If you won the lottery, what would you do?
Most of us—those telling the truth, anyway—admit we’d quit our jobs. But then what? Lie on a beach drinking pina colada for the rest of our days? Maybe for a while, but after some time, that, too, is going to get old.
The simple truth is, even if we didn’t need to work, we’d still have to—in some form or another. We’re hard-wired, as human beings, to be active. We’re compelled to contribute, whether we need to or not.
The 18th century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued that it was irrational, and therefore, in his view, immoral, for a people to let their “talents rust;” we are obliged, he says, to seek to improve ourselves out of the very same impulse that motivates our survival instinct.
You don’t have to buy Kant’s moral philosophy to agree on the necessity of bettering ourselves; as he implies, the daily act of feeding ourselves is evidence of our desire for self-improvement.
Point being: we work; that’s what we do. Even if we didn’t, we would. Even when we don’t, or can’t, we are.
Unfortunately, most of us are too busy at our jobs to recognize this. We’re so consumed by taking care of business that we overlook the most important aspect of what we do: that it IS what we do and that we’ve got only one life in which to do it.
It all comes down, essentially, to a sense of purpose, a feeling that we are doing something that makes a difference—at least in some small way—to something we care about.
It doesn’t have to be world-changing; it need not be lucrative, or beautiful, or even something your mom would approve of. It just has to connect you with yourself and, by extension, to people you care about, your “kin,” or what we might call your “tribe.”
And when work does that, it works.
Most of us—those telling the truth, anyway—admit we’d quit our jobs. But then what? Lie on a beach drinking pina colada for the rest of our days? Maybe for a while, but after some time, that, too, is going to get old.
The simple truth is, even if we didn’t need to work, we’d still have to—in some form or another. We’re hard-wired, as human beings, to be active. We’re compelled to contribute, whether we need to or not.
The 18th century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued that it was irrational, and therefore, in his view, immoral, for a people to let their “talents rust;” we are obliged, he says, to seek to improve ourselves out of the very same impulse that motivates our survival instinct.
You don’t have to buy Kant’s moral philosophy to agree on the necessity of bettering ourselves; as he implies, the daily act of feeding ourselves is evidence of our desire for self-improvement.
Point being: we work; that’s what we do. Even if we didn’t, we would. Even when we don’t, or can’t, we are.
Unfortunately, most of us are too busy at our jobs to recognize this. We’re so consumed by taking care of business that we overlook the most important aspect of what we do: that it IS what we do and that we’ve got only one life in which to do it.
It all comes down, essentially, to a sense of purpose, a feeling that we are doing something that makes a difference—at least in some small way—to something we care about.
It doesn’t have to be world-changing; it need not be lucrative, or beautiful, or even something your mom would approve of. It just has to connect you with yourself and, by extension, to people you care about, your “kin,” or what we might call your “tribe.”
And when work does that, it works.
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