Striking the balance
Work is a constantly spinning wheel…This means we spend every productive and at times unproductive moment doing a task. By definition, it is an activity that exerts mental or physical effort to achieve a result.
The most widely understood form of work is geared towards building a career. We approach it as a journey. On this journey towards building a career, most people aspire for and work towards a dream job. That is if they don’t get that sense from their current role.
A dream job means different things to different people. Implying that what qualifies to be a dream job varies from person to person.
The aspect of one having a dream job has recently been challenged for me by the rising YouTube trend on ‘Why I no longer dream of labour’ All the hullabaloo aside, how on earth are we supposed to sustain ourselves without work. I’m not just talking about daily needs, there’s also self fulfilment and advancements (driven by ambition and aspirations. How would these be triggered?) When you listen to their arguments, you can’t help but further zero in on how mundane our existence really is.
Which drives the question, Why do we work? Below is a non exhaustive list of reasons:
- It’s an unwritten human law
- It’s default in human existence
- It makes us better humans
- It gives us a sense of independence
Short rant: we work to remit taxes and somehow are still expected to pay hefty taxes on goods and services. Who are we to complain though? After all, aren’t we supposed to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar?
When you think about it, we are programmed to work. I dare argue we do this right from our formative years. Could be in the form of chores, errands or a defined role. Some work rewards us with monetary value while other times we get a sense of joy from accomplishing the tasks. Yet at the same time the predictability of routine and rote tasks can drain our essence. Whereby work becomes mindless drudgery. All in all as long as we are trudging through human existence, we have to keep going.
I think humans are some of the most resilient creatures. We are born into a world otherwise unknown to us but somehow expected to live up to expectations totally out of our control. The society in itself is fragmented in terms of what it considers to be either valuable or invaluable work. This kind of puts a drab on existence but somehow, possibly through sheer will, we embark on the journey towards attaining honorary badges. Whatever that means to us.
For me the constant work across the board that I come home to time and time again is constructing sentences out of letters informed by words to weave stories in an attempt to paint vivid pictures. It is both a fulfilling and frustrating experience. As with most areas, there are standards, rules and set guidelines. The beauty is one is usually not confined to any of these. If anything, the art which happens to also be science rewards contrarians.
