Career
Soulful Work Is About A Revolution
Now that I can actually post to the blog again (goodbye TypePad?), I want to write about something that I’ve been itching to produce since last Friday. Beware, a rant is brewing…
On my way to work, NPR’s Morning Edition had a brief segment called Salary Level May Not Indicate Contentment. If you go to NPR’s website, here’s the description of the piece:
Researchers say just about the time people are making the most money in their careers, they bottom out when it comes to contentment. Renee Montagne talks with Jonathan Clements, personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal.
Based on this, my only guess is that NPR is coming up empty when it comes to discussing meaningful career-related topics. Do we really need another long-winded report about how money doesn’t buy happiness? Making it all worse is the blathering of Jonathan Clements on how we can make our job seem better through fringe benefits like telecommuting and flextime. And listening to him talk, it makes me wonder why a guy who doesn’t seem to derive much joy from his own work has been asked to give pointers to public radio listeners. The poor fellow just perpetuates the whole notion of "work as drudgery."
Of course, it’s all masked in the idea of being busy, that ever-present status symbol of the fast and elite professional. The next time you’re at a dinner party and someone asks how you are doing, just respond that you’re doing great and have plenty of down-time in your life and watch for the reaction. I reckon that it will be somewhere in the ballpark of skeptical and amazed.
You might wonder why all of this gets me riled up. I guess its the narrow idea that if we dress up the fringes of our work and life, then we might find some contentment. The placating and safety-minded inner voice whispers that even if we stay in soulless work, at least we can do it from home or at a more convenient time. Yet, we’re only scratching at the thin veneer of what’s truly possible.
Digging deeper is much more dangerous (or at least to the rest of our society). It means tossing aside firmly held cultural norms that work is work and never to be confused with play. It means shunning the shallow tag of busy and replacing it with the elements of flow where creative ideas and passionate actions intersect. It means consciously and courageously pursue those things in life that matter. It means practicing love for ourselves and for those who come into our own unique vision for the future.
We get only one shot at this life. Live with no regrets.
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Hey Christopher,
Been ages since I’ve posted - my apologies! I trust things are going well for you and you are not too busy?! Loved the rant and would comment more but unfortunately I am in the midst of marking - tis’ the season!
Glad to see that your Steelers beat the the Vikings although I heard it was a sloppy game. My Packers remain pitiful standings wise but we’ll chalk it up to a building year with plenty of rookies stepping up the plate. Ironically Favre remains in the top five QBs. My B-team the Seahawks are playing phenomenal and it turns out - I get to see my two favorite teams play down in Lambeau Field on Jan. 1st - can you say Happy New Year!
Later man!
I think you might find this new study published by the American Psychological Association interesting:
http://www.apa.org/releases/success1205.html
It says, basically, that happiness leads to success, not the other way around. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.
C’mon, get happyor not?
I always thought that being successful could make you happy, but now it appears, according to a study from the American Psychological Association, it’s really the other way around:
From a review of 225 studies in the current issue of Psychological B…
Hi Sue, thanks for the compliment at your blog.
My problem with labeling folks as “happy people” is that it tends to suggest that emotions like anger and sadness and anxiety are irrelevant for them. When the press release has to note “that happy people are capable of experiencing sadness and negative emotions in response to negative events, which is a healthy and appropriate response,” it inadvertantly defines these as peripheral to our own humanity. Can you be satisfied or fulfilled and not be happy?
I also question their definition of success. It sounds an awful lot like the idea of a classist standard professional ambition. If I understand correctly, if you’re smart, come from a good family, and workout, you’re likely a successful person. Frankly, I just don’t buy it all.
And, I’m not sure that there is a linear causal relationship between success and happiness. My preference is to define success as a result of an action. It’s feedback that we’re doing something right. Yet, consider how long it took Edison to refine the lightbulb or Lincoln to become President. Whether either man was happy (and there’s evidence to show that Lincoln was severely depressed throughout much of his life) was less important than the amount of determination each had toward their overall vision of life.
With all of that said, it is an interesting discussion, eh?
i like this blog -but I don’t agree that busy people are happy people. There is a real difference between being ‘busy’ and coincidentally successful and being…’engaged’ in what we do in a meaningful, soul-resonating way. Just busy but urgent creates this psychic queasiness in me; mindfully engaged on the right track in whatever my endeavour, is a nice fusion of authentic purpose or mission aligned with the behaviour or action to get it done. If people are most discontent at the peak of their earning power- then maybe the path to get there, indeed, the very goal they chose - was not a right fit to begin with. Perhaps ‘getting there’ (earning alot) is only an outer symptom of an innate lack of inner and outer fit. or maybe it’s the peggy lee song: Is that all there is?
NAH.
Marcy, welcome and thanks for the comment. I agree with you and as I mention throughout the post, being busy does not equate with happiness. Living amongst the hustle and bustle of Washington, DC, I see folks in my community constantly hurrying to their next destination. One look in their eyes and you know most of the time that they’re tired and not exactly excited about where they’re going. Hell, most of the time, I imagine that they’re not really sure why they’re going there in the first place.