You may have read the title to this week's FTM and thought what's the difference? Well, the semantics are in the same ballpark, yet if we dig a little deeper there is a wide gulf between the two. Let's look at these two words and see if we can clarify and prioritize where your bang for the buck is going to come.
Goal one for me as a Career and Technical Education supervisor in our school system is to assist each and every student that graduates from our high schools to have post-secondary and career plans in place. I tell groups of students of all ages that if you are fortunate enough to be doing what you are really good at and something that you like to do, and something that people will pay you to do, then you probably won't ever feel like you are working! I know because I love my job as an educator. I have been involved in education for almost 30 years and each morning I wake up, I bounce out of bed and am eager to head into my job. Not going to sit here and tell you there haven't been "those days" along the way, but overall I am one happy educator!
So that is my job. I have been a classroom teacher, an elementary school administrator, and now a district wide supervisor and each has been rewarding and all three have enabled me to support my family financially. That's what a job is supposed to do, make living possible. A job provides us with a certain standard of living based on our income which allows us to buy the things we need and also enjoy the little extras in life along the way. Definition of job: A paid position of employment. So, what's the difference in the phrase "your work" to the this definition of "your job" you ask? Let's move in for the takeaway today.
I heard a segment on NPR's Story Court the other day that caused me to draw this distinction between a job and the work you do. In it the narrator shared a story about his grandmother and the sacrifices she had made throughout her life working to support her family. Lola, the grandmother in the story didn't finish high school, because of an untimely death in her immediate family that created the need for her take on a job. Throughout her life, she took several hard jobs just to provide for her children. As a widow and sole provider for her children, this "uneducated" mother was only qualified for laborious jobs that paid little, so she often took on multiple jobs to make the "ends meet". Later in life, she moved in with her daughter and grandson's family and still cooked food items to sale to supplement the family income, one more job that Lola had over her life. The key moment in this brief two minute segment is when the grandson, Tan, noted that what he had learned from and gleaned from his grandmother was not necessarily about her jobs, but about the love and dedication to her family that she had demonstrated over the years. Tan's takeaway is best described by his statement, "We leave our job at the end of the day, but what we leave behind at the end of our life is the product of our work." Wow, that hit home really quick.
We all have jobs, at least I hope you have a job that provides for you and/or your family. We each also have an ongoing work that we are doing or should be doing. Our jobs provide sustenance for the day to day life we live. Our work, on the other hand, should provide a legacy that will last long after we leave this world. Work ethic, persistence, perseverance, grit, resiliency, integrity, compassion, empathy, love all of these should be the byproduct of the work you are doing. Above any of these there should be an underlying theme of faith. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11: 1 Our work here on earth should have a direct correlation to our faith. We hope in spite of circumstances that appear overwhelming. We provide hope when others give up and quit. Our hope should not be in man, but instead our hope is in direct proportion to our belief in a higher power. Believing in God means that regardless of what happens to us, it could never be bigger than He who lives in us!
Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho it's off to work I go, every day, every minute of each day God grants me to live! Leave a legacy that will encourage and motivate those you live with, work with, and share life with each day. Make the world a better place because of the work you did while you were a part of it!
Coach Carter
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