How Do You Define Your Work?

How do you define your work?

• Is what you are doing contributing to your legacy? I am not talking about your financial legacy, even though that is important. I am talking about how you are going to be remembered in the future. How will you feel about the work you are doing right now when you look back from some time in the future?
• Does the work you do provide your life with meaning and purpose? Is what you are doing right now the work that provides your life with something more than just the mere ability to survive? Are you thriving? Do you wake up excited to do whatever it is you are doing? You are here for some reason. Your life has some purpose, even if you don’t yet know what it is.
• Are you making a difference? Are you making the contribution that you want to make? The contribution you need to make? You are here to make some contribution, to make some difference, no matter how small.

There is honor in all work. All work can make a difference. But it depends on whether or not you give yourself over to the work. It depends on you bringing your best self to your work.

Defining your job as your work may not provide you with the right answer to these questions. Your work and your job can be very different. You might even have to have a job during the daytime hours and do your real work at night or on the weekend.

What is important is that you figure out what that work is and then give yourself over to that work.