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The Joy of Work
by Dr. Philip E. Humbert
As a coach, I write and talk a great deal about
making work "effortless". With my clients,
I focus on eliminating the daily frustrations
and friction that can make work difficult, unpleasant
and unproductive. To achieve peak performance,
you must eliminate the things that hold you back!
But that is often misunderstood to say that work
shouldn't be...work! Nothing could be further
from the truth!
Work is what makes us human, it allows us to
show our true colors, and to make a difference
in the world. Work is one of our greatest gifts!
Now, you may have noticed that I define "work"
in a rather special way.
Anything I don't want to do is annoying. If it
gets bad enough, I might call it "drudgery"
or even "painful". But that's not because
it's my job and someone is paying me to do it.
It's because I would rather be someplace else,
doing something different.
Humans rarely "work" harder than when
we "play." Watch a high school sports
team working out - you couldn't pay the average
teenager enough to work that hard! Or, here's
a personal example: skiing.
I don't like it. Downhill skiing requires expensive,
uncomfortable clothes in order to pay a lot of
money to stand in the cold waiting for a ski-lift,
so I can have an uncomfortable ride up a mountain,
so I can have a terrifying fall to the bottom.
This is not fun! And, if I "had" to
do enough of it, I would become a very frustrated,
unhappy and unfulfilled person. (My apologies
to all of you who love skiing - it's just not
my thing. Sorry.)
In that sense, I think of skiing as "uncomfortable",
but it is not "work"! Do you get the
distinction?
Work is about using my talents and skills in
a disciplined, effective way to get results that
bring me joy, satisfaction, and financial rewards.
For me, hard work is about writing or coaching,
it's about connecting with an audience and giving
a speech they will never forget. Work is about
producing a desired result with style and class.
It's about contributing value, and making a difference
in the world.
And, in that sense, I believe work is an amazing
opportunity!
It is true that becoming very good at your work
and achieving superior financial rewards requires
substantial effort. I believe I work between 35
and 50 hours a week. My wife will tell you I work
far more than that, and I admit that for many
years, I routinely worked over 60 hours a week.
But, and this is important, it was never difficult!
Much of my "work" happens while I'm
walking my dogs. I get to "work" on
the golf course at times, and I certainly love
the work I do in front of audiences or on the
phone with my clients. For me, writing these articles
is both work, and a source of relaxation and renewal.
The key is to find work that you love as much
as your play.
To spend my life skiing would be exciting, but
unfulfilling and I would quickly come to hate
my job. I would be tired and cranky at the end
of the day. I would "burn out", find
reasons to gossip about my boss and co-workers,
complain about how badly the company treated me,
and I would eventually either quit or get fired.
Or, I would be "trapped" by my stock
options and the retirement plan.
That is no way to live! Don't do that to yourself,
and don't permit those you love to spend their
lives in the "salt mines" of a job that
doesn't suit them! Life's too short!
The key to unusual success is to find work that
you would pay to do, and then get extremely good
at it.
Work is the key to a life well lived. It is the
key to knowing you "did it right," that
you made a difference, and gave all you had to
give. Playing on a beach won't do that.
Only work can make life worth living, and then
only if you do your own work. If you try to do
someone else's work, you won't be good at it,
you won't love it, and you won't be particularly
successful at it. Find the work you do best, the
work that only you can do, and then work hard,
hard, hard. There is a pot of gold at the end
of that rainbow!
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