Until You Love Work You Are Doomed: How To Love And Enjoy Work – PDL Insights (Part 21)
Until You Love Work You Are Doomed: How To Love And Enjoy Work –
PDL Insights (Part 21)
"Those at the top of the mountain didn't fall there." –
Marcus Washling
Discovery
of one’s purpose is not the end of all things but it is the beginning of a lot
of work to be done. One of the missing pieces in this and coming new
generations is the work ethic. When one comes to terms with their values that
they need to express, the desires and passions that drives them or the gifts,
skills and talents that they are supposed to use in fulfilling their Purpose
Driven Lives, it will take so much amount of work to fulfill the purposes.
In a
book that I have been writing for many years on ‘Laws of Kingdom Prosperity’, I
identify the Law of work as one of the keys to prospering the Kingdom of Heaven
way. This law of work states that, “It takes grace to get
potential and it takes work to extract potential.” This implies that,
trying to work for what God gives you by grace kills you and trying to grace
what requires work kills you also. The Law is related to another law which I call the Law of the seed which just highlights how God gives
everything in seed form. Seeds carry so much potential but without putting work
on the seeds, the potential will never be realised. Discovering your purpose is
discovering your potential and realising the purpose and fulfilling it is never
a reality without work.
Before
creation, God always existed as a seed full of potential when there was nothing
on earth. It was only after creation work that His potential began to manifest.
Jesus shows that God is always working and he also was working saying,
"My
Father has been working until now, and I have been working." [John 5:17
NKJV]
He goes
further to reveal his commitment to work saying,
We need to be
energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun
shines. When night falls, the workday is over [John 9:4, THE MESSAGE Bible].
Paul the Apostle who is
arguably the most successful Apostle of his time if not of all time attributed
his success to the grace of God helping him to work more than all the other Apostles.
Nothing can describe his success better than his own words,
But by the grace of God I
am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder
than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. [1
Corinthians 15:10-11, NIV]
One of the
people who is identified as the greatest inventers of the 20th
century, Thomas Edison whom we would
think would attribute his success to superior creativity attributes his success
to hard work saying, “Success is 99%
perspiration and 1% inspiration.”
In a long term study carried on self-made millionaires
and the most successful entrepreneurs in America where they were asked of what
one thing they attributed their success to, they had one answer in common. They
all talked of ‘Hard Work’.
All great empires, kingdoms, nations, civilisations,
organisation and lives where built on hard work. Show me greatness that cannot
be ignored and I will show you large amounts of work put to it. Great historic
empires like the Ancient Egypt, Babylon where all built on serious hard work
and slavery. America was built through 100 years of serious dedicated work,
whether it was paid labour of slavery, it was still work. China is a very fast
growing empire and it is so because of the large population that has provided
cheap labour. Also China has transformed itself to have 24 hour working days
where industries and corporates are operating 24 hours a day. Compare this to
failing and ailing African states where corruption is high, and ‘there is no
hurry in Africa’ is the mantra. Being at work is paid as good as doing the work
in Africa. This is sad.
Our nation is where it is as a result of the amount of work we are
putting into it. People come late, talk about issues in the papers, discuss
soccer news, soap operas during working hours and are on social networks and we
wonder why things are so slow in Zimbabwe. If wealth was
measured by potential DRC and Zimbabwe would be the wealthiest nations but
wealth is measured by work. This is called, Gross National Product or Gross
Domestic product, it is product of work. We are
third world because we have not worked our way to first world. We are third
world because we work with the wrong idea and perception about work. There is minimum work being done hence very little
development. This is echoed in the words of Stephen C. Hogan who said,
"You can't have a million-dollar
dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.”
Many people might have clarity on what they have to be
doing but miss out on work. They expect success from minimum wage work ethic.
One speaker said 8 hours of work a day is for survival and 12 hours of work a day
is the minimum investment for success. How much time do you put to working on
your dream or vision? If you work for someone, begin to invest time to work on
your own dream and purpose and also understand that the more work you put on
someone’s dream is a personal investment in yourself as you develop mastery and
skills that are transferable to your own dreams. The Purpose Driven Life cannot
be realised without systematically planned and organised hard work. Success is
realised when you begin thinking beyond working for a salary and think towards
working for a desired future.
When we talk about work sometimes it is not just the
hard work that is important but the quantity. Sometimes people work so hard and
toil because of ignorance and folly. It is therefore important to have this
hard work starting with working in our minds. Thinking is one of the hardest
kinds of work that is needed to succeed in the PDL. African poverty and the
poverty of some of the hard workers is as a result of putting less work in thinking.
This does not mean that hard work is less important because even the smart
workers will need the contribution of the hard workers for success to be
realised. This is the case for the PDL. We will need to be smart and also hard
in our working. The hard work that has built the great Kingdoms, businesses,
families, empires and lives is a combination of the hard and the smart work.
This is captured well in the earlier mentioned book that I am writing where I
say,
The people who work the hardest earn the
least and those who work the smartest earn good. As for you try both and you
will earn the most. WORK HARD AND WORK SMART – Coach Tarie: The Wisdom Garden
(Volume 1)
Why is it that
people struggle to work? Work did not come as a result of sin. It was the
original idea of development as God gave the first man that he created work to
do. Sin just changed the conditions of work and the whole picture changed.
People struggle to work when they have to work for survival. When people does
work that is not consistent with their wiring and purposes they resent work.
They work just to go by and to finish the day and get home to rest. One of the
greatest misconceptions about work is to think that rest is better than work.
This comes when one is forced by others to work (slavery) or by circumstances
(for wages). This gives a bad picture of work and this is the picture that many
have of work. The 21st century kind of church that has been swept by
the prophetic phenomenon cannot be spared on killing the work ethic. It has put
miracles and the power of God as the way to success. People expect to give
their way into success and avoid working. The prophet will do work for them.
This perception make people resent working.
Work is however good
and enjoyable when you are working on something you love and that is consistent
with your values and convictions and tapping into your inner passions and
deploying your skills, gifts and talents. Have you ever seen how frustrated
people who spend the whole day resting are? Rest is enjoyable for a while but
not forever. There is high
level of frustration among pensioners who do not have some other work to do but
just have to rest. Work accomplished brings fulfilment. Consider how good you feel after
completing some work that you would have considered to be a good deal of work.
You feel good about yourself. Walking the PDL journey helps you to be fruitful
and productive since you can put so much work in something that you love and
enjoy.
The benefits of work are numerous. Working brings
maturity to life. It develops character, work
is a school for character development. Work gives one a capacity to control
their environment. This is because when you are working you keep useless people
away from you. All hard work
brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. [Proverbs 14:23 NIV] The Apostle Paul talks of the credibility aspect of
work saying, “Take care of your own business, and do your own work… if you do,
then people who are not believers will respect you.” [1 Thessalonians 4:11-12(NCV)]
The Purpose Driven Life is no exception when it comes to work.
Show me someone who has been effective if fulfilling their assignments or
making a difference through their lives and the facts will prove to you that
they were people of hard work. If you want your life to count or you are
interested in realizing good success, then you have to start committing to
work. The only way you can work so hard without wearing your inner self is by
doing so much work that is in line with your inner values and convictions and
using your skills, gifts and talents. Getting into this role in a way means you
will never work again in your life as you will be free from the pain of forced
work. Let’s work our way into
significance, relevance and fulfilment.
“Loafers
say, "It's dangerous out there! Tigers are prowling the streets!" and then pull the covers
back over their heads”. [Proverbs 26:13] (THE MESSAGE BIBLE)
Look for more
insights on the PDL on www.coachtarie.com or request to be added on the PURPOSE DRIVEN
LIVING (PDL) WhatsApp group. Inbox any of the following numbers. +263773301267,
+263783573784, +263784456314, +263779924607
For personal coaching in PURPOSE DRIVEN LIVING
PDL or anything related to
| Personal Development Coaching | Family
and Relationship Coaching | Business Strategy Consulting and Training|
Entrepreneurship Coaching and Consultancy| Leadership Development Consultancy |
Team Building Facilitation | Scenario & Strategic Planning Facilitation |
Organisational Development Consultancy |
Contact Coach
Tarie Coaching and Consultancy (COTACC)
on www.coachtarie.com| coachtarie@ gmail.com |
facebook/twitter/linkedin @ Coach Tarie | +263773 301 267/ +263 772 106 415
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