The meaning of tasks or how to see any task as a stepping stone

Intro – Why are you doing your job?

This article is about Why we are doing our job? and For whom we are working for?
Actually to put is simple: What is the meaning of our job?

As time pass by – no matter if you are an entrepreneur or employee – for most of us the routine kicks in.
Is a normal process, there is nothing wrong with it. It happens because our mind and body does an wonderful job to adapt to changes.

The matter – higher purpose and routine

In the beginning there is always a higher purpose in the way we see our work.
This purpose is different for each of us, but generally it fits in one of the following categories: world-wide (to improve something, to change something, to create something, … ), personal (to acquire, to achieve, to evolve, to build, …).
What I see happening after years of working is forgetting this purpose.
After a long period, the focus is starting to change from the higher purpose to another type of goal.
Usually we’re starting to think we work for a person, or for paying the bills, or for surviving from one day to another.
And I think this has a strong impact on the motivation and quality of achievements. There is a big different between auto-motivation and external motivation.

What I described above it is happening more in industries where people are not in direct contact with the final user of their work. One example I can think of is IT programming. Where programmers are working to a piece of software for months or maybe years, and in the end there are very few occasions to actually meet in person the users of that software.
So it is very easy to loose the focus on the beneficiary and think you are working for your boss and you’re doing things just because he asks for them for a personal reason.
Or if you’re the entrepreneur developing this application, it is easy to think at the market in generally, at the evolution of price, or quantity or cash-flow or whatever other concept you think it comes to challenge your business.

The shift – it is only in your mind

The solution to this is the change of focus
Don’t take things so personally.

If your manager gives you a task, think to the end-user, the one that will actually use it.
You’re doing it for that person, not just because your manager asked it. Yes, the assignment comes from your manager, but the beneficiary is another person.
Or think again why did you entered in this field. What drives you. That is the thing you’re working for.
Or if you’re the one creating the business, reminder yourself that you started it because you had a purpose.
And that purpose is not marking the business run. Not even becoming the number 1 in an industry. You wanted to create something in the world. You’re not creating a business to pay taxes, or to launch products quicker. You did it because you believed in something.

Remember the meaning of your work. That’s it.

And when someone comes to you with a task, a request, think that the purpose of doing that request is more related to your personal higher purpose then to the person in front of you.

In the end, the results will be the same no matter from whom or for what you’re doing your job.
But it makes a lot of different in the quality of results and the quality of your life if you do it for a higher purpose or just because someone else asked you to do it.

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Thank you and enjoy your life,
Lucian

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