“Whenever I am not sure of whether I am working because I need money or because I want to, I just put money out of the equation. I ask myself if I would continue to work if I didn't get money for it.”

Work can answer both need and desire. Money supports life, while the work itself may bring purpose, joy, and the feeling of using one’s abilities well. The two motives can become difficult to separate.

Imagining the money gone exposes what remains. If the wish to continue disappears with the pay, need may be carrying most of the effort. If the work still calls, passion has a clearer voice.

This test does not make paid work less sincere or suggest that money should not matter. A rich life needs both material support and reasons to want the days it funds. Removing money in thought helps reveal whether the work serves only survival or also belongs to the life being survived for.