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Stop Working and Start Living

Guest post by: Jim Clemmer

Article Overview: Years ago I worked in a company with a powerful and emotionally intelligent CEO. A favorite motto of his was, "If you love what you're doing, you never have to work again." The wisdom of those words had strong and lasting effect on me. I hate work. It really is a disgusting four-letter word.

Stop Working and Start Living

"My definition of self-actualization...when you are confused about the difference between work and play." - Ken Blanchard, leadership author and consultant Years ago I worked in a company with a powerful and emotionally intelligent CEO. A favorite motto of his was, "If you love what you're doing, you never have to work again." The wisdom of those words had strong and lasting effect on me. I hate work. It really is a disgusting four-letter word. Hard work is why I left the family farm. Whenever a job has started to feel like work, I quit. Fortunately, that's only been a few times in the last three decades. I've put years of 60- or 70-hour weeks into my career, but rarely has it felt like work.

To stop working and start living means I need to continually clarify what really turns me on in a career and where I want to take my life. Then I need a clear picture of the ideal job that expresses my unique talents and character. Our work can just be a job or the canvas that allows us to paint a rich and textured portrait of our deeper selves. It inspires us to draw forth our deepest creativity. Through our life work, we can paint the many facets of our being. The entrepreneur and business consultant in me gives a big "yes" to American pop artist, Andy Warhol's, assertion that "being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art."

Most highly paid professionals and wealthy entrepreneurs don't start with a goal of getting rich. People in love with money, fame, and "success" are among the saddest and unhappiest souls on earth. If they're driven hard enough, many end up with the wealth they love. But they usually hate their emotional poverty and despise themselves as much as their associates and family often do.

Money can be a powerful tool or well-deserved result. It's usually destructive when it's a goal in itself. When we do what we love and get really good at it, the money will follow. I know I am in the perfect job if I am being well paid for something I'd gladly do for free if nobody were willing to pay me. I was an unpaid speaker and writer for a few years. Of course, in those early years I was getting paid about what I was worth. Eventually I became a good-for-nothing speaker and writer. Finally I could charge for doing what I love.

I once led a leadership development discussion group with a group of university presidents. As we discussed passion and commitment, a consensus emerged that society has robbed many people of their pride-of-craft. This group of leading academics concluded that universities have been major contributors to the problem. They have helped build a job class system that puts many white-collar professionals well ahead of blue-collar trades people and technicians. But we all agreed that a highly skilled mechanic who loves his or her work and is continually growing and developing in it is a much stronger and productive leader than a doctor who feels trapped in a system he or she despises.

I've met cleaners, security guards, bus drivers and other people in low skilled, low paying jobs who love what they do and make strong contributions to their organizations and society. As the highly passionate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. put it, "If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." There are no dead-end jobs, only dead-end people.

We all have our Doubt Days when we're not sure we're in the right job. But our jobs aren't work unless those doubt days become as routine as getting up in the morning. If my work has become work, I've lost the passion. If I'd rather be doing something else, I need to go do it. Life is too short to give in to the Victimitis Virus and get stuck in the rut of a meaningless job wishing and hoping I win the lottery, my fairy-job mother magically appears, or I can hang in there. Meaningful work goes well beyond what I do for a living, it joyfully expresses what I do with my living.

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Article Tags: leadership
Referred by: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com



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Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - [quote="GT Bulmer":10b1rb6o]sounds like keeping one foot on the dock and one in the boat, doesn't it?) I've had suggestions of interest from other high profile potential clients but I have chosen not to pursue them at this time.[/quote:10b1rb6o] Hi GT, Who knows, perhaps you'll need to take that leap of faith and "burn your bridges" (of escape/going back) like Dale Carnegie suggests in "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" to get to the next level and reach your income goal. Complacency and comfort can be death.
Betting on the law of averages - Dale Carnegie says "As the years went by, I gradually discovered that ninety-nine per cent of the things I worried about never happened... The most famous insurance company on earth-Lloyd's of London-has made countless millions of dollars out of the tendency of everybody to worry about things that rarely happen. Lloyd's of London bets people that the disasters they are worrying about will never occur. However, they don't call it betting. They call it insurance. But it is really betting based on the law of averages...don't happen nearly so often as people imagine" ("How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" 67 & 68). In the past, I think I spent an additional $130 for "3 Year Return to Depot Service and Technical Support" when I bought my Dell laptop and $30 for 2 years of replacement protection for my glass desk. While I've had to call Dell for technical support for my laptop on a few occasions, I've yet to replace any glass panel on my desk.
Re: What is Your Favorite Thing About Owning A Business? - [quote="freddyb45":1t3lpfi8]For me it's the fact that all the time and effort you put in is worth a lot more, due to it making you "business" more profitable. Working for yourself is also a positive, although employing people you can trust is quite different.[/quote:1t3lpfi8] I like this idea. Working for yourself means you are investing in your own future, not someone else's, although there is value in working for someone else first to gain experience and confidence. Working for yourself does not automatically mean success, fame and fortune. For most entrepreneurs, it takes much work and dedication to get to the point of financial success and comfort - sometimes years. But the benefit is, again, you know you are investing in yourself and building equity for your own future. GT :-]
Decide your market first - Stop for a second and decide exactly who it is that you want to sell your product to. Once you've done this you'll have a far better idea of where to find them and what it is that they're interested in Cheers
Re: help wanted in u.k. - Working on it all, a new world to me cheers brendan


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