Love work and play.

The American workplace is full of hard-working people. Many of us see work as a way to get money. Others see work as a way to get out of the house and stay busy. Some see work as a way to express oneself.

Work is a funny thing.

Work happens at a job but not all jobs do the same amount of work. Work is about doing business but you can do lots of business without doing much work. In fact I have learned over the years that the more I talk about work, the less I understand it.

We go to jobs to do work. But people aren’t the only ones who have jobs. Things can have jobs too. What is this blog’s job? I want it to help people find better work, create their own work, improve their work lives, and feel inspired about working, but is all that its job?

In reality, if this blog can just give a consistent voice to the obvious, then it has succeeded. But it began with a purpose, not a job. I want it to help others. So now it has a job to do. Actually many jobs, as you see above.

To better understand work, and our relation to it we need to always remember that we have a purpose. It may not be easy for some to discover and it may change over the course of time. But knowing one’s purpose is where work really starts. Once we have purpose we will follow that purpose wherever it takes us.

So as we prepare to do some work, always ask yourself why. If you don’t know your purpose, then be relentless in discovering it. This is where you do the real hard work. After that, work smart. This is not a sure road to success, but it’s not far off either.

Success often has less to do with what we do than why we do it.