OFI 1268: Catching The Train To A Happy Life | The Secrets To Loving Your Work And Finding Your Vocation: Replay 558

Today’s show is a replay of a special episode I did on how we view life and what you choose to do in situations that don’t make you happy. Learn how to find purpose in your work and having faith in yourself.

Original Show Notes:

KEY IDEAS: 

Today’s episode is all about your perspective on work and how you can make a change so you are invigorated by work and excited to do your work every day rather than dread it.  This entire episode was inspired by the following video, and below is what I came up with after watching it:

For those of you who hate work and are searching for something better or just can’t wait to retire I want to open the door to another world for you.

There is a world that I finally found where I am not consumed with thoughts of retirement.  There is a world where you work because you want to, not because you have to.

Today the biggest source of excitement in my life is my vocation, not a vacation.  It is not a new car or a bigger house. It is not an RV or an ATV.  Most importantly the excitement I feel never fades away because I don’t have a job that kills that feeling on Monday morning.

I was where you are once. I was irritable on Sunday and almost depressed on Sunday night.  I had a hard time getting out of bed for work because I dreaded going there.

I spent my thoughts on two things: retirement and vacation.  I would imagine all the things I would do in retirement and how I would enjoy every day when it finally arrived.  I worried if I would have enough money to do those things.  And I wondered if my retirement body would allow me to.

I fretted over vacation or actually vacation days.  The amount of vacation days, or as I call them now, “freedom days” were limited.  It was like looking at a small bank account but being very hungry.  I knew that I could easily spend it all on that first meal and then “go hungry” for the rest of the year.

I worried whether or not the people above me in the hierarchy would allow me to use my vacation days when I wanted, or if they would find a reason that I could not take them at that time.  Last, in the final week or so before the trip I fretted over some disaster happening at work that would wreck the whole thing.

Then it would take me three or four days of a 10 day vacation to finally relax.  And on about day 7 an ugly feeling would creep up on me, “soon I would have to go back to work”.

This is no longer the life I live and it does not have to be for you either. 

Let me open the door for you and let you have a peek at the other side. There is a world where a lucky minority of people work because they enjoy it, and they don’t obsess over retirement. There is actually a world where people go to bed excited a night because they get to work tomorrow.

How do these people get there?  And how can you?

The key is waking up and doing what you want to do, not what you have to do.  This does not mean the absence of work. This means absence of drudgery and the presence of freedom.  Work is not the enemy. We are meant to work.  Sitting around leads to decay and a shortened life.  100% recreation can turn something you once loved into, well, something you once loved.

What we need in whatever we do is purpose.  And only work can give us that purpose.

So, how do you find this feeling of freedom that a minority of us have every day?

You must do work that is interesting to you and have your own purpose in that work.  If your supervisor defines your purpose for you, you will not feel free.  If he or she defines your tasks, that is fine.  But if they define your purpose, you will feel robbed.

Your purpose has to be about more than funding a retirement account, paying for your kids college or buying material things. Your work needs to transport you from point A to point B. And point B has to be a destination that you have chosen.

I say this is another world because it really is.  And it requires a leap of faith to get here.

Picture two trains running parallel on a track.  One is stuffed full of commuters who look worn out and unhappy.  The other has lots of open seats, bright lights and happy people.  All you have to do to join them is believe that you can make the leap from the train you are on to theirs.

You have to believe that when you choose a vocation over just another job that you won’t ruin everything.  You have to believe that if you change to something that interests and fulfills you that your kids won’t go hungry, that you won’t lose the house and that your spouse won’t leave you.

This is the leap of faith. 

Not everyone is ready to make this leap between the two trains.  Some people are trying to bring too much baggage with them and it weighs them down.  If they try that leap with all that weight they fall short and both trains whisk away.  Worse, they are left by the side of the tracks, having an even more difficult time carrying the baggage, waiting for the next commuter train full of unhappy people.  And they are convinced that there will not be another happy train for them to board.

The baggage that weighs you down might be a house payment that is too large to allow you to do anything but the job you have now. This baggage might be a lack of savings that makes any reduction in pay an emergency. This baggage might be a lifestyle that is so extravagant that your whole purpose is supporting it.

Worse yet are the people who are about to make the leap only to be grabbed and stopped by others.

These others may be your coworkers who are afraid to see you succeed because that makes them realize that the only person keeping them unhappy is themselves. These others might be your spouse who you have not properly spoken with to give them faith in your plan. These others might be your parents, even if just in your head who you are afraid to disappoint.

You have to shed this baggage before making the leap. You need to show your spouse your vision.  You need to break completely away from your parents.  You need to cast aside coworkers who don’t want the best for you. Most of all you need to convince yourself that you can do it and eliminate internal resistance that would hold you back.

When you finally make it to this world you get to spend every day in awe of its existence.  This is the benefit of not being born on the happy train. If you had to make the leap, then you never take the happy train for granted.

In this world you will naturally adjust your lifestyle to the proper level because feeling this way every day is far more important to you than any material possession.

In this world you will look at work that interests you and say “I’d like to try that” rather than “that looks interesting but it doesn’t pay enough”.

On this train you will see a world of possibilities that were invisible before.  You won’t be afraid to work for yourself.  Every job will look like an education, not just a way to pay the bills.  You will want to accomplish something with your hands and your mind.

You will never want to retire because you are already waking up in the morning and doing what you want to do!
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