“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
Josh says
As always, it was a pleasure reading your post! Great article, and I really appreciate everything that you do on becomingminimalist.com. I really enjoy this website, and look forward to your next post!
Ashley says
I enjoyed this post as someone who struggled to find my passion and find a career that gave me the ability to live authentically. The only point of concern that I had was #6. I was with you all the way up to the point when you said that some skills make some people of greater worth. I believe that we are all inherently valuable and one of the biggest problems the everyday person faces in our society is assigning of value based on categorizations and the allotment of money based on such categorizations. In many ways, I feel like people begin to act our deny themselves their true happiness because of the stories they have created for themselves and a culture that reinforces it. When we live and work together in a society, everyone’s contribution is equally important. You might argue that doctors have a valuable skill and should be greater than others, but if we only had doctors and no other skills like teachers or farmers, we would be no better off. We need to stop telling people their value is assigned based on the work that they do and remind everyone that each person is unique and inherently valuable all the same.
L.K. says
The one thing I have found to be missing in many peoples’ work….FUN!
Life is too short to be stuck in some routine, dead-end job that feels like the movie “Ground Hog Day”. I see it every day on the roads. People are “asleep” in their lives. They either found some high paying job, and now just “live” there, or lost the “fire” for life years ago and are now just coasting through life, with 0 passion. GET OUT!!!…NOW!!! WAKE UP!! THIS IS YOUR LIFE!! You only get one spin on this rollercoaster, so make it a good one. Life can be EXCITING and yes, even FUN! when you are doing something you love. You don’t need a J-O-B, You need something that you lose track of time doing, because you love it so much, you’d pay to do it. I use the “rocking chair test” for every action in my life. Imagine you are now 99 years old and you are looking back over your life. Did you live life to the fullest and “Go FOr It!” or just take some “joe job” and fall asleep for 40+ Years. When I was 19, I was working at the city school district as a janitor. It was a dismal boring job with too many hours and terrible pay.
One day the Head Janitor called me in for a “review”. He told me I was getting a raise and would be on the 40 year fast track to success…can you imagine? Lucky for me, my Mother taught me how to think “outside the box” early on. He smiled and said,”So what do you think?” I told him this was my two week notice and I was moving to Hollywood to live my dream of playing in a ROCK BAND!
Fast forward 20+ Years, I ran into the Head Janitor again, and he asked me how things were going… I told him I had a blast in LA, and now play in a rock band putting out CD’s, Travelling and teaching kids how to play guitar. He tells me, and I will never forget this “I’m almost done with my 40 years, and THEN I’ll start living”. I hope he makes it. Don’t Wait, GET OUT NOW!!!
(Life is too short….my 2 pennies)
Marcus Smith says
I just shared this post with all 28 people in my organization here at BYU Radio. Joshua, you’ve offered fantastic perspective. I served the wrong objectives for half of my life, thinking work was an impediment to joy. I know know from experience that work is integral to ever accessing joy in any regular and satisfying way. A necessary but insufficient condition for joy. Not to diminish the necessity in any way. It’s at the core. It’s an essential part of the recipe. Love the post!
Marcus Smith says
erratum: I meant to type “I now know” (not “I know know”)
Alicia Woodward says
Thanks, Joshua. For 26 years I’ve gotten up every day to go teach kids how to read and write. Recently, I have found myself comparing (I know!) my retirement savings with someone who, say, worked the last 26 years making a lot more money. Your article helps me feel blessed for my work and ready to get up and do it again tomorrow.
Earving says
“We were designed to work”, yes. Hunters-gatherers used to work, hunting and gathering. Those activities were not like playing. That was work. When I am sitting 8 hours I am gathering the goods for my family. Great, great article. The notion that happiness only can be found avoiding work is the foundation of a lot of suffering. Thank you very much for this article.
swalia says
loved the post! Off late, I have not been too happy about my job. But frustration is not the answer.I have categorised my work in two parts- materialistic one is my regular job which I treat as the means to earn livelihood and sustain myself. I try to work honestly & sincerely giving it my 100%.The second is my volunteer work with an NGO called Art of Living which is for my inner satisfaction & for doing something for the society in whatever capacity I can.
I need both to lead a balanced life-A regular job to give my son a good life & volunteer work as my responsibility towards my community.
Kristann says
Joshua, thank you so much for this. I have been having a rough time lately at work and I realized why … it’s because I’ve been thinking far too much about me and not enough about others (and how I can be helpful). Between this post and the link to the link you provided to the NY Times article about how givers get ahead at work, you have added tremendous value to my life. I am quite sure I never would have seen the NY Times article if not for you. I am really grateful for you and your blog. At work, I posted up a link to this blog on our social network and hope my colleagues also get value from it (and hopefully get introduced to your great blog).
Kristen Cochran says
Thank you for this post. I have been giving a lot of thought lately to this idea of work. There is work and then there is Work with a capital W. I have been out of the workforce for more than 15 years now, raising my children. I don’t make any money directly to provide for my family. However, my work does enable my husband to provide for the family, so my work indirectly provides for my family. My work also directly provides for my family in the sense that I am providing my presence for them. This is the Work with a capital W, the important stuff. The Work that helps to benefit humanity by adding three more beautiful citizens of the world. We all have Work with a capital W that is not directly compensated monetarily. This is the work you are advocating here. This is the important Work. I despise laundry and cooking and cleaning, especially without a paycheck, but this is the Work I need to do to provide for my family. When I embrace that as being for the greater good of my family and subsequently for the communities my children will be a part of, it makes the Work more tangible and affirming.
Abril says
You made my morning with this!
Now, I’ll be in charge of the rest of the day,
Regards from México City,