[Thoughts on work] Note to myself

I have always been struggling with what to do "when I grow up" in terms of earning a living. I think I would like to earn a living from writing. I know I can earn a living from teaching. And every now and then I am tempted to stop dabbling and take a serious dive into business - because I am probably pretty good at it but mostly because I think I could earn a lot of (or a lot more) money... Usually, a short time after the latter axis of thinking, I end up shaking myself by the shoulders (not easy to do) and sternly telling the guy in the mirror 'what are you thinking?!' It's a cycle...

A friend of mine gave me a wonderful little book (yes, a recurrent theme) called Simple Truths by Kent Nerburn (Amazon link to book here). The subtitle is 'clear and gentle guidance on the big issues in life', and it is quite apt to what you will find inside. Once again, my skeptical side came out and I judged the book by its cover, expecting to find watered-down, easy, American-style spirituality. I underestimated my friends discerning taste and wisdom (please accept my apology! (and read yesterday's post : ))) and Kent Nerburn's wisdom (sorry Kent).

I picked it up today, flipped through it and landed on a chapter called "On Work" and since I have been thinking about this quite a bit of late (I'm in the cycle), I reread the chapter with interest. Here is some of the original text:

Choose your work carefully.
No matter how much you might believe that your work is nothing more than what you do to make money, your work makes you who you are, because it is where you put your time.
We are what we do, and the more we do it, the more we become it. By giving a job your time, you are giving it your consciousness. Eventually it will fill your life with the reality that it presents.

And

You should think of work as vocation, which comes from the Latin word for calling, which comes from the word for voice. In those meanings it touches on what work should really be-- something that calls to you, that gives voice to who you are and what you want to say in the world.
If you find a vocation, embrace it. You have found a way to contribute to the world with love.


I like how Kent thinks and writes. Soft spoken wisdom and thought-provoking. The whole book is a little gem.

In regards to work, maybe because I work alone in front of a computer often, I have been thinking that maybe work is not about work at all but all about relationships.
As I hear from people around me how great and enriching (rare) or awful and frustrating (common) it is to work in a big, medium, little company, I wonder if all work is, really, just an excuse to force us to work on relationship issues. Not with people we love per se, or choose to work with or spend time with, but the infamous "other" that is thrust upon us.

Maybe the point of work is that it is the soul's way of putting us in situations in which we must depend upon and get along with people who we do not share a natural affinity for, in which we are not comfortable, in which we need to realize that a lot of the "what" of work is less important than the "how" of working with people. Maybe it is the devious little soul's way of teaching us the important lessons that we cannot learn with our friends, family and loved ones... Just a thought.