Why work?

There are so many different reasons that people give for why they work, it is worth  taking time to ponder why you work. The obvious answer is "to make some money" and the obvious next statement is, "I wish I was so rich that I didn't have to work."

Could it be that there are other reasons to work besides pure necessity?

I am going to suggest the making money is not the only reason, or even the most important reason to work. Here are the three top three reasons why people work:

1. to interact with and influence their surroundings
2. to make friends and develop new interests
3. to organize your life and bring meaning into each day

To interact with and influence their surroundings
The concept of "the idle rich"may seem attractive, especially when you watch rich people play and live on TV or in movies. Lounging around all day, being waited on hand and foot, never worrying about paying bills--all this seems wonderful.

But look at the downside--if all you do is lounge around, how can you connect with your surroundings other than passively? If you never work, never do anything that brings you into a creative or productive relationship with people beyond the few who serve you or live with you, doesn't that leave a gap in your life? You may be happy enough with idleness, for a while, but if you don't work--take on some responsibility for some aspect of the culture around you--I think you are missing a key pathway for making a mark on that culture.

Being an observer, not an initiator, is a boring and unfulfilling life. Your life may be comfortable (if you can be sure your money will last as long as you live!), but you are simply living on the surface if you don't work. Even rich people usually have to work, anyway, to manage their wealth and make sure no one is embezzling all their funds while they sit on a tropical island drinking pink beverages with tiny umbrellas. So if you have to work, why not work at something you care about, where you can have an impact for the good?

Photo shoot in the Old town, Prague

To make new friends and develop interests
It's fairly easy to make friends when you're young, in high school or college, where you spend a great deal of time in common activities such as attending classes and doing schoolwork. If you never leave the place where you made these friends, and they never leave, either, you will most likely stay friends.

But if you move, you need some way to make new friends right away. Working is the ideal way to make friends, as you are teamed for projects, seek new clients, develop and implement plans, and so on. The time spent working with colleagues usually is enough to build friendships, many of which may last a lifetime. The emotional and mental energy spent in work often spills over into work-based relationships: you work many hours together, find solutions for tough problems, and celebrate accomplishments.

You can also easily find new hobbies and outlets for your creativity with your colleagues who become friends. They invite you to their meetings, outings, and so on; some of these new interests may be a great fit for you, giving you a more diversified life.

Cleaners take a break

To organize your life and bring meaning into each day
Most people who work love to moan and groan about the absurd amount of time works eats up, what with commuting, work itself, after-hours work events, preparation for the next day's work, etc. Yet having a working schedule brings benefits as well. Unemployed people, or people who are "stuck at home" all day, often dream of working so that their days don't seem do random or purposeless. Work gives you an anchor around which to organize your life; without work, your empty calendar may, after a while, look pretty pathetic.

And each day brings its end. What did you do today? "Not much" is a poor result if you are a reasonably energetic, talented human being. On holiday, doing "not much" seems like an amazing luxury, but as a steady diet, "not much" is starvation rations.

Sleeping on the tram...not too exciting

I believe that human beings are social creatures (some more so than others, but everyone needs company sometimes!) In isolation, humans get strange. They develop obsessions and weird theories; they neglect their health and get sick; they lose their connection to other people and suffer intolerable loneliness, which can get warped into all kinds of sociopathic and actual criminal behavior. We need other people to shake us up when we get strange. There's no better way to be shaken up than by work, which forces you to confront reality, in one way or another.

I also believe that people need to know their lives have meaning. There must be more to life than the brief span of time on earth--your life needs to mean something to someone, or why live? The most consistent meaning in life that I can think of is to influence and be influenced by other people.Work does just that.

Back in Prague!

We spent the past winter in Florida, catching up with friends and taking care of some business. That time was a holiday for us, in terms of delivering our career development programs, though we continued to think about (and offer free advice to our friends and family regarding) the relationship between your career and your purpose in life.

Since returning to Prague in the spring of 2013, we have spent considerable time in redefining our own purposes, as our lives have changed and developed. 2012 and early 2013 have been busy and eventful times for us in our professional and personal lives, calling for a review of our previous goals and a thoughtful analysis of potential new goals, as we refine our purpose. We've started a new blog on the topic of purpose (determineyourpurpose.blogspot.com).

Just this past Saturday, we held a reunion for our 2012 Redirect participants. This meeting was a time to reflect on the changes and accomplishments of the past year, and to begin to set new goals. We talked about the importance of knowing your purpose in life, and that fact that purpose often evolves over time into something new, as we achieve our goals and set new ones.

From the Redirect reunion came one key insight into the concept of defining and fulfilling your purpose:

Having a clear purpose does not put you into a straight jacket, unable to respond to new opportunities!

In fact, having a clear purpose will help you recognize and sort out what opportunities come your way. Each day brings its share of ideas and chance encounters that may be developed into something exciting and rewarding. It's simply not possible to respond with equal enthusiasm and energy to every attractive or important chance that you may spot. Having a purpose gives you a framework and point of reference form which to evaluate opportunities, so that you are not overwhelmed and indecisive about ideas that are clearly not for you, at the moment.

Our participants gave us positive feedback on their Redirect experiences and urged us to keep offering the program. They found it interesting and useful to take time for analysis of their past accomplishments, skills and values, and to set one major goal for the coming year.

Our Redirect participants gave us some career and personal updates:

• One Redirect participant left a business job that was unsatisfying and made a career change to university teaching. She is pursuing a PhD to help her advance in this new career and is steadily making her move into entrepreneurship, balancing this with personal and family decisions.

• Another Redirect participant is directing an exciting new project in her career field, while still completing her education and continuing with her previous job. Some changes in her personal life gave her the time and energy to pour into building her career, and to carefully consider some options for a semester or year of study in another country, to enlarge her vision.

• Another Redirect participant is moving from volunteer work to a business career, using her past experience and skills in another country to set up a new business venture here in Prague. She is also refreshing her abilities in her third language, in anticipation of future business endeavors.

With all this in mind, we will be offering the Redirect program very soon. Please check back here to find out the dates, or email us at purpose@ili.cc for more information.

What activities make you feel great about yourself? and so on...

REDIRECT: 15 KEY QUESTIONS

Feeding the ducks on the Labe River

If it’s true that we only live once, then it’s important to take our lives seriously. Too often we get so caught up in what we’re doing that we don’t take time to make sure that we’re spending our time in ways that harmonize with our values, skills and major goals. This exercise will help you think about your life from various angles.

1. What makes you smile? (Activities, people, events, hobbies, projects, etc.)

At the Museum of Play

2. If you unexpectedly had a little extra money, what would you buy?

3. What activities make you lose track of time?

4. What makes you feel great about yourself?

5. Who inspires you most? (Anyone you know or do not know: family, friends, authors, artists, leaders, etc.) Which qualities inspire you, in each person?

6. What are you naturally good at? (skills, abilities, gifts, etc.)

7. What do people typically ask you for help in?

8. If you had to teach something, what would you teach?

Beautiful fall colors in Trondheim

9. What would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life?

10. What are your deepest values?

11. What were some challenges, difficulties and hardships you’ve overcome or are in the process of overcoming? How did you do it?

12. What causes do you strongly believe in? Connect with?

13. If you had $10,000,000, and never had to work again, what would you do with your life?

14. If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do? With whom?

15. You are now 90 years old, sitting in the sunshine. You can feel the spring breeze gently brushing against your face. You are contented and happy, and are pleased with the wonderful life you’ve lived. Looking back at your life and all that you’ve achieved and acquired, all the relationships you’ve developed; what matters to you most? List them out.

The power of Redirect

The power of a goal is quite remarkable.

 

Sara and I just had a stimulating conversation about the current status of this year's primary goal, which we agreed on in our January 2012 Redirect seminar:

 

To build a home in 2012

 

 

We discovered that, although the year was not at all what we planned or expected, it has been nevertheless been focused on building a home. The goal was always present in our minds and hearts, guiding us in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to make many small decisions along the way. Here are three of the ways that our goal influenced our choices and was itself influenced by the events of our lives.

1. We have strengthened some wonderful relationships with family and friends, while making new friends and enlarging our horizons geographically, prefessionally and spiritually.
2. We've decided to stay in Prague for at least two more years, and not to move from our little flat, which has been so pleasant and convenient.
3. We are still writing "21st Century Christianity" and hope to publish it next year.

 

All of these people, events, activities and experiences have molded our thinking and impelled us toward our goal, even though we didn't recognize it while it was happening. How?

1. Because of our focus on building a home, we lavished time and attention on the people who were interested in what we were doing. These people challenged our thinking and helped us dig deeper into what "home" really means. We're grateful for their support and the ways they've helped us refine our goal. Our travel this year has also been anchored in our goal, as have our professional choices and spiritual development.
2. We've decided to stay in Prague for at least two more years, and not to move from our little flat, which has been so pleasant and convenient. We thought in January that we'd move back to the US and buy or build a house there. But events and circumstances changed our thinking dramatically. Having our goal helped us frame these events and circumstances in such a way that they became guideposts and mile markers towards our goal.
3. We are still writing "21st Century Christianity" and hope to publish it next year. This book defines our original mission in Prague and points us to our next big idea/goal. Knowing that we want to build a home has added urgency to the completion of our book.

 

The key words here are challenge, focus, time, attention, checking our progress and a sense of urgency. All of these are elements in goal-setting and working towards a goal. Think about an athlete who wants to compete in the Olympics. First, the goal is set. Then the details are put into place, resulting in a timetable, a support team (emotional, physical and spiritual), a fitness regime, a plan to find financial resources, and so on. All of the details support the goal, which is the heart of the entire effort.

 

 

"Without a vision, the people perish," as Proverbs 29 notes. Without a goal, life is a featureless plain upon which the individual is moving without purpose or destination. He or she is vulnerable to the weather, to the intentions of the people he or she may meet, to predation by wild animals, and to discouragement and loneliness. Without a goal, life is like the bumper sticker--"you're born, stuff happens, you die."

 

We designed the Redirect career development program with simplicity in mind--one goal for the year. This simple idea has turned out to be far more powerful than we had imagined.

 

Our last Redirect starts October 7, 2012;

we'll resume offering it 

when we return from the US in January 2013.