How To Feel Better About Your Work

Some days, I feel like shit. By which I mean; I’m fighting an uphill battle, its raining, my shield and sword weigh a ton, and my adversary has fresh troops rotating at the crest. I have to remind myself in those moments that its okay — human evolution is predicated on conflict.

Heaven, bliss, rapture, contentment — these are states we can cultivate and maintain despite difficult scenarios that arise. But how do you define ‘good’ without the context of ‘bad’. We are constantly in conflict; with ourselves, others, ideas, ethics, governing structures, and this is a positive thing — conflict catalyzes change. As we fight, we get stronger, wiser — we evolve. Feeling shit is sometimes just growing pain.

The constant grind is not sustainable. Every hunt is followed by a meal and rest. Every successful fight is rooted in training, discipline (and there are different scales for this), and your success should be celebrated, just as your setbacks/lessons should be contemplated.

If you want to feel good about your work — your battle — the first thing to do is make sure your work is worth it! 

Do you enjoy your work? Does it provide value other than money? Don’t get me wrong, money is essential. However, work that only provides money has a gutting tax in your Soul Economy. Can you sustain a job that you hate but provides for you and yours? Yeah, definitely. Can you be truly happy doing it? I don’t know for sure. My best guess is absolutely fucking not.

I’m certain you know a few people that have that safe 9–5, get eight weeks of paid leave per year, happy homelife, maybe some kids — and can’t stop bitching about work, moaning about how tired they are, raging about their sociopathic boss . . . yet no matter how bad it seems to get, they persist, expecting things to get better or maybe convincing themselves the pros outweigh the cons.

When the only pro is money, its time to reassess.

Money is energy. It is not yours, even when its in your hand. It is transient. If you make money your sole purpose for work, you will always be exchanging your finite time for a fleeting, infinitely renewable resource. That’s like trading your flesh for a cheeseburger.

Sometimes leaving your work isn’t a viable option. 

No one should be judged for making the best of their situation. More often than a lack of options is the fear to pursue something less fiscally rewarding. Fear is the choice you make when you let your head run the show. When you haven’t done the work to callous your mind against conflict and spend more energy on thoughts about the potential pain or difficulty.

If you want to hunt a boar you have to be willing to face the tusks.

Nothing worthwhile is going to come easy. So if its fear stopping your from pursuing the work your really want to, callous your mind and grab a spear. Action is the antithesis of fear.

The path to your dreams is not a dreamy path. 

If you’re already in pursuit of your passion, you will have bad days. Or weeks. Or months. It isn’t possible to avoid all the pitfalls and puddles on the road to realizing your ideal. So, what to do while you’re in it? I have a few practices that alleviate, sometimes eliminate certain feelings that come up on the Yellow Brick Road.

Gratitude practice is powerful. 

Or I should say, its as powerful as you make it. If you’re rattling off the same three or four aspects of your life — “grateful for my kids, my partner, my home, my dog” — and ticking ‘gratitude’ of today’s to do list, well you aren’t going to really benefit from what can be a potent practice.

Getting specific about aspects of those aspects that hit, and really sitting with each one — “I love how my daughter nuzzles into my chest when she’s tired or upset, because she relies on me to comfort her when she can’t” — really reinforces the small things that your life would be less without. Giving yourself space to feel how valuable those things are is ridiculously uplifting. Your problems become smaller when you focus on what is good in your life, instead of what you lack.

Organization and discipline. 

It goes without saying that when you can train your body and mind to work regardless of circumstances, you achieve great things. In fact, an argument can be made that only with such a mindset can greatness be achieved. Having said that, it pays to not only have a clear workspace, but a clean home. Its a bit on the nose, but there are small, easy ways you can discipline yourself, which is infinitely better than constantly sourcing that elusive muse. 

If you’re untidy, start being more tidy; make your bed every single day, keep your workspace clear, get your thoughts down in organized notation, get your house in order.

If you don’t meditate or move your body in some way everyday, then get that ass moving; first thing in the morning, walk outside, take ten breaths and count them while observing the trees, or plants, or sky. MAKE time to move yourself during the day. For every working hour, dedicate 5–10 minutes to movement that makes you breathe hard — there’s at least 40 minutes of largely unnoticed physical exercise that will not only keep you healthy, will also promote good hormone balance so you stay happy and alert.

Make enormous tasks smaller. 

Break it down. Say your goal is to write the next great epic (see: @EvertaleProject), so just write 300,000 words and get published, right? That kind of perspective will destroy your confidence and wipe your goals off your radar quicker than a grull can burst from the sand and take your leg off. Be kind to your brain and spoon feed it mini tasks that it can digest and tick off. Ticking off goals is good for serotonin production, whereas larger projects tend to encourage procrastination and abandonment.

Efficiency. 

If you’re in the midst of deep work, the last thing you want to do is stop. Even briefly breaking from that state of flow can be catastrophic to your time management and overall morale. If you want to keep spirits up and continue feeling good while in a flow, then streamline your process. Make sure you are set up for 4–6 hours of continuous work with no interruptions or distractions. That means getting chores out of the way early or else having a set time for busywork that doesn’t intersect with your highest priority.

Consolidating tasks is a great way to both save time, and increase workflow efficiency. Our brains are not designed for multitasking. You do worse whenever you divide your focus. So, one thing at a time — keep your brain on the same track and tick off multiple, similar tasks at once. Broaden your scope of work to the week or month. Are you a content creator? Compile the rough ideas for an entire weeks or fortnight’s worth of post in one sitting. Then spend the next day work on formatting each one. The following day set up a posting schedule and move onto something else. Dividing work into chunks like this is more efficient and frees you up for the important stuff, like leisurely walks and coffee.

All work and no play makes Jack an uninspired boy.

Doing enjoyable, fun activities each day is another great way to give your brain a break from the stress and sometimes tedium of essential work. Before and after your work, do something enjoyable — if it benefits your health, like training or increases your knowledge base, all the better, but keep your work separate from your personal time.

Set a limit and stick to it.

When you finish: you finish. No after-dinner emails or paperwork. No grousing about the day. When you finish your 4–6 hours of deep work, you will have very little brain power left. Don’t make big decisions. Refrain from professional calls. Your time is up, pencils down, eyes up and looking forward to the rest of your afternoon, evening, or night. Take a power-nap, get outside, breathe deeply and remember that you won’t achieve everything in a day. Do solid, consistent work and measure your progress in months and years, not days and weeks. Take the pressure off yourself and remember that you are still spending your time — you won’t get today back. Make it count.