Chapter 364

"The highest reward for one's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it." ~ John Ruskin

Yesterday’s post was about getting what you worked for, today is a little different, its about discovering that the work itself is irrelevant but what it develops in you is potentially the most awesome thing ever. Work produces lots of a great things like salary, structure, and satisfaction, but the greatest gift is that it can change you. Some people might push back and think that this is not possible in THEIR job! But when I think back over all the jobs that I have had in my life, and there were dozens of them in my early decade of working, every single job had at least one piece to it that would or could change me in some positive fashion if I would only let it.

My first job was cutting grass as a 6 year old. That job provided me with the chance to be stronger, since the lawn mower was twice as big as I was. Gathering up hay and chopping/splitting wood was my next paying job, neither of which I was big enough or strong enough to do, so once again those job built my physical strength. Then my next job was bagging groceries at the local supermarket. It wasn’t physically demanding, it was socially demanding - and gave me the opportunity to develop this highly necessary life skill - but I did not take advantage of it. And so on and so forth. If you look hard enough, you can find what good thing your work is offering, and you can choose to be a better person as a result.