Enjoy Work More: Hark Way East, Way Back
Eastern wisdom on how to maximize happiness in the workplace.

I have tinnitus in my left ear, a constant ringing that never abates except when eclipsed by louder sounds; thus, I never experience soundless peace. I also think my liver hurts, sometimes. I’m pretty motivated but don’t mesh well with authority, so in the end, ‘I rather not’ (make somebody else rich), like Bartleby, the Scrivener.
The underlying problem with all these statements has to do with the smallest portion of them: the ‘I’.
The truth from yesterday is revealed every morning, and there’s no escaping it. You might have some stodgy job tasks to do at times, perhaps all the time. Occasionally, downright unethical decisions are forced upon you to be made, and you utilize some subjective form of utilitarian reasoning and satisfy the tasks, should you even dream about having a job next week.
We all know how ambiguous, intimidating and even scary as hell internal communications can be within a hierarchical professional framework. But we can relax the stressors if we recall one flatfooted truism—that those who think more about the workplace than themselves can afford some time to be fascinated by it.
If that’s too existential (or simple), we can look to a couple Eastern ancients whose works are still working today. We shouldn’t ignore. ‘Old news’ is often sacrificed as an excuse to not investigating the comparisons it has with current meanings, but that’s a shame, since its survival is a receipt of its usefulness.
Perhaps it was cognitive dissonance when Lao Tzu wrote in a cave on his way to Tibet: “Is it not because they do not live for themselves that they can live so long?”Perhaps not: this is one Taoist lesson that doesn’t cut both ways.
The lesson’s an easier one to consider than exercise. It teaches that we must get our heads outside themselves to experience how worthy our lives are, how energetic and magnificent things are in their dissecting and coalescing parts. And when we realize, in this or that moment, that we are a necessary part of a larger picture, we appreciate the time, and the fruits of our appreciation sow genuine work.
If we at first lack this capacity, we can consider Rumi. He once pondered: “Fall asleep in a garden and you gain by waking—drowse in a prison and your waking will be but a loss.” That he was speaking about a ‘spiritual concert’ means, in appropriate Rumi fashion, that we shouldn’t fall asleep on a less-than-desirable job and mummify our spirits. Rumi's never out-of-context.
Use what works, but make decisions repeatedly that create the atmosphere that vitalize the working environment. “Inside you is an artist you don’t know about,” Rumi says. Either draw your way out the door, or deeper inside—into a workplace your colleagues would be proud you manifested that artist of yours within.
(photo credit: Matt Popovich)
