My 4 year old niece gets up every morning looking forward to the fun she is going to have that day. From the moment she gets up right to the moment she calls it a day, approximately 14 hours later, she is a tornado of energy. She flits from one place to the other being wildly creative in her mischief. There is no place which does not hold wonder for her. Wide eyes and a naughty smile are reserved for everyone. Many times she needs a partner in crime, but not having one is certainly no impediment.
I look at her and think about the rest of us. There are times when we have problems getting out of the bed. The common reason all of us have is that we are not 'motivated' to go to work each day. There is a chain of thought which will suggest that if you're snoozing your alarm each day, you probably are not doing what you are meant to do. But honestly, can there be any one thing which can sustain our 'motivation' throughout the 4 decades of our working life? As we grow up, we get caught up in the ideology of the segregation of work from personal life. That ideology suggests that work and fun are indirectly related to each other. We never stop to question and are institutionalized as a result.
However, work can really be fun if you can find enjoyment in the little things. We can have fun in our work if we enjoy a part of it and a part of it is something we are really good at. We can take a lesson from my niece. Her wide eyed wonderment finds little things to enjoy in each of the mischief she decides to do. She keeps doing different stuff each day but always reverts to two things. One where she enjoyed the most and the one where she wins all the time.
We are all motivated by success which is a result of doing something we are good at. We will be good at something if we enjoy the little things that are a part of it. If we accept that, work can be fun. Maybe its time to unlearn some of the baggage beat into us by society and go back to being a 4 year old again.
I look at her and think about the rest of us. There are times when we have problems getting out of the bed. The common reason all of us have is that we are not 'motivated' to go to work each day. There is a chain of thought which will suggest that if you're snoozing your alarm each day, you probably are not doing what you are meant to do. But honestly, can there be any one thing which can sustain our 'motivation' throughout the 4 decades of our working life? As we grow up, we get caught up in the ideology of the segregation of work from personal life. That ideology suggests that work and fun are indirectly related to each other. We never stop to question and are institutionalized as a result.
However, work can really be fun if you can find enjoyment in the little things. We can have fun in our work if we enjoy a part of it and a part of it is something we are really good at. We can take a lesson from my niece. Her wide eyed wonderment finds little things to enjoy in each of the mischief she decides to do. She keeps doing different stuff each day but always reverts to two things. One where she enjoyed the most and the one where she wins all the time.
We are all motivated by success which is a result of doing something we are good at. We will be good at something if we enjoy the little things that are a part of it. If we accept that, work can be fun. Maybe its time to unlearn some of the baggage beat into us by society and go back to being a 4 year old again.
Loved this! Makes a huge lot of sense.
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