Where has the rewarding work gone?

Some thoughts inspired by a friend’s notes on work. I mean work: this thing that makes you weary and sleepy, not just the fun thing where you play with interesting technical stuff all day long. I am currently in the interesting situation that I need only about 5 days a month to work for my material needs … and basically I’m happy that way. Not that I’d have much money, but I have no unsatisfied basic material needs. The rest of my time has to be spent on other things (sadly I do not know how to save time so that I can spend it later for other things … but, ok, working for excess money is something like that).

So, the question that arises in this situation is: what work is rewarding? And I mean work, this thing that … see above. Actually, I have no idea what kind of work would be rewarding in this world … as this world will pass away, and death renders all to be nothing. Somewhere in Ecclesiastes Solomon said something very similiar, and he hated life ’cause of that. Vanity!!!

It’s not that I would not have a vision for my life … see my post “My vision for my life, as of today“. But, umh, this kinda feels like something “nice to have”. It would not make me happy, I guess, just as anything you can have or reach. So it does not motivate me to really work for it.

Motivation for work must be a strong one, as a weak one is not sufficient to work until you’re k.o., and this for weeks, months, and years. Basic material needs serve such a motivation, but what after these have been met? As is the case with me?

What deemed Jesus “rewarding work” while on earth”? Travelling around and preaching the gospel, healing people. And I can imagine that he was quite k.o. on evenings, so this was work, really.

It’s not that I’d miss Jesus, food, friends, work or a vision for my life. All this is in place. But I miss the cognition that all this stuff is rewarding (… at some point in life I stopped to work for these goals that one by one turn out to be Fata Morgana, among them my profession). A cognition that is at least in part based upon observations, e.g. from what other people did and the reward they got. Or, lets put is thus: a cognition that is justifiably true. Not jst something you believe for pragmatic reasons: “because it works” for motivating you. You’re welcome to tell me: something rewarding to work for, and why it is rewarding, and why the cognition of this is justifiably true.

Start date: 2007-09-05

Version date: 2007-09-05 (for last meaningful change)