In the world that I grew up in, it was considered a mark of shame to accept welfare.  Government handouts were a sign that you were a drain on society.  In fact, that is why they changed the name from “welfare” to “social security”.  Social Security is welfare.  Even if you took an unemployment check, you did so under cover.  It was not something you wanted to be known for and if you absolutely could not avoid it, you got off of it as quickly as possible.  Your job was a sign of your contribution to yourself, to your family, and to your community.  Welfare gave everyone around you the exact opposite impression.

Wherever you went, you were judged by the amount of effort you were willing to put into whatever was happening at the time.  If you were at church, you contributed.  If you were at school, you contributed.  If you were at work, and there was extra work to be done, you contributed.  The measure of your worth was judged by the measure of your contribution.

In the last article, I focused on work as it relates to you.  Work is your inward sign.  Work is how you prove to yourself that you are a valuable commodity.  Work has a dual purpose.  That means you are killing two birds with one stone.  By doing work, you are improving your view of yourself.  By doing work, you are also improving the view that others have of you.

It may seem like the values I expressed above are “old school”.  This is not the case.  We are still judged by our willingness to contribute.  Who shows up to help move equipment to set up for a convention?  Who shows up for their assigned shifts?  Who bails for a weak-ass excuse, or for some emotional drama?  We all judge and we are all judged by our contribution.  Show your worth by being willing to contribute to the effort at hand.

How does this improve your view of yourself?  After contributing to something in your community, others will take note.  They will treat you differently.  You will get positive feedback for your contribution.  As a human being, this positive feedback will feel good.  This positive feedback will reinforce your view of yourself.  Your contribution will raise your value in the eyes of your peers.  Their improved perception of you will be evident to you and this will then raise the value you place on yourself.

By contributing to the work of others, you are ultimately feeding your own positive impression of yourself.  Don’t you want that?

Be a contributor!

-Sisyphus

This is a continuation of my last article.  Go read that article, if you have not already.

When I was young, I remember being out of work a lot.  Those years were lean.

Being out of work for extended periods of time can be a real drain on your self-esteem.  Work is not just a source of income.  It is a source of personal value.

Even low wage work is better than no work at all.  Having no job will eventually leave you feeling worthless.  Unemployment induced depression is a real thing.  I have been there more than once and it is absolutely no fun.

You NEED work to keep your spirits up.  As I mentioned, even low wage work is of great value.  There is no shame in working with your hands to pay your own way.  Do not let anyone tell you that you should feel ashamed for unskilled labor.  Labor is labor.  Labor is a sign to yourself and those around you that you understand the importance of making your own way.  You do not expect anyone else to pay your way for you.  You do not expect to receive anything you are not willing to work for.

When you are out of work for an extended period of time, take whatever you can find.  Even if you do not need to work.  Most of us are not in that position, but there may be a number of reasons why you simply do not need to work.  It does not matter.  Go get a job or find something that needs to be done and do it.  Find regular work.  Be inconvenienced once a day for some period of time to accomplish something that needs to get done.  The value of work is not just the money you get paid for doing it.  The value in work is in the sense of value you receive by doing it.  The sense that you accomplished something important (even if it is only very mildly important).

Work has an intrinsic value.  That value gets passed on to you when you do the work.

Think about why anything in the world has value.  Why does gold have value?  Is it because it is rare?  Is it because it is in high demand?  These things may affect the value of gold, but they do not give gold its value.  How do we get gold from the ground into the hands of the average person?  It is done by work.

It took work to find the right place to dig.  It took work to haul it out of its resting place.  It took work to refine it.  It took work to shape it into something pleasing.  It even took work to sell it.  Everything about gold that gives gold its value was based on the amount of work that went into bringing it out of the ground and into your hands.  It is not gold that has value.  It is the work that went into it.  If it took no work to find, refine, and sell gold, it would have no value.

Your body and soul were designed for work.  Everything that is valuable takes work to accomplish.  Everything you value took work to accomplish.  You mind, therefore, places value on your very being, in accordance to the amount of work that you accomplish.

If you accomplish no work, your sense of value, your self-esteem plummets.  Do not take your job for granted, whatever that job may be.  Remind yourself every day that you are doing work.

If you are not working, go find some.  Do whatever you can find to do.  Even if you are not getting paid.  Go work for a charity or volunteer for a non-profit organization.  Find some work to do.  Build your sense of value by doing some form of work on a regular basis.

Look at those people who absolutely do not care what other people think about them.  Even if you think they are rich and therefore do not need to work, I can promise you, they are working.  They may not be digging ditches or flipping burgers, but they are doing work and they are doing a lot of it.

Use work to improve your sense of accomplishment and your personal value.  Work will change the way you see yourself.  Work is how you prove to yourself and to the world that you are valuable.

Go do work!

-Sisyphus