Labour's love?
Work comes to us in many forms, from opening our eyes in the morning to hill running in the evening, it can be work to restrain our responses, to not act when you should, to be honest or kind, it can be seen as anything that we resists us and overcome. We can work on ourselves or for others, to feed our families or the world, it can be an indirect benefit to others or as solid as building a house and then a home inside. There is the work that finds us and that which we seek out, it can trap us for forty years, and yet without it we can be lost, the quest that we can all take is in being ruthless in the pursuit of the work that aligns with our inner purpose and character, there is a range of roles that we can take in this world, we might not be able to do everything but there is something that will uniquely suit you, there is a way that leads to the satisfaction of a good life, and it will always include work, it is the grit around which you build your character and value.
First, there is a difference between a job and work, a job is just for money, no shame in that, you can do a job for forty years as long as you know the reason that you are doing it for, and it needs to be a good reason, living for the weekend is giving up fifty years for twenty good ones, is not a good deal. If it is for the well being of your family, to give them shelter, food and a better future, that is a life well lead, however if you make that choice, you should be clear on what is enough for your needs, as your time will always be better spent with your family, so once you have enough put the rest of your time towards them.
Of course, whether you work for money or love, it is still a good idea to become financial independence, that is having enough assets to pay an income greater than your living expenses (whether that is shares, property or a business, it does not matter) as it gives you a huge amount of freedom, and the difference between security and fear of instability is huge and life changing. It is honestly the best thing you can buy, it lasts a lifetime unlike clothes, cars and other consumables, buy your freedom and then the rest becomes clearer, operating from a place of love means that you are not limited by your fears, you stop needing money and instead it becomes a tool to be used. Once you realise that there is a big prize out there, it is amazing what becomes unnecessary spending in comparison to your freedom.
If you achieve that freedom from work it comes with a clarity as to what is important, what you have been leaving alone until you had the time and energy to deal with, it can even be overwhelming, you might spend a month sleeping and doing nothing, this is healthy and necessary in the short term for your happiness, and it does not last. We are dynamic problem solving beings, once we have rested, we become restless, that is when you have to chose your labour again, doing nothing is not an option, rest is wonderful, but nothingness is death. It is just not in your nature, the mind will give you problems if you have nothing to do, it will dreg up the past, create monsters in your future, abuse and mock you until you are occupied by more immediate concerns.
However it will not be fooled by busy work, there is a time and place for basic functional caring for your environment and yourself, a clean, simple and tidy place to live is a joy, it suits it's purpose, there is certain a big project to set such a place up, decluttering, deciding how each room will function and serve you, but once it is done well, there is only maintenance left to do. A little sweeping in the morning, returning everything back to it home, washing, cooking, cleaning, good honest work in which to lose yourself, however it does not have any meaning except that which you bring to it. If you are busy it will just be a chore that you have to get through on a long checklist of jobs, a monk on the other hand will bring mindfulness and inner peace to the same simple sweeping and carrying of water. Not that they get to keep all that good stuff to themselves, we can have it too just by bring our stable attention on to exactly what we are doing, we can turn it into a flow activity of calmly doing one thing at a time to the best of our ability, it fills a simple task into a performance of elegance and skilfulness, just moving and doing, nothing more or less, it becomes a meditation in itself.
It is possible to develop such simple tastes into even more difficult task, growing vegetables, crafting, batch cooking, writing, becoming competent at something is inherently satisfying, even if it is as useless as juggling, to be good at something is the difference between a job and work. They might overlap, teaching is hard and satisfying, you would not do it if you were not getting paid (especially where children are involved) but you do not do it just because you are being paid and you are good at it (there nothing more depressed than a bad teacher). However even just being good at something is not truly enough, what we really need is to have that thing that we are good at be in alignment with our inner mission, our character, who we are, we need a mission that we believe in and that we can capable of achieving and which is difficult but not impossible, that is the sweat spot, that is where life becomes magical, work is a pleasure and you can switch easily between your priorities.
This is a life worth living, where you are busy enough, have enough money, enough freedom, enough family life, time with friends, we are after the rat adventure parkland rather than a race. We want a world where people takes risk without overwhelming fear, a basic income gives you that, whether the government gives it you or you build a financial independence fund of your own. When you can get past the fear of losing everything, you get to take risks with the rest, you do not have to worry about where the next meal is coming from, or whether you will pay the rent and electric bills, you have health care and education. The difference between actions from fear and those from love is not a little better they are exponentially higher in quality, and that has a benefit to all of society, if we are missing out on one google, apple or Microsoft a year because of peoples fear of starting that business in their garage, that is a massive increase in the wealth creation of our nations that we are missing out on.
We want freedom for all people, we need to smooth out inherited advantages, that is why I support basic income, so that we have a better society where people are free to become their best selves by doing labour that bring them joy and us greater productivity and creativity. As that is what really drives our economy, not labour but technology, freeing people, frees their potential and that has a spreading effect across the whole of our lives, our lives are better for the internet, cell phones, electric bicycles, they have increased efficiency and made our cost of living lower, we get more out of less, and that is the way to an abundant society, and there is more to come with artificial intelligence and robots, and the faster that we get there the better.
As abundance has a real benefit to our individual happiness and healthiness, having enough makes us better, it frees our lives up, but it also puts the responsibility on us to do the best we can with the opportunities that we have. There no else to blame in a world that does not force people to work with the threat of death by homelessness, and that a modern society supports public execution on the basis of economic failure is beyond me, however that is world we live in and I understand why so many people feel persecuted by such a society and choose to be it's victim, in the hope of mercy. When you remove that fear, you are left with love, and the responsibility of everything being in your control. As everyone get the same bonus for pasting “Go”, we all have an equal shot at the next turn round the board, we get to actually search for the thing that we love, the thing that we be the centre of a life well lived, our labour's love.
