I spent the last few days moving our laboratory from Irvine to San Francisco. Unlike moving items in a home, a laboratory is filled with heavy, bulky, precision instruments. To protect them meant we had to wrap them all in bubble wrap--miles of bubble wrap.
Once moved, the bubble wrap created an immense pile overflowing the small
bin. It quickly became clear than it needed to be popped in order to compact it for recycling.
What started out as a lot of fun popping hundreds of yards of bubble wrap quickly became a daunting task that tortured our feet as we produced copious amounts of noise pollution.
Soon most people were opting out of the bubble wrap popping job and trying to find another area to be useful. And that is when it occurred to
me:
Every job or endeavor that seems like a lot of fun can just as easily be pure torture. What starts out like freedom, ends up a prison. But the job never changes, we do.
I couldn't find an example where this wasn't true. All occupations are wrapped in both Heaven and Hell. The difference is our attitude, our disposition toward the task, and our underlying motivation. The difference is not what the job brings to us, but
what we bring to the job.
The next time you are doing work that you really don't like, why don't you test yourself to see if you can alter the way you feel about it by changing your attitude. This is not just a game but a powerful skill that will allow humility and appreciation to become the basis for profound success.
The very essence of success is the ability to turn difficult work into work we enjoy. Work that we
enjoy is not the opposite of work we view as meaningless. Enjoyable work is transformed work, where we bring the meaning.
I hope this helps you see how vital the "you" is that is in your contribution to the world.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.-Eccl 9:10
Have a great week.
