This guest post by Samy Felice discusses the ideal perspective of work. What’s the priority? What do we often prioritize instead? Find out below!
The soup of talent that covers the planet makes our world function beautifully. From athletes, to writers, and so much more, people make the world go ’round.
With that said, we’re inundated with information about celebrities and top performers, and the benefits of a great income. Supercars are revered. We lust for palaces. Most people dream of having a great lifestyle and fulfilling all their material desires. Money opens the door to many exciting possibilities, but should it be our primary focus?
Our work exists to serve others, so our first concern should be how we’re benefiting others. Whatever role we’re in, we wouldn’t be paid if there was no one there to gain value from our work. Therefore, aligning something we love and are good at that also contributes to other people should be our priority. Yet many of us have it the wrong way.
Many of us don’t have jobs that align with our values and qualities. It’s up to us to make changes, experimenting until we find a role what makes us feel alive, discovering that job/career/mission that makes us tap dance out of bed to work. To do that, it’s worth asking ourselves periodically, How can I best serve human beings around the world with my unique talents and strengths? (Not Which job will earn me the greatest income?)
Most of us don’t ask the prior question because we’ve been warped into thinking that ‘work’ is a burden. Yes, all work will be tedious and challenging at times, but beneath that, it can be enthralling if we do it right. It can fill our lives with purpose, meaning, and joy, and for many it does.
Dollar signs are secondary. The more we think about the significance of what we provide to the world, the more likely we’ll make the necessary adjustments to our careers. The consumption of sweet and savoury foods; watching movies and shows; messaging friends; socializing—these things all add a coat of varnish to a good life. But the paint, the substance of our lives, lies in our work. It’s what we’re doing to impact others, and the legacy we’re going to leave behind.
Through our work, we are telling other people who we are. It helps to find something that enables us to lose ourselves in our work, as we experience the sensation of being transported into a different reality; one that leaves behind a watermark of clarity and removes the division between work and the rest of our lives, until we can no longer compartmentalize each one.
I think this quote sums up this state perfectly: “The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”
To become a master in the art of living, and find our calling, we should start with growing our compassion for the people that could benefit from our work. From that state, we’ll create a healthier perspective towards work, and increase the likelihood of fulfilling our desires along the way.
Samy Felice is a Copywriter who is passionate about ideas and research related to leading a great lifestyle. His free book explores ways people can achieve a better work-life balance.
