If work were no longer the focus, what else would there be in my life?

You can read this article in Italian Se il lavoro non fosse più il mio obiettivo, cos'altro ci sarebbe nella mia vita? and Spanish by choosing the language Si el trabajo dejara de estar en el centro, ¿qué más podría haber en mi vida?

Maybe at first trying to make that space would feel like an abyss. Like when you take out a heavy piece of furniture after years and that mark remains on the floor, a witness to all the time it was there, without moving. At first you look at it strangely, as if the absence weighed more than the presence. But then… you realize that there is a space there ready to be inhabited.

It's not about giving up cold turkey, or ignoring the fact that the bills keep coming at the end of the month. Not all of us can just let go and see what happens. But we can ask ourselves: to what extent has work taken up more space than it should? Where could we make room for other things, without neglecting what we need to live?

Sometimes we sell ourselves the idea that there is no alternative. That this is life, that this is what we have to do. But life is not only about productivity, it is not measured in completed tasks or empty inboxes. Life is also in those breaks that we give ourselves permission to take.

Maybe we can't change our job, but we can change our relationship with it. We can make room for a leisurely coffee, for a walk that isn't just about getting from one place to another, for a text to that friend we always say we should meet up with but never actually do. For a glass of wine at the end of the day, chatting about anything and everything at once, feeling for a while part of something bigger than routine.

It's not that work is bad. It gives us sustenance, purpose, sometimes even pleasure. But when everything revolves around it, when there's no energy left for anything else, something gets out of balance. And it's not always easy to see that until exhaustion takes its toll.

So how do you find that balance?

There’s no magic answer. It’s not an immediate or perfect change. But we can start by noticing where we could reclaim small pieces of our life. Maybe it’s saying “enough for today” more often without guilt. Maybe it’s making a plan that doesn’t depend on whether we’re too exhausted to enjoy it. Maybe it’s simply allowing ourselves to feel that life shouldn’t be all work.

Because life is also the embrace of a friend who reminds us who we are beyond what we do. It is spontaneous laughter, the conversation that goes on without looking at the clock, the book we read without thinking about being more productive, the feeling that there is something of ourselves that remains intact, beyond obligations. A moment to steal from the rush a moment to look at the sky, to notice if the clouds are in a hurry or if they float gently, as if they were not in a hurry either.

It is not always easy, but it is possible. It is not about letting go of everything, but about holding on to what really matters because there are questions that are not answered with the head, but with the body, and the cost of not changing also weighs. And it weighs every day, in the sighs we let out without realizing it, in the tiredness that does not go away with more hours of sleep, in that subtle but insistent feeling that something is not where it should be. A dance between courage and doubt, between the impulse to go and the temptation to stay.

So what would your life be like if work were no longer the focus?

Maybe you don't know it yet. But if you close your eyes and listen carefully, there is something inside you that already has the answer, Laura.

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