Do Work
Today is Labor Day and for the first time ever I’m actually reflecting on work and the meaning of doing work. The famous quote from Gertured B. Elion is “Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.”
HARD WORK
As someone who holds two master’s degrees, works in higher education, and is competitive in a strength sport, it’s easy to say I am not afraid of hard work. Yet, in the pursuit of these ambitions I don’t feel like I’m doing hard work. Yes, there are challenges but most of the time I view it as the tasks I know must be completed in order to achieve my goals. The level of difficulty does not sway me. In my early singing days I would confidently work on arias assigned to me knowing and trusting that my teacher wouldn’t assign work I wasn’t capable of completing. Once, after winning a competition, I was asked “How did you learn such a difficult aria?” To be honest, I didn’t know it was considered difficult. Yes of course it was a challenge but I didn’t approach my studies all the while thinking “gosh this is a hard aria”. No, instead, I knew that my teacher would not have assigned me repertoire that was a) not appropriate for me and b) not within my capabilities. So learning something “hard” was easy. Just do the work.
How many times have you put off completing something just because it was viewed as hard? The level of difficultly should not matter. You can’t be afraid to do hard work and you can’t be afraid to do THE work.
THE WORK
Instead of drawing attention to the level of difficultly in your work, maybe we need to address why you might be afraid or resistant to do THE work. Do you struggle to prioritize where to start? Are you concerned that once you start working you’ll realize you’ve been going in the wrong direction and need to start over? Do you lack the confidence in your ability to successfully complete your work? In all of these instances, you’ve already given up before you’ve tried. If an excuse to avoid doing work arises, ask yourself “am I giving up before I even try? or is there a reason I don’t WANT to do the work?”
PURPOSEFUL WORKS
Say you are provided with endless amounts of money and no need to ever work a day in your life ever again. Would this truly make you happy? Well, maybe. But I will venture to say that it would not make you happy if you sought to never do ANY work for the rest of your life. There is no life worth living with the void of work. I’m not saying life is not worth living if you do not have a JOB. But it is in our nature to set out to complete tasks which are meaningful to our lives and allow us to help one another. AKA: WORK. Do you WANT to do the work? If not, then why?
There are a couple of reasons I believe many people say they hate their job or do not wish to work.
1) It is trendy to complain about work. It’s not “cool” to enjoy doing work. To go with the flow you should belittle the efforts required to get the job done.
But more importantly…
2) You don’t find the work purposeful.
There is no avoiding work so make sure you find your tasks to be purposeful. NOW do not misinterpret this to say “I only want to do work I enjoy”. That’s impossible. However, if you’re not happy with the work you are doing (job/career, daily tasks etc) maybe you need to take a step back and evaluate why you’re doing this type of work and if you connect to its purpose. I’ve had countless jobs that I had no intention of turning into career pursuits but knew I needed to stick with them until it was time to move onto the next thing. That doesn’t mean I did not find purpose behind the tasks I was doing. I could still work towards my professional and personal ambitions while completing my current assigned work with meaning and intent. For example, I worked in a department store for a long time. While I knew my calling was not to work in retail the remainder of my life, I still found meaning and purpose in my job responsibilities. I viewed the customer service counter as a skill builder for answering phones, communicating with strangers, and actually being helpful to someone with concerns. I also challenged myself to learn every department so I could pick up any shift available and continue to learn new skills. Opening the store was my favorite shift because I could sit in the cash office and count money. It was a strangely satisfying task to complete at 6am. Just because I had no intention of staying in the retail world doesn’t mean my time spent working for a department store didn’t bring meaning to my life. If you’re on a career path that doesn’t suit you then venture out to find a path that brings purpose to your life. In the meantime, don’t be resistant to completing your current work load. If you simply do not want to do the work because it lacks purpose.. well then you’ll know not to take on that type of work again in the future.
I hope you continue to find purpose in your work as you approach your upcoming week. Remember, don’t be afraid to do hard work or otherwise; and no matter the trajectory of your pursuits just do work.
-Laura
