Work Is Good

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? Proverbs 6:6-9

Change The Definition Of "Work"

Who implanted this idea that the intrinsic nature of work is bad? Or is it merely human nature to resent the work that needs doing?

Let us go to the first place where we are introduced to the idea of work:

School.

Let me establish a definition of work inspired by Jordan Peterson's latest work We Who Wrestle With God.

Sacrificing the present for a greater reward or interest.

Within the context of formal education, you are sacrificing ignorance of knowledge to be assessed against a curriculum.

For what is the reward?

Having more doors opened if you choose to go down the university pathway.

I believe it's a bit shallow reward.

The ULTIMATE reward of doing the school work is seeing how hard you can work within the academic domain.

Like it or not, school is a game. Much like other activities in life. You have a set rules and ways to win.

Is Enjoyment a Factor When It Comes to Work?

I think enjoyment is not a prerequisite to doing work.

Makes it a WHOLE lot easier though.

The only prerequisite for the burden to be carried is if it has a clear purpose or serves a greater good.

God, being that higher good. For that is one of the definitions of God.

(That's what it means to be in service of God. To be in service of Goodness itself)

But I also think with work it's not binary. With any job you undergo, there will stuff you will enjoy and despise.

Again, this does not matter if it serves a greater purpose.

And, what is my current purpose?

To do my best.

To see how far I could play the game.

To test myself if I could work towards something that I would not see the fruits until later in the future.

This idea of work positively stems from my time doing instrumental music.

Think about it, you practice hours a week, an hour to rehearsal, only for a performance that may last 10 minutes.

That is the price for personal excellence.

Where Did The Idea Of Having Holiday Come From?

Of course there's great value in rest. Even God rested on the seventh day of creation. Marking the Christian and Judeo day of sabbath.

Let's organise the value of work vs rest.

There are two camps: you work in order to rest, or rest in order to work.

The former hints at a hedonistic tendency, where the latter hints at meaningful sacrifice.

Life's Biggest Regrets

There was a study, some of the biggest regrets involved people working too much.

How I interpret that is it's not the work itself, the misalignment of goal and action.

Picture you're Elon Musk.

You've landed humans on Mars.

Do you think when he's on his deathbed, he will regret working the 100 hour work weeks?

Probably not...

The work you do must have some greater purpose. If it does not, you risk falling into a nihilistic tendency to see your own work and existence as meaningless.

Even if you work as a cash register attendant for a supermarket, you can have a greater purpose of helping those you serve and interact with.

The big question that manifests itself is,

"Will I regret serving a greater good?

It's in what you put forward as your proposition. Your future self or your the immediate gratification of your present self.

"I should have spent more time with family"

It sounds like you were not going all the way with your sacrifice. You did not have a lay of the land when you decided to pursue a career that would take time away from your family.

I think people would have less regrets if they thought of the second and third order consequences of their actions, including myself.

Think of Patrick Bet-David, he believes his work that might take time away from his children serves a greater cause of being a good role model to his children.

He made the decision it is better to work on hard things that will influence future character traits of his children to be best possibility of capability and competence.

He is showing his kids delayed gratification, and serving a greater good that is beyond himself.

I want to stop saying greater good.

It's prideful to believe we can label what is best.

Let me use the name of His spirit, God.

Work As A Spiritual Pursuit

I largely believe a reason why the West has created the success we see now is the Judeo-Christian view on work and the reasoning behind it.

Sure, you may be a Buddhist that goes off in the mountain, and renounces every desire you have.

But, as Jesus says, we ought to carry our cross. Pain and struggle is an inevitability of life. It's better to voluntarily take up this pain, and face it with the faith that things will be for the better.

It's the interconnected relationship between action and the reasoning and the Spirit that influences action is what defines the human experience.

A world that is born with no meaning, yet, God grants us stewardship over our own life to exercise our likeness to His image: creation itself.

To close off, I want to share a verse.

 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26