| As
a coach, I write and talk a great deal about making work
"effortless". With my clients, I focus on eliminating
the daily frustrations and friction that can make work
difficult, unpleasant and unproductive. To achieve
peak performance, you must eliminate the things that hold
you back!
But
that is often misunderstood to say that work shouldn't
be...work! Nothing could be further from the truth!
Work
is what makes us human, it allows us to show our true
colors, and to make a difference in the world.
Work is one of our greatest gifts!
Now,
you may have noticed that I define "work" in a rather
special way.
Anything
I don't want to do is annoying. If it gets bad
enough, I might call it "drudgery" or even "painful".
But that's not because it's my job and someone is paying
me to do it. It's because I would rather be someplace
else, doing something different.
Humans
rarely "work" harder than when we "play." Watch
a high school sports team working out - you couldn't
pay the average teenager enough to work that hard!
Or, here's a personal example: skiing.
I
don't like it. Downhill skiing requires expensive,
uncomfortable clothes in order to pay a lot of money
to stand in the cold waiting for a ski-lift, so I can
have an uncomfortable ride up a mountain, so I can have
a terrifying fall to the bottom. This is not fun!
And, if I "had" to do enough of it, I would become a
very frustrated, unhappy and unfulfilled person.
(My apologies to all of you who love skiing - it's just
not my thing. Sorry.)
In
that sense, I think of skiing as "uncomfortable", but
it is not "work"! Do you get the distinction?
Work
is about using my talents and skills in a disciplined,
effective way to get results that bring me joy, satisfaction,
and financial rewards. For me, hard work is about
writing or coaching, it's about connecting with an audience
and giving a speech they will never forget. Work
is about producing a desired result with style and class.
It's about contributing value, and making a difference
in the world.
And,
in that sense, I believe work is an amazing opportunity!
It
is true that becoming very good at your work and achieving
superior financial rewards requires substantial effort.
I believe I work between 35 and 50 hours a week.
My wife will tell you I work far more than that, and
I admit that for many years, I routinely worked over
60 hours a week. But, and this is important, it
was never difficult!
Much
of my "work" happens while I'm walking my dogs.
I get to "work" on the golf course at times, and I certainly
love the work I do in front of audiences or on the phone
with my clients. For me, writing these articles
is both work, and a source of relaxation and renewal.
The
key is to find work that you love as much as your play.
To
spend my life skiing would be exciting, but unfulfilling
and I would quickly come to hate my job. I would
be tired and cranky at the end of the day. I would
"burn out", find reasons to gossip about my boss and
co-workers, complain about how badly the company treated
me, and I would eventually either quit or get fired.
Or, I would be "trapped" by my stock options and the
retirement plan.
That
is no way to live! Don't do that to yourself,
and don't permit those you love to spend their lives
in the "salt mines" of a job that doesn't suit them!
Life's too short!
The
key to unusual success is to find work that you would
pay to do, and then get extremely good at it.
Work
is the key to a life well lived. It is the key
to knowing you "did it right," that you made a difference,
and gave all you had to give. Playing on a beach
won't do that.
Only
work can make life worth living, and then only if you
do your own work. If you try to do someone else's
work, you won't be good at it, you won't love it, and
you won't be particularly successful at it. Find
the work you do best, the work that only you can do,
and then work hard, hard, hard. There is a pot
of gold at the end of that rainbow!
Written
by Dr. Philip E. Humbert, author, speaker and
personal success coach. Visit his website at http://www.philiphumbert.com. |