I realized that professors, who work a 1/3 the amount that I or most people do, were still way more stressed than I am.

I did some contract work briefly at a university, and I noticed that even though professors work about 6 hours a day (don't do this, this is like barely above the poverty line), they are always wasting their time worrying about their department or how they don't get paid enough. I know a few tenured professors, and they are always worried about their department, or someone trying to steal their department chair from them, or whatever. I was a TA for the tech department, and they were always calling me to do busywork, even though I don't work for them.<br><br>Personally, I work a lot harder than professors (8 hours a day), but I never get stressed, because I don't let anyone waste my time, and I'm never really worried about my job situation. This isn't any sort of humble brag at all, but I really will never be out of a job, no matter how things get. I've been working high paying software jobs since I was 16.<br><br>I think there is a negative side effect to people doing work for themselves, and it's something that I'm going to call "inflated personal importance". Essentially, it's when you think that what you do is more important than it is, because you have invested so much of yourself into it. I think this is why professors and other self employed people can be so neurotic, even though their lives are already set up to be better than most people. People don't worry about *companies,* they worry about themselves. If you stake your entire identity on your job, you are going to be in a constant anxiety, because you are literally risking yourself. I feel like people who work for their own jobs get inflated personal importance, and they just worry about their identity all day.<br><br>I've seen this manifest in other ways. I have a friend who invested all of her money in a house. That house is her status in life, so she will do anything to make sure it stays at the top. Her house is going to be worth like 5 million in 5 years anyway, but she still worries that it will lose value, or that the system will collapse or something. I don't think people even realize how much of it is identity. "I am a homeowner", "I am a professor", "I am a software engineer at this company", etc. And if anything happens to that, your identity is at stake.<br><br>I've noticed there is a negative correlation to the amount of money that you make, and how much you worry about money. I think it's because the more you make, the more you realize that you don't need to worry about whatever you make. When you make 20 million a year, you will never be out of a job. You will always be fine. If you make minimum wage, you are worried every day about the value of your money, getting fired, whatever. I think it's because identity is attached to money, and when you make less, your money is attached to your identity. I don't worry about where my next meal is going to come from. I can travel wherever I want. I have a guaranteed career path to a high paying job. This is why I don't stress, and it's why almost no rich people stress.<br><br>I think we should stop staking our identity in our jobs and careers. I think we should stop thinking that we are "more important" than others, just because our jobs are "more important". I think we should stop caring so much about other people's opinion of us, and just worry about what we think about ourselves. I've never met a calm professor. I've never met a calm doctor. I've never met a calm lawyer. I've never met a calm businessperson. I've never met a calm politician. I've never met a calm minister. I've never met a calm priest. These are all people who have invested their entire identity in their job. They are always worried about what others think of them, and they always have to deal with the anxiety of that. It's bad for your mental health. It's bad for your relationships. It's bad for you in so many ways.<br><br>I think what I'm trying to say is that if you find a way to get your identity away from your job, you won't be neurotic anymore. All of my doctors have a huge fear of death. All professors have a huge fear of not being taken seriously anymore. All people who work for themselves have a huge fear of losing their identity. There are so many examples of this in real life.<br><br>I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to not work for yourself. I've never met a person who works for someone else who is neurotic about their job. I've never met someone who works for someone else and *worries* about their job. If you work for someone else, you don't really have to think about it. If you work for yourself, you have to worry about your business, your people, your money, your everything. Keeping up with that is so mentally taxing, and it's so bad for your health.<br><br>I know that this has been a weird post, but I wanted to clarify it in a forum. This is an idea that I've been developing, and I wanted to see what other people's thoughts were.<br><br>Edit: I'm a little disappointed that no one has responded (even though the post has been upvoted to death). Sigh lo.