Rights of Those Who Work 1: The Right to Be Jazzed about What We Do
Posted by Liz Strauss · 2 Comments
I don’t want a coach. I don’t want a trainer.
I figure I have one life. It’s not a game or a goal I’m preparing for. I’m working for a living. I am working as a part of my life. That might sound like semantics, but it’s not. Those words pinpoint a serious difference in my view of how work fits in relationship to me as a person.
I’m going to use these next few posts to develop what I consider to be the rights and responsibilities of us who work.
Right 1: The Right to Be Jazzed about What We Do
I suppose everyone knows what it’s like to wake up in the morning, only to think about when we can go to sleep again. That’s not living. Even getting ready on a day like that is work — unpaid work without benefits.
We sometimes forget that it’s supposed to be fun!
Food, clothing, shelter, and a meaningful pursuit — work — we need them all to feel our life complete and to feel a part of it. When the first three are taken care of, that last, the intangible one is the hardest to find, to define, to hold on to. Yet, we have a right and a responsibility to find it.
Work that is meaningful and important to us is work that is matched to our passion and our skill set. It’s work that we love and look forward to. When we find that match, getting up is a pleasure. We can’t wait to get started where we left off.
Finding it doesn’t start with the help wanted ads. Finding the work that fits starts with knowing ourselves well enough to know what gets us jazzed.
Steve Farber describes the culture that does it for me in his book, Radical Leap,
“a culture so vibrant and healthy that when people woke up in the morning and thought about the imminent workday, . . . they’d be filled with hope and the knowledge that they could bring themselves fully into their work and do something cool, something significant, something meaningful.
What do you need to change about your view of your job to get there?
Maybe it’s your mind that needs changing.
Maybe it’s the chair that you’re sitting in.
If you work for a living, know that you’re spending life moments working.
Are you jazzed about what you’re doing?
Liz Strauss
Behind every Successful business is an Outstanding Manager. — PVM
Hi Liz (15.35 pm here, it has snowed it bit today, winter has arrived!)
Great first post on this.
I’m very fortunated lately to regard my work as hobby. And hobbies are fun!
Hi Karin,
We have a little white on the docks in the harbor.
I’m with you on “My voication is my avocation.” If we’re not having fun, we’re just not doing it right!
Fun’s a good thing.