The #1 Key for Loving Work

What It Feels Like When Work Is Play

What does it mean to “chop wood, carry water?” The saying is a Zen proverb emphasizing the importance of diligence and perseverance in achieving one’s goals by focusing on the journey rather than just the result.

It reminds us that success is often the result of consistent effort over time and encourages us to embrace the process and focus on the present moment. Let’s look at how to apply the power of the present to find the #1 key for loving work, even if it’s hard.

We all have to learn to chop wood, carry water, and be happy in each moment.

The Way I Found My Way

I took a massive leap of faith when I was 30. My wife and mother of two young sons took every leap with me for the last 38 years, and together, we’ve found our way to love work and life even if we have bad days.

Most days, I can't wait to get to work. I work for myself, and my wife’s career has enabled us to afford my many entrepreneurial endeavors. If you’re called to work for yourself, listen to that call carefully and ensure it’s not a crank call from the devil. Choose your way wisely even if you think old people are stupid.

Here’s what every day feels like now, unlike having the Monday Blues six work days a week when I was much younger. There's no need for an alarm clock because I trust my body knows when to hit the floor. Most days, that's between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. My energy is off the charts. I grind fresh coffee beans and fire up a pot of medium roast coffee to sip while I read a book that ignites my spirit.

It’s time to play. Most days, after my spiritual reading and devotion, I write, paint, or pursue my passion for photography; art is love, and everyone is an artist because we get to create our life given the burning desire to follow our heart more than a wallet.

Almost every day feels like a holiday. Sure, I have bad days. I’m human. When I was younger, all work days were tough because I felt like I was selling my soul in bi-weekly paychecks.

"The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters." - Audrey Hepburn

Love Is the Key

The #1 key is love. If you want to love your work, you need to find work you love. If that sounds stupidly simple, it is. If simple were easy, it would be easier.

The problem is we let conscious and unconscious fear and deep-rooted insecurities about who we are and what we want to do for work. We let our parents browbeat us, or we fall into bad habits instead of improving our conscious ability to love life and work.

We are the problem, and most of us don't know it. That’s part of waking up and ending any remaining pity party we may hold for ourselves.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

How to Know More

The way to know more is to accept we don't know doodly squat, become curious as a child, and trust that the more we ask for guidance, the more we will be shown if we get off our butts and into the real world contributing to the communities in which we live and work.

Once we realize this planet is the ultimate training ground for souls throughout the universe, being on Earth is a gift. Part of waking up to who we are is accepting that not knowing is the precursor to knowing what's next.

Working in abject hell can compel us to a "moment of clarity" where we say, "I'm sick of this $#^! That's it. I'm going to change my ways of life and way of working. I will do whatever it takes because I can't take this level of sucking for much longer."

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” — Andrew Carnegie

The Springboard to Courage

In other words, we learn to use our pain and suffering, the former fear of failure, as our springboard to faith, light, courage, and meaningful action through which we get out of our comfort zones by injecting ourselves into the world beyond our mind-numbing devices. We must take significant action that empowers us to learn more as we try new things.

We must practice virtues like courage, honesty, justice, wisdom, temperance, kindness, humility, gratitude, patience, generosity, forgiveness, love, loyalty, respect, and responsibility. These are virtues that people can cultivate in their lives to become better individuals.

To do that, we have to know the cost of sins, which means "missing the mark." Most of us know what deadly sins feel like, such as lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. All of these vices lead to negative behaviors and consequences. Being human teaches this lesson universally.

We must see a need to fulfill our moral obligation to use our God-given brain and unique gifts in our small way to improve ourselves. The reason this is essential is when more of us learn to improve ourselves, we'll contribute to improving the world.

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” — Aristotle

Self-Improvement Isn't Selfish

The best way to start improving yourself is to seek to serve others by improving yourself. The journey begins by following your heart from the playful joy you felt as a child, looking for clues as to the unique abilities, interests, and gifts that are given to you.

Look around your community for opportunities to be a hard, consistent, reliable worker, small business owner, administrator, government employee, pastor, first responder, or whatever calls you to joy, happiness, and love of work and life.

There is no such thing as a dead-end job if you show up on time for work every day with a smile, you're ready and willing to be a great team player, do your job right the first time, and remain accountable to the people with whom you work. Every day of doing your best at work will reveal more about what's next if you're a dedicated student and servant to humanity.

How we see, think, and feel about ourselves determines the outcome we experience in life. In other words, the world is a mirror reflecting what you see, think, feel, and believe about yourself, others, and the world.

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama

Suggested Action Steps

Here are some suggested actions you can take starting today. Remember, every moment is a gift called the present.

Use the now to believe in your God-given power to live a happier, healthier, more community-based spiritual life. Your life is up to you to be a great copilot and become your best; self-actualization.

• Lose the mask of your fake persona. That's your ego and not your friend in the long run. This means doing your best to know and be yourself.
• Start training yourself to see yourself in a better light, kinder, more compassionate, patient, caring of others, and less selfish.
• Go out into the real world more often. The secret of living is giving. Get out there! Connect with people, and smile often.
• Get away from devices and mainstream media's toxic programming. Hijack your stolen attention span back from the bad guys. Read books, meditate, walk, and slow down. Be still and get to know yourself.
• Stop comparing yourself to false realities and others. You are a freaking gift from the heavens. Act like it.
• See what lights you up by trying lots of new things. Be curious, like when you were a child. And be happy you didn't go to school during the times when teachers thought hitting rogue students like me with yardsticks was cool.
• Find problems that you want to solve. Look around your neighborhood and community!
• Choose to become part of the solution to the problems that call you and seek to serve others more than yourself.
• Show up like a winner, not someone waiting for a handout or a promotion for doing nothing but complaining.
• Take the initiative and do your job right the first time, regardless of the position. Do the things you don't want to do if you want time to do the things that fire you up.
• Seek the fire within you. Be still more. Take care of yourself better. Stop shoving toxic waste into your body. Feed it with light and healthy stuff.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” — Albert Schweitzer

In conclusion, if I can find my way through hell on Earth, including being a snowmaker assistant on a small tundra-like mountain in New Hampshire, a restaurant dishwasher, bus boy bitch, cold line sucker, fence hole digger, lifeguard, tennis and Pickleball pro, and lifelong small business owner who found his way to loving life and work, so can you.

You can do this thing called living life on fire with the joy of learning and growing, working in a way that doesn't make others crazy, and feeling as though you can't wait to get to work the next day.

You need to believe enough in yourself to grind through the suck and find the eternal, brilliant, burning fire that lights you up with joy, smiles, and lots of ways of making your unique difference in the world wherever you go.

My final thought is don't take my word for any of this joy and happiness thing. Here's what Jesus said.

“Do not lie or do what you dislike, since all things are clear before heaven. for there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing covered that will not be uncovered.” —Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas

This article was originally published on Medium . I'm a partner in a commercial real estate investment, development, and consulting firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. When not serving our client investors, my passion and mission is empowering people to transform by understanding the convergence of faith, spirituality, and science. Subscribe to The God Chill newsletter on Substack by?clicking here .