Between Work and Fun

By Francis Kong (Philippine Star Nov 15)

I train, I speak, I give keynotes and this is why I meet people all the time.
I see different kinds of people all the time. I see people who are so happy and productive in their jobs and then I see people who look like they have entered their career as the cruise director for the Titanic.
After my talks, participants would come to me for advice. Our conversation would go like this. As I share this with you I want you to think it through as it may carry the answer to your questions about your own work and fun issues.

Participant: "I am not happy with my job Francis, I am thinking of resigning, should I or shouldn't I?"

Francis : "Well show me a job where you can be happy all the time and I will resign and join you!"

Participant: "But there is no fun with my work, Francis!"

Francis : "Sure, That's why they call it work, and that's what they pay you to do it! Had work been fun, it would have been called "FUN."

Participant: "So what should I do? I heard a lot of speakers tell me that I need to love what I do but I simply don't."

Do you get the point? Now let's be real.
You want fun? Go to a circus. But if you want to be paid, go to work, Duh!!
Work in itself is never fun. That's why it is called labor.
Fun is the feeling part in you and work is the doing part you have to deal with.
Let me ask you a couple of questions:
Do you like to be promoted?
Do you want to stay employed?
Do you use your pay check to pay for luxuries such as paying off your loans and buying food for your family? Then it's got nothing to do with your job. It's got everything to do with you. Get this, it's not what you feel. It's what you do with what you feel.

Maybe there's something lacking in you/in what you do and this is why you are not happy. There are people doing the same jobs and they are happy aren't they? Maybe age has caught up with you. You're bored and you are tired. And you want to try something else. It is not a bad thing. But you have to be practical.

Times are tough. Jobs will be hard to find. If you carry the baggage of not being happy with your current job, you will bring it with you where ever you go and you will become more unhappy wherever you are.

Why not try something else with what you are and what you currently do?
Here are a few ideas.

1. You can pretend to be happy with your work. And you're probably saying, "But that's not me." And you are right. It's you that your officemates and co-workers do not like to associate with. If you whimper and whine and moan and groan all the time, not only do you make other people unhappy, they in turn will reinforce your not being happy. If you pretend to be happy, you might just get to the point of really being happy.

2. Be grateful. Do not look at things you do not have. look at things you have and be thankful. Be satisfied with what you have but never be satisfied with what you are and you are becoming which brings me to another point.

3, Grow and learn-Learn and grow. You need to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Develop a positive attitude. Get out of your comfort zones. Read more books, listen to more tapes, attend more seminars and improve your skills. Accept more challenges and make yourself a lot more useful that you currently are today.

THE INTENSITY OF YOUR HAPPINESS, those moments when you are given a promotion, when somebody swept you off your feet, when you won the jackpot in a game show are nice but they are not important. Frequency is. What matters are those moments of quiet happiness that comes to you as being content in whatever situation you are in your life.

There is a Swedish proverb that says: "Those who wish to sing always find a song." Same thing : "Happiness comes to those who will to find it."