"Work" (from Life In A Week - A book about being really happy!)

We all have to work, so we should make the best of it! I took the following from my first book about being really happy: The one thing that most of us have in common is that we all must work for a living. We spend a considerable amount of time at work and really need to remember not to let work take over our lives. We need to balance work and home life; this gets even more important as we get older. I’ve seen so many people devote their entire lives to their careers only to die within weeks of their retirement. The reason for that scenario could be that they put all their effort into work and forgot how to live. The only thing they focused on was their job, and they forgot how to enjoy the wonderful day without stress. I admit that I love all the challenges at work. I even love the pressure of the day at work. I sometimes need to remind myself that work doesn’t make my life important; I make work important. We sometimes think that what we do for a living or how much power we have at work decides how important we are, but this is the furthest thing from the truth. I was out to dinner the other night and was waiting for my Shirley Temple to come out when I overheard the manager screaming at my waiter that she doesn’t care what the customer wanted and that she was in charge, not the customer. I thought, “Wow! Doesn’t she know that the customers are the ones making it possible to have the work? All I was asking for was an extra cherry in my drink!” We sometimes need to be reminded that it really is how we do our work and how we treat others that is important. If we move up the ladder in the jobs we are in, we need to remember that for every step up, we will need to come back down; it’s the power of gravity. We need to find joy in our work even if it is not the choice of work that we would really like to be doing. The saying “fake it ’til you make it” is a favorite of mine because I think it is funny that we have already made it; we just might not know it. Every day that we wake up and are able to go out and earn a living and help people on the way is an exceptional day. It doesn’t matter what you are doing; you can always help someone while making a living and making money. It’s all in the way you look at it. You might ask, “Well, how is the meter maid helping anyone?” Every ticket given out is helping with the economy by helping to pay for the pavement on the streets. The guys who pave the streets are able to work. If the streets don’t have potholes, then there may be one less motorcycle accident, saving someone from getting hurt or killed. It works as a chain reaction, just like everything. Every action really does create a reaction. The bottom line is to do your job the best you can and be grateful that you are able to work. Always remember that work is an important part of our lives, and we should take pride in it, but we need to take pride in our rest, too. We are not machines, and when we take time to relax, we will end up doing a better, more efficient job in the long run. We can’t make our jobs or careers our only priority because we forget to slow down and enjoy the here and now when we do that. Money will buy luxuries but not true love. Love is bought with kind hearts, by being true to ourselves and others, by simply caring. It is key is to have patience with our coworkers and to try to help each other achieve, not compete. I have worked in many fields and found that the most successful business owners and managers were the ones who taught the employees everything that they knew, in the hopes that they would become a better employee. I have also seen the opposite, where the business owner or manager was nervous to instruct to the employees to do anything more than what was needed, out of fear that they might possibly take over his or her position or take that knowledge to the competition. That fear stalls the progress of the company and slows the ambition of the learning employee. Unnecessary fear in the workplace is a waste of energy. I think of work as a relationship. If you try to better each other and grow, you will prosper. If you treat each other with respect, that loyalty will inevitably grow. If you work smart and hard and have good work ethics, then you should be compensated for your efforts. If you have a lousy paying job and do something that you hate, then you should look inside of yourself honestly and evaluate why you are in such a situation. You should also decide to make the small changes in your daily life that are needed, but whatever you do, please don’t blame everyone else. There will always be people who will not be helpful in trying to see you succeed, but don’t let that discourage you because they are nervous about their own shortcomings. Watch and learn from the people who are happy to be at work, the people who are successful because they know how to do it. Keep going, and nothing will be able to stop you. People are judged by the company they keep, and I have always felt that a company should be judged by how they treat the employees. If everyone is rewarded for the quality of work that is done, then the company will be successful. If the company leaders are honest and caring, then the rest of the company will follow suit. If the company leaders are shallow and cheat, then why wouldn’t those traits trickle down to everyone else? This is true with every aspect of life. We lead by example not by words alone. We all need to remember that we are a team and that a team will win when its members work together and help each other along the way. Competition is healthy and beneficial, but only when individuals help others to win, too. Thanks for reading part of my first book (published in 2009)and available via links on my website or anywhere books are sold. The second book (Life In A Week - What Is Spirituality?) is in the process of being published and will be available within the next few weeks. Be sure to sign up to the RSS subscription on my site to get instant emails when I post; so you can be the first to get it directly from the publisher! "Read it and share it"