TGIF! (2)

Thank God it’s Friday! (2)

Recently, the air was full of love. Valentine’s Day just passed by and the reports reaching me indicate that people actually painted town red; especially youths. The baffling part of it all is that Monday was pre-valentine’s day; yet the day looked just like Friday and Valentine’s Day looked just like Saturday! If you remember that day you will understand what I am talking about.

If every Monday looked just like this pre-valentine’s day then I guess that life would be much more fun for the average person in the workplace. But do you know that every Monday can be like this? The truth is that today is what we have made of it. How can we achieve that? Simple. We celebrate Valentine’s Day every week…this is free advice, take it or leave it!

Workers in organizations across the world are suffering from what I call “STRANGNORANONYMOUS”. Can you pronounce that word five times without blabbing?  People who don’t know their selves are trying to do what they don’t know for people they don’t know in ways they know little about. The truth is that working without knowing what work really is wasting time at work. Remember that when the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. Work whose essence is unknown stands to be abused any day any time.

I will proceed to show you the 7 things that work is not.

First, Work is not a curse. Work is not a spell placed on you, or generally on the human race. Before the curse, work already existed. It was distraction from work that brought the curse. Work is not a curse of nature, neither is it a curse placed on man by God.

Second, Work is not a burden. It is not a problem that you have; it is not a bitter poison in the mouth neither is it a heavy weight on the shoulders. Many are slaving like donkeys because they perceive work as a burden. That is so untrue.

Third, Work is not for making money. Work does not include selling your time, energy, experience and education for peanuts just to earn a living or worse still, survive. If you work simply to make money as many people are doing across the world, you are no better than a slave. You can never master money; that is you can never become a master to money.

Fourth, Work is not a competition between you and your colleagues for the highest seat or the boss’ praise. Work is not a struggle for the highest rank or the best pay. People who subscribe to this paradigm are the ones who mostly play office politics or church politics as the case may be. They begin to play king of the hill; doing all they can to topple anyone who is standing on the top of the hill and tramples on anybody that dares to usurp them.

Fifth, Work is not a place we go to Monday to Friday. Work is more mental than physical. It is a thought that is intangible but is expressed in tangible forms. We don’t go to work, we work at the office. We go to work environments because we have apportioned them for work. Where you do your work is not the matter; it is what you do in that place that defines it. If you work more in your bedroom than in your work station where you are employed, then your bedroom is your office. Don’t get it twisted.

Sixth, Work is not busyness. Work is not synonymous with being busy. Many people are simply busy doing nothing. Some are busy doing anything while others are busy doing everything. That is not work. Work has a tone of objectivity in it. It is evidenced by productivity not by activity. That’s why there is a difference between busyness and business. One is activity-oriented while the latter is productivity-oriented. Real work always ends up in productivity. Whatever you do that doesn’t engender productivity is not work. Busy but unproductive is simply being actively busy or engaged.

Seventh, Work is not a struggle. Work has nothing to do with struggling to get things done. If you are into unprofitable labour, or you record incommensurate productivity per effort, or you have frustration with problem-solving then you are not working. You are just nursing a problem. Finding a problem is different from problem-solving. Many are literarily good at spotting problems but are highly untalented at solving those problems.

What work is not gives a clear weather that allows for the proper perspective of what work is to be discovered. In life, there are things to learn but very importantly there are things to unlearn. We have seen what work is not, next week, we will find out what work is. That is our goal and we are half way through to it.

I will like you to take time to reread the 7 things that work is not and ask yourself honest questions on each one. Are you unconsciously into anyone of the seven? If you are, then you have slipped into a state of ineffectiveness; you need to wake up. At the end of our discourse, I will show you what you need to do to overcome ineffectiveness.

You are an Icon!

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