It

is amazing how the mind works. The moment I started to focus on the subject of work, I started seeing different pieces of information on the same subject.

For instance, I was on LinkedIn the other day when I noticed Tony Robbins’ message on the same subject. It turns out that he was issuing a rallying call on the American Labor Day. Here is what he said:

“The most sacred thing we can offer another human being besides our love is our labor.

Our work is an offering of our time, our energy, our creativity, our intelligence, our greatest vision, and ultimately our desire and ability to take action.

It is through our work—which is really our LOVE in ACTION—that we share our greatest gifts with one another.”

Work or Job?

In our first article on this subject, we started exploring the possibility that your work is not limited by your job. In other words, even if you do or do not have a job, your work is still there waiting for you.

That is one way of looking at it, but I shall revert back to it shortly. The other concept about work is that we need to be reconciled to its definition. If we had the definition of work right, then we shall see life in a different light.

What’s Work?

The definition of work, unfortunately, has been shrouded in meanings that relate to being paid. In other words, work is always being defined as something that you can be paid for. We give it a definition depending on the rewards we get out of it.

The problem with that outlook is twofold. First, anything that does not seemingly give us a reward is not considered as work. Second, the kind of reward we are looking for is always monetary and cyclical. In other words, salaries.

I heard a friend of mine some time back saying that salaries are not Biblical, wages are. Wages are what will flock into your life depending on the work that you have done, and not depending on a contract that you have signed to be paid every end of the month.

Your Ultimate Work

Let’s go back to the notion of your ultimate work. I believe with all of my heart that you were equipped specifically to do some special things here on earth. In the previous post, we saw that your work is basically your identity.

In other words, we identify you by the purpose that you bring on the face of the earth. Purpose is what you were created to do. It is your difference on the face of the earth. It is your calling. It is what will bring you the ultimate fulfilment in life.

What we need to understand though is that purpose will never be fulfilled without work. Purpose itself as I have already said is your ultimate work. It is what you have been selected to do.

Work Deploys Purpose

The doing it though, the making sure that you deploy your calling, it will require you to work. It will require you to first of all work on yourself so that you are aligned, and then it will require you to work on the work.

The biggest mistake we make and I have made it in my early days is to look for the ultimate work so that we can start working. This is what I mean. With the message of purpose, people tend to think that if you are not doing anything that is within your purpose, you are wasting time.

Well, I beg to differ by the following points.

Evolution of Purpose

First, your purpose discovery is not acute. It is not something that comes to you in one day. In other words, you cannot suspend living until your purpose is discovered.

No, you have to be busy doing something because purpose discovery is a process. Waiting while not working is not the way you discover your purpose however much you are praying and fasting. The work you are doing in between your purpose discovery is as critical as the work you will do after knowing what your purpose is.

Stewardship

Secondly, stewardship is part and parcel of purpose discovery. Why? Because stewardship prepares and sharpens you for what your calling is. It is perhaps common knowledge that an apprentice has to be a journeyman before he can become a master.

This essentially means that you might have to go through a period of training, a period of setbacks, a period of failing before you ascend to the throne of your ultimate work.

Even Without Pay

Thirdly, work that does not pay is not necessarily useless. It is work that goes into contributing to your ultimate work in the end. It is part of your preparation.

You might not be paid to work but the pay is not the only thing that you will gain from the work. I saw a post from a friend of mine whose calling is to redefine work the other day. I think I should invite him to submit to us an article about work. Here is what the Facebook Post said:

He went for training to enable him to be a better agent. Housing, transport, and meals all catered for. In the end, he was furious that he had not been paid—that he went home without even [sic] bread. That is where we have reached.

Need I say any more?

Give or Get?

Our focus has to change. We have to look at work not from the point of what we can get from it, but from the point of what difference we are making, what impact we are creating and what blessing we are bringing on the face of the earth.

Ultimately, if you believe like I do that you are here on earth for a reason and for a purpose, then the only way you will deploy that purpose is through work.

Through Work, Purpose is Deployed

Here is the thing. Any work that you will start with will not be useless. It will always open up to more opportunities for you to do your ultimate work.

My first job was at an abandoned, darkened, damp and dusty cellar at an oil and gas company. They wanted me to shift through their files papers that were designated for burning. Someone had sued them and they were looking for evidence.

That job or that work was not necessarily my ultimate work. However, it was important to help me with my identity issues as I have explained in the previous post. Your purpose, my friend, will only be deployed through work.

So let’s start working!