A Message From The Founding Fathers
04.18.2006 | Chris Bailey | Focused on Career
Here’s a thought…what if we treated our happiness and contentment with work and life as a RIGHT rather than a PRIVILEGE?
A friend of mine reached out to me through my request for help locating folks in Austin, TX and in the midst of the dialogue, we surfaced this question. Kelly noted that her childhood memories include strong recollections where she saw her parents working hard at jobs with little meaning. Into adulthood, she internalized this struggle as one where work is work and only a lucky few got to be happy with it. Kind of an evil side to the whole Protestant work ethic.
Now, as adults, we both recognize that work can not only be spiritually, emotionally, and physically uplighting, it is our right to demand it. Too often, we allow ourselves an easy out by giving in to the notion that work doesn’t have to be soulful, that we shouldn’t expect to find satisfaction and happiness in our labor. This is old thinking. It’s also a corrosive mindset that doesn’t really benefit anyone except those toxic workplaces where you’re expected to pay for your salary with your blood and soul.
Repeat along with me…it’s okay to demand better. Tom Jefferson and his pack of rebellious rabblerousers said it best, that each of us are endowed with certain “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Good ideas then…good ideas now.
2 Responses to “A Message From The Founding Fathers”
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Ah, how quickly we forget about our inalienable right to be happy! I’m learning – for myself and my clients – that we are unconsciously giving up our right to be happy to feed the need to be right. How ironic.
I can believe that no one will want to listen to my idea and then do everything in my power to prove it so I can be right. Never mind that by stepping outside the familiar zone (I believe it’s no longer comfortable there) will almost always yield better outcomes than our usual ruts.
I propose that it’s the pursuit of happiness that leaves us unhappy. If we could just BE happy, we wouldn’t have to be in pursuit of something to make us happy. Just choose.
Don’t worry. Be happy. Choose it – NOW, not someday!
“As a man thinketh, so he is.” – The Bible
Jodee, there’s great wisdom in your proposal that it’s the pursuit of happiness that can lead to unhappiness. Constantly chasing happiness leaves the inevitable end result: okay, now what? Once we have the hard sought happiness in hand, do we know what to do with it? Or do we go and chase it again somewhere else?
I guess you might say…why be happy tomorrow when you can be happy today?