Although most people work to earn money and fund their lives, we should note that work is not all about receiving a paycheck. Some people find work unpleasant and demanding in their lives and therefore, they decide to do whatever they can and utilize whatever chance they can get to avoid work. For example, individuals who say that a particular job is “beneath them” and those who only want highly paying jobs will find all means possible to get out of their jobs. While some folks will try sheer personality to avoid their work-related roles and responsibilities, others dodge by hiding and steal the credit after the work has been done. Surprisingly, some individuals have the audacity to demand a pay rise or request promotions not that they deserve it, but because they want it. From these examples, there is one common attribute; people are unwilling to demonstrate hard work in what they do. Hard work has more to offer like lay the foundation for success, promote happiness and build character than just a mere means to earn money.
Work is one of the ways to build personal character particularly in the current global state of character crises. When I can’t have something that I want within a prescribed time period, I am likely to lose the desire or even the need for that specific thing. Furthermore, if I cannot get it completely, then I will definitely forget about it. However, hard work is effective in building personal character as one learns to be disciplined and other virtues such as responsibility, determination, problem-solving, attentiveness and self-control. A person stands to learn a great level of discipline when involved in necessary responsibilities that one must fulfill even though they are unpleasant such as going to school. What makes this kind of work suitable for this role is the fact that it does not involve economic incentives to keep someone involved. Similar works like studying for exams or training for a job also instill other essential virtues such as patience, obedience and time management. These examples of work are done in environments with both motivators and demoralizers. A keen and observant individual can easily learn that disciplined individuals usually succeed in these works while the undisciplined ones rarely do.
While many people can positively build their characters for being involved in important activities like going to school, others are likely to identify the need for certain behaviors and only choose to adopt the needed character to succeed in such activities. Once such people have completed the work, they switch back to their normal behaviors. The same case can also happen in the type of work where people are employed and earn a paycheck for their work. Consequently, in this case, personal characters are only built temporarily to meet expected needs during the course of work. However, the most important outcome is that a person learns something positive particularly the expected individual characters or behaviors that one needs to succeed in a given form of work. As argued in the desire theory, getting what we want brings us happiness. For instance, even if I change my character just to meet the preferred behavior for a given work, it would mean that my experience from that particular work was helpful in helping me to learn and build my character. If I successfully execute a similar work and I get what I want, then I am likely to be happy as explained in the desire theory.
We have heard people say they are happy for achieving their dream careers or doing what they love. For example, when one grows up with the ambition to be a doctor and pursues medical studies from high school through college and finally qualifies as a certified medical doctor, that person is likely to be happy in life for living the dream. Vocational type of work tends to be a great source of happiness because the people involved in such jobs are not motivated by money but rather, it is their personal desire to do such work. Although vocations can also enable one to earn money, the direct wellbeing that is derived from doing the work gives someone the feeling of satisfaction. As argued in the hedonism theory, the experience of doing what one chooses to do is a remarkable source of happiness. When I choose the type of work to do, I will enjoy doing it. Furthermore, when I work hard, I feel fulfilled when I achieve the set objectives.
Some people may argue that work or hard work is not the only way to achieve happiness since one can also be happy by just enjoying the pleasures of life like going on vacations to have fun. We must first recognize the purpose of vacations. As we may all know, vacations are meant to offer us breaks from our busy lives. Too much of something is poisonous and therefore we need vacations to reduce the boredom that comes with working all the time. Similarly, having vacations all through can be unpleasant as too much fun can lose its meaning. Furthermore, the happiness from fun moments is usually short-lived as compared to the happiness derived from work. Whereas vacations and fun moments exclusively bring happiness to the individual who directly enjoy fun time, work touches the lives of other people either directly or indirectly. The happiness I get from the realization that my work had a positive impact on the life of another person will last longer than the one I get from fun moments during vacations. Leading unoccupied lives may lead to conflicts while spending our energy and time on valuable things to ourselves and others prevents us from making foolish and selfish decisions.
Work can be a good source of confidence and pride. Engaging in activities that helps the society boosts one’s sense of worth and self-esteem. When people lose their jobs or retire, they tend to get depressed for feeling worthless and with nothing to show as part of their contributions to the society. I feel valuable and useful when I contribute to the society through work and my state of my mind also improves. Everyone human being is born with a purpose to fulfill for one to fit into the society. One feels confident and secure for serving a certain purpose and improves self-worth to the community. People are can feel redundant and useless after stopping to work and consequently their confidence crushes, leading to depressions. Work as an employment from which people earn their living is the most prevalent type that makes people to feel confident and self-worth.
A possible argument may arise to dispute the ability of work to boost an individual’s confidence and self-worth with the view that people who don’t work but come from wealthy backgrounds are usually confident in most cases. The reality is that the confidence of such people is still founded on hard work. For example, the hard work of a billionaire on which massive wealth is generated will be the source of the confidence among the children and other generations to follow. Therefore, even if such people may feel confident and proud yet they don’t work, the truth remains that their confidence and pride is founded on someone else’s hard work without which they might not have such a feeling. Furthermore, when it comes to serious social matters that involve reasonable people, only individuals who work or have worked to be who they are can confidently talk before others and inspire them. Someone who engages in constructive activities that add value to the society is a greater inspiration to others than the one who only takes credit for what other people have done. As explained in the objective theory, human happiness comes along with what one achieves in life including career achievements as the common achievement among most people.
Work is not just a means to earn someone a living. From a personal perspective, I find nothing as fulfilling as waking up early enough to work on a given task with certain objectives and retire to bed in the evening knowing that I have achieved the objectives by the end of the day. Dedicating my energy to something substantial gives me an amazing and fulfilling feeling. Although sometimes work may make someone feel a buck, it has so much to offer. Most people would not like to be given handouts. Instead, sensible people would want to earn their own success and have control over their lives. Work brings excitement and joy when one accomplishes the intended goals. A stimulating work keeps one on toes and pushes them to think critically for problem-solving to grow personally as well as professionally. The challenges and opportunities associated with work require people to improve into better versions of themselves. As one grows, days become much more rewarding and experience become much more valuable. These accomplishments don’t come to people who lazy around and expect success to be handed to them without doing anything. Anybody has a chance to achieve anything in life as long as one is willing to work hard and commit their mind and effort into doing it.
