Welcome Your Work as a Blessing!

Adapted from The Art of Work: How to Make Work, Work For You!

There are so many people who work through their jobs, day after day, year after year, without any real joy in the tasks they perform. I’m sure you know at least one of these people. From time to time, in honesty, we know that we are that person, too.

Work is a Blessing! So, learn to welcome your work.

Think: How many people do you know, including yourself, who greet every workday without resentment in this welcoming fashion?

Culturally, we are conditioned to view work as a curse.

Do you, yourself, sometimes feel pressured to show up at an appointed time to your job or the same pressure not to leave before the designated hour? Do you occasionally worry more about your job security than how to fulfill yourself in your work? How then, can you achieve the mind set that Work is a Blessing!? Can you learn to work in a way that causes you no aggravation at the petty and, even when well-meant, bothersome interruptions to your workday? I have identified techniques that can enable you to lay the foundation for inspired and enjoyable work. In order for them to work for you, you must give your honest and best effort to adopting these techniques. You must commit to them. If you commit to doing this, you can have a smile and demeanor that rivals the game face a superstar athlete wears on approach to an arena!

For an athlete, the opportunity to compete at a high level is a blessing. Competition is their work … and they recognize that competition is not just about beating the other person or team; it’s also about beating their own best, in order to stay at the top of their games! I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Put on your game face.” The game face sets the tone; it helps those around you know how to treat you. Animals instinctively know this, and the very top performers in any field do, too.

Over my work life, I have often needed to ‘pump myself up’, dust myself off, or start again … and again … in order to achieve both small and big things. Sometimes, when I found myself in the same situation I had sworn I would never be in again, I would become discouraged. After going through enough of these cycles, I decided to pay attention to what I did when things ‘worked out’ for me, and I gave equal attention to what I was doing when things did not work out. This sounds simple, but it is not easy!

Work is a blessing!

This is evident today, as many communities across the globe experience uncertainty in the employment sector, as economies shift, and as jobs move.

If you’re already at a point in your life where you understand and employ the mind set of Welcoming Work as a Blessing, you’re one step ahead. You are among the fortunate few who know that if you work from the age of 18 or 22 (when most graduate from high school or college) to age 65 (when, historically, most people retire), then you will have spent just under 20% percent of your life at work, 29% percent of your life asleep, and about 51% percent of your life at play. Don’t you really want to find the blessing in work … in the part of your existence that accounts for one fifth of your life?

The important thing for you to do right now is accept that seeing your work as a blessing is a good attitude for you to have. This is the first step to abandoning any negative associations and feelings you may foster, or subconsciously take pleasure in. True, it can be hard to let go of such negative habits. Many of us have areas of our lives where we have become comfortable with negativity, because that is what we know…

Remember: even if you don’t accept that your work is a blessing to you right now, you can begin by helping to make it a blessing to those around you. In a love affair, you are required to receive and to give, in order to be fulfilled. When you accept your work as a blessing, you create success from it the same way. To help you do this, you must have a consciousness of the things that impact your work life in a positive way. Create that love affair with your work, and enjoy your blessing!