It is an interesting point the book brings up that the heavy work itself makes people unhealthy, it is the stresses coming from that work and how you deal with these stresses. Work is definitely a huge part of our lives. No matter you consider it as a priority in your life or not, your life always going to change around it.
The book talks about how dedication to one’s job and career accomplishment would promote health and decrease the probability of dying young. And I do agree with part of it that dedication would lead to greater sense of fulfillment while working, which is closing related to our mental health because people spend most of their daytime on work. But you can see that there are so many people who are highly-achieved people in their field lead extremely stressful lives and are not in healthy states. For example, in the movie industry, accomplishments always lead to higher expectations. In this field, it is not the case that once you accomplish something you would be considered as an authority. You still need to work really hard to win the applause of audience and industry insider, and you are still very likely to lose. A movie director who truly loves movie and constantly wants to accomplish more and would always question him or herself. I feel that, in essence, there is no difference between an achieved director or an accomplished director. They all faces the same challenge every day considering movie as a form of artistic expression.
Just like the movie director example, it makes sense to me that well suited to one’s job not necessarily predict a long life, and a match could be a risk factor. And it is suggested in the book that a sense of mastery and accomplishment is what really lead to health and longevity. I guess when others considering you as a ‘master’ or ‘authority’, it does not necessarily improve your health, but only when you yourself are content with what you have accomplished. Because achieved people can have higher standards for themselves or different standards with worldly standards when considering career achievement.
I particularly liked the message about how high-salary and seemingly successful individuals may not be quite as an object of envy as one would think because the jobs they have may be highly stressful and cause them to be very unhappy despite the monetary and social prestige of being a movie director or a doctor. It highlights how medium or even slightly lower than average paying jobs can still make someone happy because of the enjoyment of the work they pursue rather than the physical gains, which often times may just be superficial.