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My favorite novelist is Haruki Murakami.

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After 30 years of writing fiction, he published a nonfiction book that explained his writing process and philosophy.

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One of the most interesting points was when Murakami discussed a choice he made at the beginning of his career.

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I placed the highest priority on the sort of life that lets me focus on writing…

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I felt that the indispensable relationship I should build in my life was not with a specific person, but with an unspecified number of readers.

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As long as I got my day-to-day life set so that each work was an improvement over the last, then many of my readers would welcome whatever life I chose for myself.

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We tend to read statements like that and immediately dismiss them as unrealistic, or perhaps even rude.

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How could someone choose to prioritize their relationships with countless people they had never met?

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Another way to look at it: Murakami focused on what he would gain instead of what he would lose.

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If you've ever come back tired from a vacation, if you've ever used the phrase working for the weekend, if you've ever wondered about the elusive life-work balance — maybe it's time to think about ordering your life around what you actually want, and seeing what falls away.