Love Thy Job and You'll Be Happy Forever

"In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and - snap! - the job's a game!" 

- Mary Poppins

There goes a Chinese proverb:

"If you want happiness for an hour - take a nap. If you want happiness for a day - go fishing. If you want happiness for a month - get married. If you want happiness for a year - inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime - help others."

One of my mentors once slightly twisted this proverb and told, "If you want happiness for a lifetime - love your job." Indeed, we all have to be involved with our job since we start our career until retirement. Some jobs don't even have retirement, like the job of a homemaker. Hence, if we fail to love our job, our entire life will be devoid of any fun. So we need to find out that fun element in our job.

I have been in a government job since long. My job entails routine work and leaves very little space for innovation. But I get to interact with a lot of people on a daily basis because of my job - people who belong to different social strata. Now if I focus on the mundane aspect of my job, I'll soon lose interest. Instead, if I take it as an opportunity to meet varied kind of people throughout my career, I'll be able to sustain my motivation for long. Similarly, doing household chores like cooking, cleaning etc might seem boring apparently. But if you add a bit of the spice of innovation, you'll be able to thoroughly enjoy even these chores. For example, one can try different recipes apart from the regular everyday menu, especially during weekends. Thanks to the internet, learning and sharing recipes have never been so easy.

Another point to note here is that every kind of job contributes to someone's well-being. A teacher teaching students, a doctor curing patients or a homemaker looking after her family members are contributing to the well-being of other people. Even the job which doesn't seem to be of any importance apparently, also holds value. We may look down upon the sweeper who cleans our streets regularly, but then someone has to do the job.

The Bhagavad Gita tells us to do our allotted work. We should never refrain from carrying on our share of work. The trick here is to find the fun element in every job we do. Carrying on with the job will then be a cakewalk.

Write Tribe Festival Of Words June 2018

#writebravely

#Day2

For day two, I chose the following quote prompt:
Day 2 – Jun 25 – “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and—snap!—the job’s a game!” – Mary Poppins