Motivating yourself to Work

 If you don't ever catch yourself ever thinking, "I can't believe they're really paying me to do this" or if on occasion you don't feel guilty for getting paid to do your job, you're probably in the wrong line of work.  You should work in a field that you believe in, that gives you purpose, and that you find meaning in beyond the money, otherwise search elsewhere for "gainful employment."  

I'm getting pretty tired of hearing toxic platitudes about doing the least you can at work, like, "Normalize doing the bare minimum at work" or "Beware of working too hard, they punish the performers by giving them more of a work load."  If you love your vocation, you will devote yourself to it regardless of what your co-workers do or don't do -- if you don't love it, you'll end being miserable no matter how well you are compensated or how little effort you or anyone else puts in.

Poor management and overbearing leadership are not excuses for you to do less while you're on the clock.  In fact, doing less and whining about work equally brings down morale.  

I'm a capitalist, I do not think either socialism or communism works, so do not misunderstand me but you should work with all of your heart when you are on the job without thinking about the money.  Yes, yes, yes we should be compensated well for our efforts, but expending our energy and putting in our time has to be about more than the money or the boss or the coworkers or the clients or the customers, it should be about the fact that our vocation is what gets our feet out of the bed in the morning and we can't fall asleep the night before because we are so excited about our work.

Your vocation/occupation should thrill you and excite you to the point that even when you are vacation you look forward to getting back to work.  If your work doesn't captivate your heart & soul to the point you are almost consumed by it, you are missing out in life.  Think about it, we spend most of our adult life working, so it only makes sense to find a job we love.  

If your work doesn't motivate you based on its own merits, please find something more fulfilling, for yourself and those around you.  If you do a job you hate and it's making you miserable, you'll never be happy on your off hours.  Find work you enjoy and life becomes more enjoyable.  

 

The "Intern" sells Success at what cost?

This past week I went to see the Intern with two of our sons.  It was a good movie, even though the underlying message which came through wasn't so great.  There were many worthwhile leadership/mentoring lessons in the movie, along with highlighting the need for intergenerational relationships, and the plot was well written.

De Niro's character is a retired widower who experienced a long career, goes to a lot of funerals, who after he has traveled the world in his retirement, he is so bored and unfulfilled he longs to be back (at age 70) in the office once more.  Hathaway's character is a Thirty-something career-driven mom, with a stay at home dad.  She neglects sleeping and eating, and her family.  

In the end, the Intern glosses over the sacrifices people make to achieve success, even though the damage to Hathaway's life isn't marginalized in the plot.  De Niro who "fathers" Hathaway and encourages her to eat well and sleep more, still tells her in the end she should pursue her path and not feel guilty about it or take the blame for the fallout in her marriage.  And there's the catch.

Had the screenplay been written with the roles reversed, or even if it portrayed an all male cast, people wouldn't have blinked an eye.  But, they placed Hathaway's role as a wife & mom who seeks to run a successful startup online company.  This was all done to disguise the movie's moral code.  In other words, the audience risks feeling sexist if we deny Hathaway her shot at glory.  But the point isn't about gender.

In reality, the trade off De Niro admires which Hathaway embraces -- where you sacrifice personal and more so family health for work, comes up short.  I believe in hard work, and having a strong work ethic.  On the surface, this movie seems to promote this too, claiming the seductive lure of hard work always leads to success.  

Really though, afterwards, I questioned the lack of valuing "balance" in the plot, that balance between work and life which helps us enjoy the fruit of our labors... and the need for our culture to redefine success.