A work of heart
Are you going through a rough week? If yes, you should stop reading now. If no, please continue. Today, the most urgent topic is the unbeatable magic of employment. A rather strange paradox of being jobful but joyless. At least that’s the case for a majority of those who work for a living. I am yet to meet somebody who wouldn’t do something else with their time. If this isn’t a scary situation, I don’t know what is.
For a weird connotation of reasons and excuses, people are supposed to have a job. Because, bills. Because, walking into the woods is best left to brave characters in a random novel. Because, importantly enough, if not job, what else?
I don’t know — as usual — the definite answer but I think we can always try to be happier at what we do. The problem is we want to be the best at it instead of finding happiness in it. Without us even noticing the gangrene of our mind, the competitive streak enters our DNA and ruins us. But then, we’ve invested so much time and effort that we end up going with the flow. Cutting the lane seems too dangerous now. Too late, apparently.
So, if you dig deeper, where exactly does the problem lie? We live in a world where we are expected to spend most of our living hours on the singular pursuit of our so-called career. The sheer amount of time that goes in commuting, working, replying to messages and mails during non-working hours, etc. is staggering. Which can leave you with a sinking feeling: is this even worth it? On digging further, you’ll realize that it’s not the job that you hate. It’s you simply you hating yourself for doing what you do. However, what if you don’t have a shitty job? What if you’re the one doing a shitty job?
Moreover, your years on this planet has taught you very well that you know (by now) what you want to do but you don’t know how to.
Again, it’s an astute realization unless you are a terribly lazy person. There is no ideal job for a lazy person. Laziness is the worst kind of trait you can carry with yourself. To add petrol to fire, it’s contagious. Motivated folks don’t always motivate others. Lazy people somehow always make others lazy too.
Which is why, maybe, the answer to your frustrated self could be within. Perhaps it’s high time you learnt to like your professional endeavours as much as you’ve learned to like your salary.
If you don’t do your share of work — while growing as a person — somebody else will. That’s the modern economy we inherit. There’s always somebody waiting in the queue to replace you.
Kindly put, do your job and grow with it. It’s your journey, no matter how mundane it might look like. If you are a writer, write and stop worrying about feedback. Your readers are nothing more than a pleasant distraction. And going by the mountain of failures in the world of literature, one can only conclude that writing can be a terrible line of work too.
In a parallel universe, people like me who drown in the sweet river of philosophy never have to write a tiresome blog post like this. Also, philosophers must be super-rich there.
So, yes, if you’re going through a rough week, maybe you should stop reading now.
