Dreams don’t work. Unless you do

Yes, in a way it’s a shame isn’t it, but things don’t just happen because we want them to, and work doesn’t get done if we don’t actually work at it. I say in a way, because there is an old saying that “If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.” I can never ‘get’ or understand people who say things like, “Ooooooh, it’s a work day, and I hate the thought of even getting out of bed, let alone going to work.” Why? Because I love my job, and I think genuinely, I have always enjoyed being at work and working. There is something about the culture of work that appeals to me, as did my sporting background, in that I have always wanted to prove myself, to be as good as I can, and to challenge myself every day. I feel that without such motivations we are little more than sheep, and God has given us the intelligence we have, in order to see us achieve great things. While we may not achieve greatness, in aspiring to greatness, we can all achieve genuinely positive and rewarding outcomes. But you must love your job, be thankful for it, appreciating the opportunity it gives you, and celebrating the fact that you are rewarded tangibly for your work. Remember, it’s not so long ago that slavery, when there was no reward for work and survival was its only consequence, was abolished. Steve Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Don’t be someone who doesn’t look forward to going to work, because it will disenchant, and eventually embitter you. If your job is not what you thought it would be, and if it is not appealing to you, don’t moan and groan. Jobs goes on to recommend that we keep searching for our true calling, and like our faith, or true love, and other matters of the heart, “You will know when you find it.” Look at ways to make your job better than it is if it hasn’t motivated you. Look at, and think of ways to make your workplace brighter maybe, and more attractive, you may be surprised by the support you will get from colleagues and supervisors. Look at ways to share, and balance, the good and bad elements of a job, remembering that “a trouble shared is a trouble halved.” And above all, communicate with your supervisors in a positive vein, and where possible, with possible solutions to problems. I was told early in life that “there are no such things as problems, only challenges.” I can’t even be certain who or when it was, but it has always stuck with me, and I feel that if you make a problem a challenge, it becomes immediately ‘beatable,’ or achievable, and no longer carries the illusion of difficulty, or impossibility. Culturally, societies have different cultures, but in terms of genuine work cultures, I’m sorry, but we just cannot afford, and don’t have, the luxury of social and societal laxity at the workplace. It isn’t a realistic option, and brusque though a workplace may sometimes appear, it will be efficiency in disguise. Everybody has a job that is perfect for them, and in this I recall an old proverb that comments on how, “A fish will always see itself as stupid if it is judged on its ability to climb a tree, yet it swims in the water without a peer. A monkey on the other hand.” Ray Petersen petersen_ray@hotmail.com