When I asked Dr Leow about stress and its effect on my heart, he pointed at himself and his nurse and said everyone has (work)stress. The implified assumption is that most stressors come from work responsibilities. Obviously parenting, pff, self-care, care-giving, home maintenace,,, also generate stress. Work/livelihood stressor stands out among all stressors because
- huge effort .. much higher than parenting, self-care,,,
- non-stop effort expected .. like running on a treadmill… every weekday you need to keep producing. You can slow down but you can’t stop.
— Q: Why do I badly want to work till 80s? Let’s focus on work stress.
- %%A: retirement phase (60s to 70s) would see other stressors, possibly worse than work stressors
- %%A: my dad didn’t enjoy his retirement
- %%A: my mom loved her job as a lecturer
- %%A: I saw many old colleagues working into their 70s or 80s, under moderate work stress.
- %%A: in my 70s deep work (or nearly deep work) can be engaging, absorbing, releasing, transforming, stimulating. See my dad.
Any day job would provides a positive, sufficiently large counterweight against the other stressors in my life. Right now, work stress is still “too big” as a counterweight. In my 60s and beyond, I am convinced that as I transition into the last chapter of my career, work stress would moderate and decline and morph into a positive counterweight.
S.Liu pointed out some level of stress is good for health…