DOING YOUR WORK With EXCELLENCE & HUMAN PERFECTION

Josemaria Escriva1 (Furrow, 496) wrote: Here is a mission for ordinary Christians which is heroic and will always be relevant to the present day: to carry out in a holy way all different kinds of occupations even those that might seem least promising. Of course, everyone dreams of being successful at work as well. But is hard work really a key to success? Perhaps its better to define hard work as work that is challenging. Both hard work and working hard (i.e. putting in the time required to get the job done) are required for success. A problem occurs when people think of challenging work as painful or uncomfortable. Does challenging work necessarily have to be painful? Obviously not. In fact, a major key to success is to learn to enjoy challenging work and to enjoy working hard at it. Why challenging work? Because challenging work, when intelligently chosen, pays off. Its the work that people of lesser character will avoid. If you avoid challenging work, you avoid doing what it takes to succeed. To keep your muscles strong or your mind sharp, you need to challenge them. To do only whats easy will lead to physical and mental flabbiness and very mediocre results, followed by a great deal of time and effort spent justifying why such flabbiness is alright, instead of stepping up and taking on some real challenges. Tackling challenges builds character, just as lifting weights builds muscle. To avoid challenge is to abandon ones character development.
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Almost everyone has been brainwashed to accept the wrong premise that hard work is necessary in order to be successful. But the overwhelming evidence suggests the contrary, that hard work has nothing to do with success and is actually counterproductive. If hard work is supposed to produce success, then it would stand to reason that everyone who works hard should be successful. But that is far from the case. Most people who work hard never come close to being successful. In fact, most hard workers have a much higher incidence of non-success than they have success. Financial strain, stress-related disease, and lack personal fulfillment are at epidemic proportions, while wealth, health, and happiness are rare in comparison. Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 502) preached: You really do need to make an effort and put your shoulder to the wheel... For all that, you should put your professional interests in their place: they are only means to an end; they can never be regarded in any way as if they were the basic thing. How many of these forms of professionalitis make union with God impossible! So how do we get started on the success journey? What does it take to be a success, according to John Maxwell for example? Lets start with a vision. The idea is to be able to motivate yourself. Motivation comes from striving toward excellence, by committing himself to becoming everything you are capable of becoming. Once you have a certain vision staring at your face and running in your mind, you start motivating yourself and you move forward in the definite direction. Along the way, we find ourselves not only motivating our inner selves but also people around us. Lets learn to face our fears. Once we start facing our worst fears head on, we find a stream of courage generating within us. We

Josemaria Escriva, Opus Deis Founder, cf. http://www.escrivaworks.org/

must learn to handle all the uncertainties and predicaments of our life. That itself is to grow in maturity. Creating a benchmark or rather call it, setting high standards is next. Whatever we do, whomever we are dealing with, whatever we say, we must act with utmost integrity and honesty. Remember, if we are good, others want to emulate us and that itself presents a case of our setting high benchmark for ourselves. When we are truthful, we will always find people supporting us and standing by us even during worst of the times One of the important steps is to be realistic about our situation. One must strive to be clear off all forms of self-delusion and unnecessary mental games. Leadership is important, in not only our achieving our potential, but prompting others to achieve as well. One must also encourage others to realize and appreciate that there is a price to pay for everything they want. If one is willing to survive and excel in this brutally competitive world, then weaknesses must be overcome and standards have to meet. Accepting responsibility is major task. There is no scope for making excuses or holding grudges or blaming others. Trust me; there is no better satisfaction than repeating I am responsible. The next step is you take action. Action is often preceded by mental preparation and character building. Action is all about what we actually do. Its not about what we say. Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 500) wrote: When you started your ordinary work again, something like a groan of complaint escaped you: Its always the same! And I told you: Yes, its always the same. But that ordinary job which is the same one your fellow workers do has to be a constant prayer for you. It

has the same lovable words, but a different tune each day. It is very much our mission to transform the prose of this life into poetry, into heroic verse. The question arises, why we need to love the work we do? And does this loving our work affect us in any way? The answer is a simple yes! We need to do it for ourselves. We need to do it for our own satisfaction. Thats why, if we cant be doing the work we love, then we must love the work we do. We need to have this love affair with our work because thats the only way; we wont bring home frustration and bitterness of our office work to our home at the end of each day to adversely affect our family. We have several reasons of doing it. We need to love our work because we wont prefer to leave our negativity as legacy for our co-workers and colleagues. We need to do it because, a countrys economy depends upon workers whose love for their work helps in increasing their productivity. Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 519) taught: Working with cheerfulness is not the same as working away merrily with no depth, as if you were getting rid of a troublesome burden. You must try not to lessen the value of your efforts through lack of attention or superficiality, so that in the end you are in danger of coming to God emptyhanded. According to a recent poll, percentage of employees who are truly engaged with their work is only 29% whereas 54% of workers are just going through motions and can be called not engaged. The most disappointing finding is almost 17% of employees are actively disengaged and that way, they threaten the security of their own jobs and those of coworkers. Well, there can be several excuses like, being underpaid, not finding the work exciting, bad office environment but then one has to love the work in order to have a great personal and

professional life. According to folklore, there is only one secret of a fulfilled life and that is whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. If you cant be doing the work you love, love the work thats been put before your hand to be done. Josemaria Escriva has a similar advice: do what you ought; and put yourself into what you are doing. Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 509) reminded us: You know that the task is urgent, and that one minute given to comfort is time taken from the glory of God. Why, then, do you hesitate to make conscientious use of every moment? Moreover, I ask you to think whether the minutes you have to spare throughout the day, which taken together come to hours, might not be prompted by your disorder and laziness. Time management is one of the biggest challenges for professionals and individuals alike. Its all about being disciplined and strong willed regarding managing this crucial aspect of your life in an efficient way. More often than not, problem of over committing creates a huge problem in families today. We also know that, these days adults are in habit of taking more than they can handle at work. At the same time, they also have to balance their homes and maintain a happy household. It feels, as if there is always so much to do. Its kind of overwhelming feeling and it results in stress, anxiety which lead to unhappiness. But then, this problem has a cure. It can definitely be changed by following specific behavioral patterns. Half of the world population suffers from problem of inability of saying no. This is the biggest problem in effective time management. One should definitely practice the art of saying no. Being honest with self and others is very effective approach. Just saying I just dont have the extra time is a great approach as well.

Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 527) noted: I have seen many people live heroic lives for God without leaving their own place of work, and I have come to this conclusion: for a Catholic work is not just a matter of fulfilling a duty it is to love: to excel oneself gladly in duty and in sacrifice. Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 531) advised: Place on your desk, in your room, in your wallet... a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and look at it when you begin your work, while you are doing it, and when you finish it. She will obtain, I assure you!, the strength for you to turn your task into a loving dialogue with God.