pour love into your work

We spend a significant portion of our lives at work. But the unfortunate truth is that a majority of us work for money, not for meaning. 

Researchers have found that how we view our work has a direct impact on our health and well-being. For some of us, work is an avenue to get a paycheck, for others, it’s a means to attain status and respect in the society. And for those who have lady luck shining upon them, work is a manifestation of love; they find their work meaningful and joyous, and it allows them to fulfill a mission, a vision or a purpose. In simpler words, their work is their “calling”, not a career. Science backs this fact. Studies have shown that people who perceive their work as a calling have a better quality of life, health and relationships, and experience more job satisfaction as compared to those who don’t.

The sad truth is that most people working today have never even thought about connecting their work to a greater sense of purpose, leading them to experience frustration, despair and dissatisfaction in their current chosen line of work. That’s why I think it’s imperative that the educators amongst us emphasize the importance of having “work-as-a-calling” to their students, and have routine conversations about how to connect their passions with future work. 

In The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran beautifully articulates this idea and highlights the importance of working with love and not doing a job just for the sake of doing it. He writes:

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with
    distaste, it is better that you should leave your
    work and sit at the edge of the temple and take
    alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a 
    bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.

It doesn’t matter what your chosen line of work is, what’s important is that you pour love into your work, because the attitude that you bring to your work has a direct effect on you, the people around you, and the quality of contribution that you make to this world.