We have been lied to about work

I was made to believe by my parents and by society that success was measured by status and money. I don’t blame my parents. They were doing the same too because that’s what society told them they had to do. And they were doing their best to pass on their knowledge and wisdom to me. And that was why I worked.

To get there, I needed to get a good degree, a good job and to move up the career ladder. However, unlike my parents–my dad was a doctor and my a school teacher–they were doing meaningful work. As for me I was making money for the company, and that was ok as long as they paid me well. I didn’t give much thought to purpose and meaningful work until what had worked well for me no longer did.

When did that happen? It happened when:

• My world crumbled when the doctors told me that they could not save my two-week-old son from dying from an incurable heart condition.

• Medical science failed me.

• The doctor told me to believe in miracles because he could do no more.

Faced with hopelessness, I turned to Jesus, and I found my miracle. My son’s condition reversed, and he is alive today (it’s ok if you don’t believe in the Divine Man, but this is my story).

The incident caused me to question the purpose of work and why I worked. It opened my eyes to see that I, like everyone else, compartmentalized our lives into work life and non-work life. That work was not meant to be enjoyable, fulfilling or meaningful.

Don’t believe me?

Why then do we say TGIF at the end of the work week? Why do people dread Sunday evenings and hate Monday mornings? Why do we see ourselves as just a cog in a machine? Why do so many put off enjoying life until retirement?

The change I seek in the world is to change people’s mindsets about work. To surface the dysfunctional beliefs that we have about work and to show people that they can do something about it. That even though we might feel trapped, we have the creative ability to do something about it. We can make our situation better. We can design a better life for ourselves, including the work that we want to do and that is meaningful to us.
Nobody told me the truth about work, but I want to tell the truth to everyone who cares to listen.