In my consulting and mentoring work, as I get into the nitty-gritty of evaluating and accessing the particulars of a business, I also work to restore joy and contentment to the business owner in their work. Work is hard, that’s why they call it work. But it can also bring great reward (and not just the money). It can actually be enjoyable in itself. But getting there is not simple or automatic–it can be very illusive.
I believe that the key to finding joy in work is profoundly set forth in a very ancient and time-tested book. The book of Ecclesiastes.
The first hard lesson the book of Ecclesiastes makes us face is that–in the big picture–all work really is futile toil. In the larger scheme of things, any impact we might make in this world will eventually be forgotten. This is a hard reality. I felt it though in the web development business. I’d pour months of time and effort into building a website that would last what, 3-5 years? Then it got replaced by a new one and what became of the old? It was gone–erased from the disc drive and wiped from memory. Sometimes I envied architects because at least their work lasts. But zoom out just a little and you realize that even buildings don’t last forever–where is Solomon’s glorious palace now?
You see, joy in toil does cannot come from the work itself. We have to find satisfaction in something else. If we demand that the work itself deliver satisfaction, it will elude us, but if we hold it with a loose hand, and acknowledge the small, everyday pleasures derived from our labors, we can come to have genuine and deeper enjoyment in our work. It all begins by facing the nature of toil, overcoming its taunting voice, and then finding rest in the full range of all our activities under the sun.
So while I toil to help my clients, as I dig into their numbers, talk to their employees and managers, and do the hard work of figuring out where the fundamental problems lie–I’m also indirectly (sometime directly) teaching them how to apply the ancient and time-tested lessons of how to restore joy to their work.