Without work, we die. Now, that most assuredly is a provocative title, isn’t it? And where does it come from?
Well, just a small story. This morning, I went to a doctor, and I was asking him, how was life? How are you doing?
Nice man. And he said, well, I’m doing fine. I said, I had to wait three weeks for this appointment.
And he said, yes, I apologize. This is because we no longer have enough support staff. I said, what?
How is this possible? He said, well, 50% of the young people who graduate from nursing school, for example, don’t actually go on to be practicing nurses. Why?
Well, he wasn’t quite sure. But I thought to myself, perhaps it’s because some parents are telling you, relax, you don’t have to worry. You finish your degree.
If you don’t really want to become a nurse, want to practice your profession, I understand, so on and so forth.
Now, I’ve heard this more than once, so let us assume it is somewhat true for this generation, for the so-called post-millennials, Generation Z. The problem, unfortunately, is that work is a necessary component of human development.
And the people who perhaps live at the train stations or stay on the streets and don’t do any work, and work doesn’t have to necessarily be for a financial game, but it means some activity that produces some results.
I mean, that has to be work, right? You work on a paper, let’s say, for instance, or you work on some project at home, or you take an art class, and you work on perhaps creating a given painting, a portrait, whatever it is, but life is work.
This is the only way that human beings have ever developed and certainly ever will develop. So if you adopt this social phenomenon of lying flat or doing nothing, you inevitably will find that your life will be shortened.
I think there is no question with this, because life is exciting, but it has to be painful. We have to construct things in our own minds, be it may construct a career or construct a relationship or build a house or whatever it is.
We are busy people, and if we adopt a different stance, we’re naturally lazy people, for instance. Things will not go well in our society, for sure. So the question becomes in a way, doesn’t it?
What are we going to do? How are we going to possibly overcome this negative trait that younger society is getting increasingly imbued with?
Now, without work, we die. So what does this mean? Well, for sure, why is this sentence important?
Well, without work, we don’t really have, I think at least, a capacity to alter time. Because part of our organization is Don’t Be A Wage Slave, which means don’t sell your time for money.
Put your time into a worthwhile career that brings you joy, whatever it is, for sure. And so work, in that sense, it reveals our reality, doesn’t it? It gives me context, it tells me who I am.
And by working, I’m able to develop my skill set, my competence, right? Then it gives me a sense of directions, discipline as well.
I was mentioning to my students the other day, when you wake in the morning, it is very important that you make your bed.
Why? Because by making your bed, you close the night and you unlock the day. And it could be as simple as throwing the sheet on the bed, for sure.
It doesn’t have to be a job. It could be very simple, but you’re saying psychologically to yourself, I made my bed, now I’m getting on with the day. So there’s an element of discipline, of course, associated with work.
Of course. And our work gives us identity. All of us are identified through our work.
What is your career? I’m a student. What is your career?
I’m presently doing X, Y and Z. Now there are people who claim that they hate their work. Well, these are not smart people, obviously.
As I alluded to earlier, because if you hate your work, you better change it such that you’re going to enjoy it because you are going to work a large percentage of your life.
And if you don’t work, inevitably you have to either wait for your parents to die to give you money or you have to marry someone who has money.
But laziness and procrastination, these are not tools for a successful life because our intrinsic mission in life for sure is to gain as much knowledge as we can and then give back to the common good because a lot of people are not like you.
They’re not as good-looking and smart as you are, so therefore you are obligated to try to share something with people in society. Absolutely. And by working you are able to generate a contribution, aren’t you?
I thought to myself, work itself tests your character, doesn’t it? Because sometimes you’re working at some job, let’s say, or on some project, and you just don’t know for the life of you how you’re going to finish this project. You have no idea.
You’re at your wits end, so to speak. Either you don’t have the skill set to finish, or you’re afraid, or you’re lacking in time, or you’re sick, or whatever it is. There’s always something that gets in your way.
I was speaking with a man recently, actually, and we talked about the noise of life, and that was really quite interesting, because that noise is telling you about things that could go wrong, should go wrong, might go wrong. Constant negative noise.
And that negative noise never goes away. There is no way you’re going to meditate yourself out of that negative noise. You’re going to have to manage the noise.
It’s analogous, if you will, to, as you get older, sometimes your body in the morning hurts. It just does. Your legs hurt.
Maybe you’ve walked quite a distance the other day. Right? Anything.
And are you going to be stopped by this pain? Of course not. You have to just get on with it.
You hobble forward. That’s what work teaches you, is that you have an objective to achieve. And Sadguru in India, when I was at that conference, his words were said by the guru there.
And the guru said to us that when I wake up in the morning, I could decide if it’s a good day or a bad day. Of course. So in other words, I’m in control of me.
And Sadguru has said that we should die at the podium. In other words, until we’re at the end of our natural life, we must continue to work.
This concept of retirement was essentially a plot by Bismarck to get rid of the older workers who might potentially be revolutionaries, people who would want to have social change, create unions. God only knows, right?
So think to yourself, work is an important quality of my life. And if I don’t like my work, I must make a plan to change it, for sure. And then I can get on with life.
Because life is meant to be fun, I believe, and filled with joy. And yes, it has a component of pain, sure, that’s part of life as well. But most importantly, it’s actually a positive experience.
And this is true whether you’re 16 or 60. But you do have to work at it. And you know what they say, you know what they say.
Critical thinking is necessary, especially if you’re going to come to the realization that without work, we will die, psychologically and emotionally to a certain extent. And critical thinking is great, truly great. You take care.
God bless. Bye bye.