We so easily forget that chopping wood and carrying water are required to live well.
Imagine the life of early settlers. Survival required the completion of daily chores like chopping wood for the fire and carrying water to the kitchen. In winter there was no forgiveness of these chores. They couldn’t be put off until the next day or next week. People couldn’t call in sick or take a mental health day. Nobody had the option of finding a better job. Do and live or don’t and die.
Goals were clear. Chop enough wood to stay warm and cook meals. Carry enough water to quench thirst, cook and bathe. There was no question about whether they liked chopping wood. They just chopped.
Today most of us still need to chop wood. We call it working. There are innumerable types of jobs that we do. They are all the equivalent of chopping wood and carrying water. Few of us have a choice about whether to work or not. Some of us have no choice about the type of work we do. We all have a choice about our attitude towards work.
The choices we have nowadays complicate our thinking. If we don’t like a job we can find another one. Some fall victim to the grass is always greener syndrome and trudge unhappily from job to job. Others think the job is making them unhappy when really it is about working. They try other jobs but work is still there. None of us can escape chopping wood of one sort or another.
Back when there were no options, we could chop wood with a smile, we could be content with having wood to chop, or we could chop wood angrily. We can easily conclude by looking at such a situation that one might as well choose to be happy or content.
In today’s context, we choose to be happy from where we are at. If we don’t like our job we can change our attitude by admitting that we must chop wood whether we like it or not and that, for better or worse, that’s the wood we have to chop for now. We can be content with what we have rather than craving what we don’t have. We can accept our lives as they are now rather than living in the future when our lives might be something else. We can make our own grass greener by tending to it rather than wishing for our neighbor’s grass.
Choosing to be happy with our work as I’ve described it is not the same as choosing to settle. Instead, happiness will increase our drive to improve our lives and the lives of those around us and it will increase our ability to do so successfully.
What is your situation? Are you unhappy because of your job? Happy because of your job? Happy despite your job? Please leave a comment.
