Let’s Build ‘em Up

Here we are. First post of an account and a mind brimming with excitement to start a new page. Consequently this is a first, and a major eye-opener into how success can be found from many places. Growing up on a farm and in a relatively small metropolis, being led to believe that the only way you can make a living is to break your back doing labour, or breaking your mind doing several (if not more) menial jobs and trying to fit it all into one week. This is the only lesson about work I was taught.  But is it really worth it? Or rather is it truly the only way to make a successful and motivating life that everyone wishes to acquire. You see it actualize, people with their nose to the grindstone for years on end, only looking an inch ahead of them; thinking that their goal will always be out of reach, though in a long enough time, the nose become callous, knees and neck both stiffing and slowly but surely, the man working to the goal is no longer. He is a beast of burden and an inch ahead is all he will be able to see; believing that it can’t get any better, that escape is a pipe dream for people who don’t know the true concept of work.

That, fortunately is where his fairy tale ends and where my new lesson begins. For he has found the truth about work, the endless, tireless, almost subconscious routine that will enslave his motivation and true passion for life! Blind to the beast is the simple fact that work is what we make it. Work is a loose concept and it doesn’t have to be work at all! A job, a career, a contract, even hobbies, past times and knowing the right way to relax could in fact be called work, but why aren’t they? Because often enough we need the mental boundaries to differentiate what we do every day and to validate that we are fulfilling ourselves in the most efficient way possible. Building schedules and labelling every aspect of our lives is in fact work, planning outings, vacations, five – day dinner course outlines, taking care of ourselves and each other, all of these are constituents of the nasty ‘W’ word.

Now, work seems like it is anything but admirable to every person in the everyday world, and now is the time which work needs to have a change of perspective. If doing everything in the conceivable world is work, then why not just take it out of the picture? Not the work, but rather the term work. Instead of going to work, go file, blog, make concrete, draw diagrams, and defend clients. Simply taking it out of your daily life you can remember more than “just working the nine to five”. A regular day at the office becomes meetings, describing lunch hour, goofing off with a couple of co-workers, and accomplishing those papers for the due date. Slowly the “drudgery” become as integral as building a bird house with your son, fishing for an afternoon, taking part in music circles, or painting. Everything is worth doing if there aren’t negative labels attatched, what was a chore or job turns into an opportunity to better skills, gain insight on how the world truly works, or may be just a great story to regale to a loved one.

The true secret behind work is making anything that you love into revenue. If you love what you do, how can you complain about going or doing your job? Positive stimulation from your surroudings, knowing that you will be able to further your goals because you are immersed in what you love is only the beginning of the staircase, and the nose isn’t against the grindstone, it is in the clouds ready to seek a new challenge, sniffing for the new collegue or article or idea that comes from the aforementioned stimulation. Suddenly my love of writing has become a new tool to advance my life and turn my efforts and labour into something of true value. Work becomes a passion of the mind not a chain and tether for the body. I work for the advancement of my life, I don’t work for the advancement of other’s.