One Third of Your Life

“Given the kind of time we spend working, failure to find meaningful, significant work is not just a minor misstep in living out your life here on earth or even God’s Plan for your life; it is a deeper kind of failure that can make each day feel like living death” — Earl Nightingale

Are you “IN LOVE” with your work? Do you have a passion for what you do for a living? If not, why are you doing it? Having asked you that question, I can almost hear your verbal comments of, “Well, I started out with the intention of doing what I wanted, but my parents and some of my friends told me to get a real job” or, “I have not been able to support myself doing what I love.” There are many such reasons for NOT continuing down your original path. In my life for instance, I was raised in a family business only to wind up hating the work. The poor attitude had me dreading the following day for the following day only brought another day of doing something I hated.

Back then, I was working twelve to thirteen hours a day including drive time. We were driving over one hundred miles a day and back then there were no freeways. This equates to just over fifty percent of my day being spent doing something that I not only disliked I hated. On some days I would work harder and faster in hopes of getting off work earlier. Unfortunately this didn’t work because there was always more to do; once I finished one project there was always another one waiting. The problem with this is the days get longer because the time drags on. You find yourself watching the clock to find that only fifteen minutes had gone by yet, it seemed like two hours.

Such is the problem with having a job you hate. Such is the problem with wanting to get up and face another day. Such is the problem of being able to set goals when your only goal of value is to GET THROUGH THE DAY. As stated above there are many reasons for why one has a poor attitude. I have found however, if what you love doing brings people what they want and or need then, there is a good chance you will get well paid for doing what you love.

If on the other hand what you love brings no value to the market place or, put another way, is not something people need or enjoy then you must re-evaluate. It could be what you love may have to become a hobby at least until you are retired. No problem there, but you still need to find something you enjoy doing, perhaps something for which you already have a natural propensity. The fact remains however, you may have to develop a passion for what you are already doing. Before we go there however, let’s take first things first.

Let’s start with a little motivation by looking at the amount of hours you will spend working in your life time. Taking the time to look at the hours spent at work just might help motivate you to use some of your time to develop a skill or skills to do that for which you have a natural propensity and passion. Here is a quick break down of the motivator:

Normal Work Year:
Fifty Weeks

Normal Hours per Work Week:
Forty

Normal Hours Worked per Year:
Two Thousand

Available Hours per Fifty Week Year:
Eight Thousand Four Hundred Hours

Remaining after Work:
Six Thousand Four Hundred

Hours slept per day:
Eight

Hours slept per year:
Twenty Eight Hundred

Hours remaining in the year:
Three Thousand Six Hundred

Time for breakfast, lunch & dinner:
One Thousand Fifty (@one hr per meal)

Hours for Daily Routine:
One Thousand Fifty (restroom, shower, shave, brush teeth, blow dry hair, makeup, setting out clothes & getting dressed, driving to work, driving kids to school, to dance, to gymnastics, etc)

Hours Remaining:
One Thousand Five Hundred

If you worked for forty five years, your life will have clocked right in at Three Hundred Seventy Eight Thousand Hours. Of all those available hours you will have slept One Hundred Twenty Six Thousand Hours and worked Ninety Thousand Hours leaving a total of One Hundred Sixty Two Thousand Hours. This means THIRTY EIGHT PERCENT of every waking moment of your life is spent working.

Think of it, nearly forty percent of your life, working. Doesn’t it make sense, if you are going to spend nearly half your life working that you spend it doing something for which you have a passion; doing something of significance? Is it any wonder when we have jobs we don’t like that we are miserable and making others miserable as well? When this was my life I was miserable and made everyone around me miserable. Sadly, neither I nor anyone around me really knew that the reason for the poor and bad attitude was due to the fact I hated my job. Does this describe you?

Let’s take it one step further. It is estimated that over fifty percent of those who work put in more than forty hours per week. As a matter of fact, it is believed the average is fifty two hours per week working one or more jobs. If you add twelve hours per week you will have worked forty six and one half percent of every waking hour of your life. This does not include the time to drive to work for adding this puts the number closer to sixty percent.

The key to living a life of significance is to work at something you enjoy doing. If you are doing something for which you have a passion, you will be doing something significant to yourself, thus making it significant to others. If you have looked and can’t seem to find what fits you then perhaps it is time to develop a passion for your current job. This isn’t difficult it simply requires making a decision to like and become good at your job. If this doesn’t seem to work then think about spending a minimum of forty percent of your time at something you do not like and ask yourself why you are doing this?

Remember making this decision will put you on the first rung of the ladder of success; for the right attitude will open many other doors thereby, turning your dreams into reality. This is what I had to do. I hated my job, but somehow recognized I had to change my attitude toward it so, I made a commitment to not only like what I was doing, but to become the best at what I was doing.

By making a commitment to become the best, or an expert, it forced me to focus on and eventually like my job. As a result, I not only became good, I also increased what I was being paid by a significant amount. Don’t spend your life doing something you hate or don’t like doing. Make what you are doing something of significance, and thereby make something of significance of yourself.

Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…

Respectfully,

Rick Cox