us toward our goals and purpose,
And most importantly, that help us live each day the way we truly want to live.

So after all this, I ask you:

What does “work” mean to you?
Which actions take up the majority of your day?
What does it mean to truly “live”?
And how can we expand, redefine, and guide the meaning of “work” into many new concepts—
Ones that help us understand it and see it in a whole new light?