When did work become a four-letter word? Always. It literally consists of four letters. Figuratively speaking, even back to its earliest roots, work has more of a negative than positive connotation. Is work a four-letter word to you? It does not have to be. I won’t be changing the spelling but read on to see how you can change your perception of work.
From the first use of the word, work has been synonymous with toil, labor, drudgery and grind, just to name a few. Those were adequate descriptors for many years of humankind, with the hardships and hard labor needed to grow a crop, raise a barn, and deliver the mail. Yet even then there were farmers who loved tilling the soil and growing crops; carpenters who delighted in making a building where none had stood before; and postmen who enjoyed knowing clients and delivering hand-written notes along with the bills.
For the negativity surrounding work, is it a reputational holdover from decades ago when work likely was physically hard, a struggle and a toil? Or is it just “uncool” to say that one enjoys what they do for a living?
What is emerging in the workforce is a quest to enjoy work; to remove the grind and toil from the image. It is not just the Millennials. People want to enjoy what they do for 8 hours or more in a day. Why wouldn’t you? Beyond just enjoyment of the role, workers want to be part of something bigger. They want a purpose for that investment of time, energy and resources and not just a paycheck.
To move work from a negative to a positive does not mean things are smooth sailing and never challenging. There will always be challenges and struggles; we cannot grow without them. Yet if we can hold in our mind the reason and purpose for the work, the challenges and struggles become part of what brings us satisfaction when we grind through them. The victory would be less sweet were it easy.
Where is your mindset on work? Are you stuck in the dark ages, still viewing and calling it a grind? Find the purpose in what you do and focus on it.