The value of good work, well done, has been on my mind a lot lately. Our daughter is completing the last class – hopefully – of her undergraduate degree, and is, at the same time, a fulltime member of the workforce. To her, work that she enjoys and does well is a good thing, from what I can see.
Our son, a high school sophomore, is beginning to think about what his life’s work might be. He’s thinking of architecture and volunteered at a veterinarian’s office this summer. There he could see some of the challenges, the satisfactions, the teamwork, the hiccups in the rhythms of daily worklife for the first time.
Our kids know our belief that work you love and do well, work that contributes to making something better in some way, and a job in which you continue to learn and grow, is truly one of life’s great blessings.
My parents were hard workers, as were most people in their generation.
“Fun’s not fun until the work is done,” my mother used to say.
My reaction, partly in agreement and partly in response, was to try to make the work I had to do anyway enjoyable, itself. Sometimes that was as simple ascreating contests with myself to do the work better or faster all the time. It’s an instinct that has served me well.
I remember telling our daughter at times as she was in high school, “There aren’t many jobs for ‘princesses in training!’” I meant it then, and I would mean it still if we had to have the same discussion, again. Sitting around and expecting good things to be handed to you on a silver platter? No.
Hoping that money will drop into your lap from out of the sky? It’s not likely, no, and lottery winners’ lives…well, have you read some of those tales? They’re ultimately not happy campers, many of them. There are two sides to every coin.
Work you love and do well, that does or creates good things for others AND allows you to continue to learn and grow is a good – no, it’s a GREAT thing.
