Our Romance with Work

How many hours of your life do you think you spend at work? Most people with a full-time job work 40-60 hours a week. Some people work 36-48 hours straight then take two days off. Others work a part-time job of less than 20 hours a week. Some work for other people and some work for themselves. There are day shifts and night shifts. Many people even have to work two jobs in order to support their family or lifestyle.

Most people equate deciding what to do in life with choosing a career. But what you do with your life doesn’t have to revolve around your job, does it?

The purpose of your life is not defined by where you work or who you work for. It’s defined by how you work and how you treat people.

So why does Western Civilization romanticize working? Obviously our consumer-driven society has much to do with that. If you work more hours, you get more money (generally). This means you can buy more things which raises your status in the eyes of your peers.

But does it really? Having material possessions and worldly objects in order to impress others or feel valuable is really just replacing emotional and spiritual value that you can find within yourself. The clutter and junk and purchases you make won’t fill the void inside you if you’re not happy with yourself or how you’ve been acting.

Most people start to realize this at as they grow up. So why do they continue to work themselves to early graves? Why do they put their career ahead of their personality, or family, or morals? What on earth draws us in about working so much?

And how can we limit the focus we put on our work?

• Budget – both time and money.
• Keep it in perspective.
• When you’re off the clock, write it down for later.
• Set daily, weekly, monthly, and annual work goals and adjust them as needed.
• Calculate the amount of time you put in divided by your earnings.

If I had known some of these tips early in life, I would have saved myself time and heartache in both my professional and personal relationships.

My romance with work began early in life. I would play teacher and students with my friends. Guess who was always the teacher?

And as I grew older and worked my way through high school and college, I figured out that work didn’t mean career. I had some pretty awful jobs at times. I worked in restaurants, early morning hours at front desks, and in the college cafeteria. But my career drove me to keep going. To better myself.

Teaching itself breeds the idea that there can always be better. Better ways to introduce material. Better ways to discipline and manage student disruptions. Better ways to integrate technology. Better ways to motivate students. Better ways to communicate with parents and communities. Better grades. Better performances. Better evaluations. I could go on and on. Every professional development conference or meeting is a chance to better yourself as a teacher.

This drive to better myself needs to come from within.

Each day should be a romance with yourself, a competition with yesterday’s self.

And the focus of this competition or romance shouldn’t be the end result. Acknowledging the effort and process it took to achieve something is vitally important. This is where the inherent worth comes in, even if you fail at getting to the intended outcome.

So how do you find a balance between being content with who you are and wanting to better yourself?

• Live in the moment, then let it go.
• Count your blessings by keeping a gratitude journal, or writing thank you notes.
• Be honest with yourself and others.
• Set daily, weekly, monthly, and annual personal goals.
• Create an “I am…”/“I want to be…” list.

Adding this balance to your life can help your productivity and happiness both at home and in the workplace. So begin to romanticize balance and moderation, not just with your career but in all aspects of life.