2-3-4 Friday - Why we hate work

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

For most of history, we tried to avoid work. As the School of Life points out in their book, ‘A Job to Love’, pre-modern jobs involved work like clearing the chamberpot, toiling to sow seeds, and feeding the chickens.

 

Then somehow when we started modernity, the idea that work could be something enjoyable, came into being. 

 

And it’s taken the world, you, and me, by storm. We live with this existential angst within us, feeling that what we are doing is not truly fulfilling. We wonder if another job will fulfil us more. We wonder if we would find more meaning in a more meaningful sector like the social services. 

 

We live with this gaping hole in our hearts. And we want work to make it feel better. 

 

It won’t. It’s the curse of work. Whatever your worldview, there is what the Bible says about work. 

 

Even if you don’t necessarily believe in that, it’s also important to check your expectations about work. Work isn’t going to be the all and end-all to your quest for meaning. It cannot satisfy your needs. Expecting it to, will set you up for disappointment. The solution isn’t to have zero expectations towards work. 

 

It’s to know your expectations, but yet also have the realisation that work can be good enough. It doesn’t have to be great. You don’t have to be excited all day. There are days when it will just be a job.

 

It’s just there to feed your physical needs. There are other days when it will be a fulfilling job. Where it reaches your expectations of self-actualisation, where you see how it impacts the communities, for example. 

 

But sometimes, simply accepting that work is, like any other human, imperfect, helps you to be reminded that this is work. It doesn’t serve all your needs. 

 

It doesn’t need to. And that’s okay. 

1 talk

1 tip 

How do you remind yourself that work doesn’t have to always be perfect?

 

Laugh at your mistakes at work. Laugh at the small things that happen at work. Like how you pretended that you knew the quarter’s numbers but got exposed by your boss. Or how you tried to hide your sleepiness at your manager’s presentation by constantly blinking. 

 

Work doesn’t have to be that serious. 

 

Yes, it’s a job, with serious numbers, and people who would be impacted by your work, but it’s also, at the end of the day, a job.

 

At least you're not cleaning the chamberpot. 

 

John, Live Young and Well