Work is a Beautiful 4-Letter Word

You will never regret working hard at all you do. That doesn't mean everything will work to your favor just because you work hard. Working hard at all you do doesn't typically produce regrets. Regrets come generally from not taking the necessary steps and/or working hard at whatever you are doing. For example, you fall in love and can't imagine ever living without this person. One day you propose marriage to them. They say yes and you couldn't be more excited. The feeling and emotion of "love" you now have is so captivating emotionally that your mind is convinced this will last forever. Thud, marriage you find, isn't all about that euphoric feeling as you were once convinced. It is our heart that produces the desires we feel. Secondly, your will then chooses to enact those feelings and thirdly, your mind will justify both heart and will. Your life's course is now set. The road ahead of you now becomes a matter of your heart, will, and mind. Will it be paved with hard work or will you say the hard work won't be worth it? If you don't work at it as you did at first your course will get more rocky, more slippery, and more treacherous because of the kind of work you are putting into that which you eventually choose. Therefore, if you choose the latter and do not work at it you will find it easier the next time because your mind justifies your work ethic or lack thereof.

In marriage it doesn't take long for reality to set in and say, "this is hard". Now your heart produces a desire different from the one you had when dating. But your will shows up and it is going to choose what the heart desires and then if your mind justifies it your next actions will go in favor of your feelings. This is the the nature of work within men and women. At times we produce a bumper crop and other times not so much. Before we begin any endeavor we will have an emotion and/or a desire. Then what comes next is our will that is going to choose that desire, will I work at it with all my heart? Then our mind once again justifies this feeling. The cycle is always ready to repeat itself in our lives. Some call this an addiction. God tells us to guard our hearts above everything else because it will direct the course of our life. I have one granddaughter that splits her time at her dad's and at her mom's. She is shuffled back and forth every week and now finds that she has more than four grandma's and grandpa's, step sisters and brothers, real cousins and not real cousins. Her network has broadened but that doesn't mean her "family" has broadened. This becomes more and more confusing and disruptive. When we allow our heart to desire the things that lead to a harder life, like when we say, " I don't love her anymore", our minds and will then take the path of least resistance and we don't put in the work to get that feeling back again. This is a bad work ethic.

When you were dating it didn't seem like work. Now that you are married their will be challenges and struggles. Your work ethic will go a long way to determine how your marriage will go. But really, deep down, in the inner recesses of your heart you now know in order to restore a broken relationship it is going to take a lot of hard work. This scenario is churning in the hearts of men and women everywhere even as you are reading this blog. A lot of pain, heartache, loss, and sorrow take place when a loving relationship ends in brokenness. But pain comes through both a hard work ethic or soft work ethic. The pain of hard work can lead to healing and the pain of not working at it can lead to long term pain. The effect of this broken relationship will reverberate for a life time for those left in the wake of this disaster, primarily our children. When we choose not to work or not to work hard at everything we do we will not reap an abundance of contentment and commitment.

We can make our journey in this life harder when we work softer. Choosing to work "softly" will make everything look more like a mountain instead of a mole hill. But in the faith of a mustard seed we can move mountains. However it does require hard work. Hard work is beautiful because it often produces much to those who choose it. Marriage requires hard work every day from both husband and wife to have an enduring and loving marriage. This is also true in our workplaces. Some may not like their jobs therefore they choose not to give it all they have. This is a disengaged employee that gives only the least amount of effort to keep their job. But, like a in marriage if the effort from the husband and wife aren't 100% from each the marriage cannot be at 100%. This is also true in our workplaces. If both the employees and the leaders aren't giving it their all (100%) the quality of work and the culture of our work will not be 100%

To gain a mastery over something we must work at it with all that we have. People work hard at mastering a video game, their golf game, their hobby, but more than 50% of our workforce seem to dread Monday's. We continue to look for ways to reduce our work load and efforts. Claiming we need Work-Life Balance. The average worker in America works less than 40 hours per week. This means most people work 1,800 hours per year and have family and free time of just under 7,000 hours per year. What the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. We must learn that working at something with all we have their is satisfaction and contentment in that alone.

Perhaps a lot of our workplace problems are do to our homeplace soft work ethic? Work hard at everything that matters (work, family, self, faith, others) and you will never regret it. Life is too short and hard enough on its own to have me make it harder by working softer.