Running a marathon, participating in a fighting competition or climbing a mountain is the reward for months or years of grinding, which isn’t necessarily fun. If you want to go with your analogy, compare running a marathon with getting paid, and training for a marathon with working.
It’s because the product of their labor is taken from them and they are worked like animals.
People love to do activities where their efforts and rewards have a strong correlation to each other. Athletics are an activity where hard work pays off. That’s rare at a job.
This. Whether I pour my heart and soul into doing the most amazing work or just do something mediocre but passable, I get paid the same at the end of the month. Also, the reward for doing great work is more work (but not necessarily more money), so shareholders can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.
Untrue, fair amount of old folks are so workbrained they keep a job after retirement as a hobby. One guy I know put in ridiculous hours because he would be at the bar otherwise.
Plot twist : he works at the distillery
I’m envious of people who love their job.
I used to. It was nice, it was almost effortless. Now, I am more senior so the amount of bullshit admin I have to do has skyrocketed, and I every minute at my job is a minute less with my family. I still think I have the best job in the world, but that doesn’t mean anymore that I love it. Working half-time would make it nice again but that’s not an option. A full time job is just a drag, a net negative in your life, a constraint keeping you away from your loved ones (at best)
Like those things, you can quit work anytime, but unlike them, you sure as hell can’t wake up one day and think “Yeah, I’ll get back to that work today”
