“We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” ― Thomas A. Edison
The average person will spend 20% of their lives at work. This statistic factors in 21 years of preparing for work and 13 years afterwards (retirement). During our actual years of working (ages 21-67), this percentage goes up to 25-30% based on a typical 40-45 hour/week. Subtracting sleep, on average, we spend 33% of our waking hours working.
We spend a significant amount of our life working. It is a large piece of our life. And it is important to think thoughtfully and intentionally about it.
I have known countless people who are happy with their work. They find meaning, significance, and joy in it. Additionally, I have met many people who are unhappy with their work and choose to spend an additional percentage of their life complaining about it.
Interestingly enough, these differences in attitudes have little to do with the actual work being done—in fact, two people in the same field can have completely different responses to the same job.
This is helpful because it means enjoying work has less to do with your actual job and more to do with your attitude towards it. Changing our attitude towards work is often far easier than changing jobs. It also means that, with only a few exceptions, you can be happy in your work today. You can find joy and fulfillment in it.
And sometimes, this can come with a simple change in thinking.
A 7-Step Path to Enjoying Work
1. Realize you were designed to work.
Whether by creation or evolution, humans are designed to work. This is an important part of our nature. It explains our drive to grow as individuals and as a society. It explains the internal satisfaction we experience when completing a task. It makes sense of the positive emotions we experience when resting after a hard day of work. And it may help us understand why some studies indicate early retirement has an adverse impact on physical and mental health.
The realization that we are designed to work is an important first step in finding fulfillment in it–even though “work” looks different for each of us. If we are designed to accomplish work, it is not something to be avoided. Instead, it is something to be sought, welcomed, and enjoyed.
2. Understand work takes place in an imperfect world.
Our world is imperfect because we exist in a universe full of people who often fall short. Though we each have an ingrained desire to accomplish good for the sake of others, in reality, we often function with selfish desires and intentions. These imperfections always lead to less-than-ideal working conditions. As a result, work includes overbearing bosses, deadlines, stress, under-resourced projects, tasks we do not enjoy, and often, anxiety.
The realization that these imperfections are always going to be present in our workplace allows us to accept them and move forward. Now just to be clear, this present reality does not mean we don’t fight for equality and justice when appropriate. But it does mean we can stop looking for joy in the perfect work environment because it doesn’t exist. And it opens the door to finding joy in our existing one.
3. Use work to supply provisions for yourself and your family.
In its simplest definition, work is a bartering tool. We work our jobs in exchange for money. This money is then given to another in exchange for growing food, producing clothing, building shelter, or discovering new medicine to keep us healthy. Because of work, we are freed to spend our days doing what we love and are good at. In exchange, we receive goods (money) to trade with someone else who used their giftedness to create something different than us.
This is the goal of work. This is also the prescribed means of providing for those who are dependent upon us. Looking for shortcuts (lottery, dishonest gain, unnecessary dependence on others) to supply provisions is often a foolish direction for life.
4. Notice how your work contributes to the common good.
If the goal of our work is to contribute good to society in exchange for provision, then our work ought to benefit society. We should spend 40-45+ hours/week producing a benefit for others. We should grow healthy food, produce quality clothing, intentionally parent children, create beautiful art, build strong shelter, develop new life-enhancing technology, research medicine to prolong life, educate others, govern society honestly, or any other countless opportunities to contribute to the common good of our neighbor and our society.
This step results in 1 of 2 possible outcomes: First, it forces us to view work differently. It allows us to wake up on Monday morning with a positive attitude and opens up the door to finding new joy in our role. We are not solely working for the Net Income box on our paycheck… we are working to benefit society. Or second, this truth forces us to find new work. If, for whatever reason, we do not believe our job is contributing good to society, we must find a new one. No dollar amount can ever equal the satisfaction and joy experienced in contributing good to the world around us—for this is the purpose of work.
5. Work ethically.
Work done ethically and honestly with proper balance will always result in more enjoyment than the alternative. These same principles of life hold true to every aspect—including the 20% we spent working.
6. Humbly and proudly accept honest compensation.
We each have skills and talents this world needs. There are other people willing to compensate us in exchange for them. Therefore, we ought to work hard at proudly developing our craft and humbly learning as much as we can from others who have gone before. It is also wise to discipline ourselves around the improvement of these skills and talents. The greater we develop them, the greater worth we are to others. And the greater worth we are to others, the more honest compensation we should receive for providing them.
7. Remove the pursuit of riches.
While honest compensation should always be sought with both humility and pride, the pursuit of riches and wealth as an end goal is always a losing battle. Riches will never fully satisfy… we will always be left searching for more. People who view their work as only a means to get rich often fall into temptation, harmful behavior, and foolish desires.
The intentional understanding of steps 6 and 7 provide great freedom for us to enjoy work on a whole new level. When we replace the desire to get rich with a more life-fulfilling desire to receive honest compensation, we open our hearts to find peace in our paychecks and greater value in our work.
Indeed, may each of us find greater value and fulfillment in our work. And in so doing, may we increase joy in this important (and essential) aspect of our lives.
Image: Vince Alongi
Thank you so much, provided me with so much clarity. It really reached out and brought home the idea of honesty and purpose.
Thanks for this article! I also believe God created us to “work” but I dread going to work every day. I’m seeking to change my attitude and please Him in what I am doing now (teaching) even while it’s not my desired line of work (I am an artist/writer but not able to do those things to make a living). This article helped me to put my job into perspective. I don’t want to dread work every morning, and considering it in the light of “supplying provisions for myself and my family” may help me change my attitude. Thanks again!
Thank you very much for this article.
I am so lost in finding meaning from work. My work is very time consuming and stressful mainly because of lack of resources, although it pays well. In fact, I think the stress from work is one of the reasons I become interested in minimalism. I want to get rid of negative components of my life.
Yet your article offers me a new way to look at my work. Unlike other minimalists, who would recommend to work less in return for more free time, you offered totally different opinion.
You made me understand that:
Lack of resources or imperfection is part of life. It is part of a society.
I already got much more than I need from work in terms of money. Anything above those are excess to me. I almost feel I don’t deserve them.
That the true meaning of my effort is not for myself, as all my needs are fulfilled already. Instead, the true purpose of any additional effort I pay is to contribute others.
Your advice points me to a total different path recommended by other minimalists. A more meaningful path. And I like it more.
Thank you.
Great post, as always !
Content from your site is really helping and guiding us to be minimalist.
Reading, The Power Of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, I’ve posted, 10 tips to enjoy work, written in the book.
So, if you’ve missed the book, don’t miss to read this content.
You can read it here:http://linkd.in/1F4DkSl
1. realize you work to get paid.
2. Get paid enough to survive from an 8h day (unions have fought long and hard for that ).
3. Get training from your company to do the job safely and correctly. So as to give good results to customers and make them come back or never come back but send their friends and family (if you work in the medical field)
I applaud the author in helping us to reframe one’s “job” as a vocation and to see the bigger picture of how participating in the economy (not just as consumers, but also as producers) is a healthy and vital part of life. Further, I would agree with the author that we need to push back against the myth that happiness=leisure.
However, while we are pushing, I also would push back against the nebulous target of “40-45+” hours. Why not be a bit more clear that the sweet spot is probably somewhere in the 25-45 hours range? Why leave the upper limit unspecified and, hence, unbounded? Workaholism is as real, salient, and structural a problem (in the U.S.) as underemployment. This article — http://www.recruiter.com/i/what-is-the-ideal-work-week/ — is a helpful foil to the author’s post.
Bottom line: If we experience our working life as something toxic, then that is something to ponder. Do we need to change our attitudes? Change jobs? Change habits? Negotiate a healthier work-life arrangement within the context of our current job? Downsize to a cheaper house and older vehicle (or take on a roommate, or move to a multiple-breadwinner household arrangement) so that can spend less time at a paid job? The assessment and solution will depend on the circumstances and the available alternatives.
Dear Joshua, thank you for what you share with us. Your blog has been a blessing for my whole life. I also watched your sermon on the topic. It is really inspiring. I thank God for you.
God bless you richly, keep up this good work.
Blessings from Italy
As a minimalist you should want to do a minimal amount of work right? lol
Im fairly new to the minimalist movement. I got into it because i realized the things that i owned were starting to own me, i found myself unhappy and joyless because i had to work extra hard to maintain those things that owned me. It wasnt till i was laid off my job that i started to really get into this minimalist additude. I realized that i didnt need an excess of things to keep up with the jones or to be subjected to materialism. I found out i could easily take a job and make less money and live within my means. So thats what i did. I agree with the fact that humans are mean to work but what i dont agree with is staying at a job you dont like just because you make a great salary. Im more happier now than i ever was now that i took my power back and got out of a materialistic mentality and now living with in my means at a job that makes me happier. I would say if you dont like your job dont make rash decisions like quitting instead find something that makes you happy and work towards to getting to that it will come in time.
Thank you! I needed this tonight. I agree with and enjoy reading all of your posts.
5. Work ethically.
Work done ethically and honestly with proper balance will always result in more enjoyment than the alternative. These same principles of life hold true to every aspect—including the 20% we spent working.
And this is why I am changing jobs. It’s a start up and already, the ethics are lacking. I try to just be happy and go to work but I ethically cannot continue in this field. I will be moving on soon.
As an elementary Montessori teacher this is how I approached teaching the children in my class about work. I agree with all that you have written. I know longer teach elementary aged children, now I work with toddlers in a Montessori setting. As an assistant in Early Childhood Education my work fits everything you write about except I have to quit to find a better paying job. Reality is that the work that fits my strengths is all work that is not valued by society, meaning society doesn’t feel the that that profession should be paid a living wage. I am 46 years old and am going to go into debt to go to nursing school so that I can use my skill set to still work at a job that contributes to society. But it will hopefully be a job where I am paid a living wage. My fear is that nursing isn’t going to give me the same satisfaction as working with children, but I have to make the change in order to be financially stable.
Work is an ideological symbol that only seems natural in a capitalist system. We are forced to sell our labor in order to have basic human needs met. This is an absolutely irrational system and certainly not minimalist. We need to actually change the system rather than try and ‘make work better’.