Exactly. I came to that realization decades ago! "Work" trades hours of your life (a finite resource of unknown size) for "dollars" -- which can be obtained in many different ways. So, find a "way" that gives the most value to that fraction of your life.
Instead of doing what people want to pay you to do, find people who will pay to to do what you WANT to do! So, it's not quite "work"...
But, the catch, there, is that you have to KNOW how you want to spend your time! You have to take an active role in deciding how your life-hours are consumed. You can't just sit back and let The Boss relieve you of that decision.
My solution is just to reduce hours spent doing the "cruft" that is boring and, IMO, "nonessential". E.g., I've not taken a "vacation" in more than 40 years. I don't "shop" (you REALLY don't want to be in a store when I'm there as I am laser focused on what I *need* to get done -- so I can get it over with, quickly). Go "out" to eat only rarely; the time spent primping, driving, waiting for a table, waiting for food, eating, waiting for check and driving back home could be better spent prepping a meal that I *know* I will enjoy and then get back to things that I want to do (some folks live to eat; I eat to live). I keep books (ereaders) in all of the places where I am likely to find myself "idle but preoccupied" -- bathroom, kitchen, car, etc. so I can make progress on the titles I've opted to consume. Spend NO time on the phone (that has changed during the pandemic as friends have suddenly decided that it's OK to tie me up with chit-chat instead of resorting to email).
Even my time on-line (e.g., as I type this) is squeezed in while doing "something else" (downloads, web searches, etc.).
OTOH, I "waste" a lot of time doing things that I don't really NEED to do. E.g., I do a *lot* of baking (50 pounds of flour for XMAS) despite the fact that I don't like "sweets". Five hours, yesterday, baking a cheesecake (disgusting! all that fat and sugar!). But, it's a "special" way to thank certain people for kindnesses they've extended to me. (you saved *me* some time so I'll gift that time back to you in the time required to produce these "surplus calories")
I have little hope that she'll make much headway at it. But, if she gets ANYTHING from her efforts, she will have felt justified in pursuing them.
I'm lucky in that it's an avocation AND vocation. When I was younger, I thought ALL people chose their vocations with that criteria. Depressing to see how many don't have that "luxury" (or forethought?)
Sadly, many of the retirees that I know have settled into a life of watching TV, eating out and cleaning (but never USING!) the pool. It's hard not to see it as "waiting around for Death to show up"!
Others have had their plans sidetracked by unexpected realities (e.g., the friend who planned on hiking in Tibet discovering he needed hip replacements; the friend who moved here to be outdoors year round developing severe asthma preventing her from leaving the house; the athletic friend who blew out his back; etc.)
We watch a lot of movies (on DVD) -- moreso since the pandemic (as my other half's opportunities for entertainment have been "canceled"). But, I can do that without actually *watching* the movie. We also find ourselves gravitating to movies that we've already seen -- and enjoyed, immensely (typ comedies). These are easy to just listen to and recall what is actually happening on the screen without actually seeing it! So, I can be installing software on a new machine (largely a "waiting action") while "watching" a movie.
A neighbor's brother is visiting from Oz and has always enjoyed seeing me when here. On this trip, he brought a video of a... hmm, it's not really a movie as much as a sort-of "home movie" (even though it was obviously PRODUCED as a movie) of a *party* somewhere down-under. So, the visuals are largely uninteresting; just folks standing around sucking on beers. But, the *jokes* are entertaining -- once you get through the language and accent issues. I've "watched" it several times, already -- yet no need to actually see the "talking heads" while doing so! I'll have most of the jokes committed to memory, soon...