Work

“Work is a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread”

The great socialist Studs Terkel discovered this and each of us discovers it every day.

What is work?  It is a basic human need.  It is a thing that can totally consume us.  It is a thing that when we are deprived of it we shrivel and die.  We, as humans, need to work.

When we are deprived of our work we become less human.  We create more work for ourselves outside of our scheduled work simply for the joy of achievement and the succor of ‘getting things done’.

We lament the days when work was craftsmanship.  We feel an affinity for the old timer who bends smiling to his creative project turning his time and mind into a work of art.  That painted window, that shingled roof, or that written essay is his legacy and he turns himself to it as carefully as a mother tends her children.

Work can be liberating.  Work can be fulfilling. When you are fully engaged, body, mind and spirit in your work it ceases to be work.  Time flies and the work flows from us like we are channeling the gods.  When we are fully engaged work becomes part of life.

Work can be dehumanizing.  Work can be a mindless cage.  We are stuck in a box or tethered to a Metropolis machine.  We are closely monitored by electronic demons until the life has been sucked from our work and we are robots.  When work becomes a paycheck and a daily grind then work is a joyless succubus with no art or feeling.

It is reported that 49% of people when asked will say they do not like their jobs.  That’s close to half of us who have abdicated our creative lives and joy to a paycheck.  Why would we do such a thing?  Whether by circumstance or poor decision making we have turned into a corporate cul-de-sac from which there is no escape.

When I’m out on my job working with people in companies I see that it all comes down to company culture.  When a company has a culture of scarcity it percolates like rot throughout the organization.  When a company has a clear future vision and a culture of abundance it percolates through the organization like liquid sunshine.

Cost reduction and efficiency are not where an organizations focus should be rooted. Numbers are a symptom not a purpose.  Culture and vision is the first thing.  Everyone in the organization needs to know why they are here and why they are doing what they do.  It starts at the top with vision.  And that vision has to be a future focused vision of abundance.

The good leaders know this.  All things, whether individual or corporate, start with intent.  Why are we here?  What is it that we do?  What is our clear future vision?  These are the things people need and will gladly suffer the ignobility of the cubicle and dumpster for.

For you personally in your work you have a choice.  You can be one of the mindless majority watching the slow dance of the clock hands swing towards quitting time or you can choose to love what you do.  Really, it’s that simple; either find something to do that is purposeful and fulfilling or make what you do purposeful and fulfilling.

“But, Chris” you interrupt; “I do not lead organizations or manage anyone.  I am one of those 49% who punch the clock and trade my body for time.  How is there abundance in that?”

You are right to ask this question.  You are where you are.  You cannot walk away from your job.  You have to pay your bills and survive.  I will only ask of you one question; “Do you control your intent?”  Just like the corporate leader you influence yourself and the culture of the organization through your intent.

Your intent won’t change the fact that you have to scrub dumpsters with a toothbrush for minimum wage but it will change your mind set.  It will catch fire the pilot light of your working soul that can be kindled to a great inferno and reclaim your essence from the cage of work.

This was eloquently discussed by Viktor E. Frankl in his classic and oft-cited “Man’s Search for Meaning”.  The Nazis controlled whether he lived or died but he controlled his intent and his vision of the future.

Changing your attitude to an attitude of abundance is the ultimate rebellion against tyranny and authority.  They can lock you up in a cubicle and track your bathroom breaks but they can’t take your attitude away.  You need to cultivate your own version of the future looking, abundant vision.  Getting your head straight has the power to transform your working life.

There is art and beauty in any job.  There is meaning and purpose in any pursuit or endeavor.  You just have to create it.  The happiest people in the world have the simplest jobs.  I’m sure you have run across them in your life.  The teacher who is changing the world, the shoe shine who is creating art and the waitress who is dancing ballet.

They may not be top executives but they have found something more important than power and wealth.  They have found purpose and art by bringing abundant intent into their work.

Your assignment from me is to find the art in your work.  When you sit at your desk or wherever your career finds you on Monday morning bring an attitude of abundance.  Work with purpose.  Align what you do with your vision of the future. The hours will fly by.  You’ll leave to go home fulfilled and joyful.

If you don’t.  If you can’t. If what you do is just too awful to be influenced by your intent. Then you will know it is time to find something else to do.  It is better to walk away than to let an aberrant situation suck your life’s joy.

You are not your job.  This is a very important concept.  You can put yourself into your job but you cannot lose yourself in your job.  You need to hold that single light of self apart from the work.  It is a tricky balancing act to be passionate and dispassionate at the same time.  Your job is a part of you but only in that it is a vehicle for you to express yourself.  You are not your job.  Your job is not you.

It is just one of the things that make you whole.  It takes commitment and trust but you must draw your own line.  Work will take as much as you are willing to give.  You must decide how much you are going to give it and stick to that line.

We only have a finite number of hours in our life.  We have to split those hours between the job, the family, the personal development, the physical development, the mental development and a thousand other projects that draw on that same time.

In summary; don’t look at work as a job.  Look at work as an opportunity to find art and purpose.  Bring an attitude of abundance to your search for daily bread and it will become an incarnation for daily meaning.

What’s the worst that can happen?

Cheers,

Chris,