Why bother with worthwhile work?

No Bit O’Moxie today…but a story and a question.

My dear friend Rosa Say’s work is centered in helping people understand how to bring traditional Hawaiian values into their work and lives. Her book, Managing with Aloha, will always be one of my treasured possessions—both because of its content, and because of a community I became a part of as a result of it.

Today, she wrote an essay called, “Why Bother with Ho‘ohana, and “Worthwhile Work” at all?” Read it. It’s good.

According to Rosa, “Ho’ohana is the value of worthwhile work. Work can, and should be a time when you are working to bring meaning, fulfillment and fun to the life you lead.”

She does talk about the fact that one need not be feeling passionate to Ho’ohana, but there needs to be a contentment…a feeling of satisfaction with what you do, every day.

My take on the “Why Bother” topic was added to her blog there as a comment:

Aloha to you, dear Rosa :)

Why bother? Because for me, any other option is untenable.

To me, life is for living. Spending time on anything that isn't worthwhile (including work) is to, at best, victimize myself, and at worst, to contribute to my own slow, painful death.

Not happening. :)

You can tell I’m a big advocate for Ho’ohana. Everything I do has to be imbued with meaning (for me) or it’s simply not worth doing.

But that got me thinking about you guys…and about worthwhile work for Virtual Assistants, and I wonder how many VAs actually have Ho’ohana as opposed to just doing the work—whatever work needs to be done, just to earn your daily bread (so to speak)? Do you see your work as worthwhile—contributing to your quality of life, or is it tantamount to a “job” to you? If it brings you happiness in the form of some gain you didn’t have while employed (like more time with your children, or freedom to call your own shots) is that enough for you to feel as though the work, itself, is worthwhile?

Which leads to my question: If you have Ho’ohana, what is it? If you don’t, why don’t you?

Comments

[Rosa Say]

Aloha Stacy, thank you so much for your Ho‘ohana invitation here!

I have answered you with a comment on MWAC, and in reading this again, your work versus job distinction jumped out at me: I will be covering that in next Tuesday's MWAC coaching essay suggesting that having a new vocabulary with those two words can really help. If I may, I will share a snippet here for you?

Feel free to edit in your comment moderation if a bit too long---

Let’s start with this as the Ho‘ohana Language of Intention we agree upon:

WORK —what I intend to do for me, myself and I. When I “work on something” I am working on something useful or important to me in some way.

I work for my purpose, a purpose that is clear to me. I work on-purpose, no more “going through the motions,” no more “paying my dues” or “earning my stripes,” and no more “biding my time.” Even when I work within a job I feel stuck with (for the time being as a transitional time) I am learning as much as I can, learning which is connected with the experience, skills, or knowledge I will use in the future.

JOB —a description of what I am presently paid to deliver, whether via a paycheck from someone else (the company I am employed by), or via profits (that come from me, whether self-employed, or self-financed in some way).

It is helpful to look at jobs in the plural sense more than as one job, with “delivery” figuring more prominently. Each job is a collection of tasks that deliver cash flow for you: That’s life. Money is the transactional currency you need to finance the living of your life. Plural is helpful, for the more revenue streams you have the better (the diversify, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” advice.)

Thus work is *your work;* all jobs done in the process are your baby steps; they are learning tasks that will count up and begin to connect dots, and figure into the building of your best-possible future, best-possible life (that of the voluptuary!)

Mahalo nui loa Stacy, I so love having you and your shingin VA stars in our Ho‘ohana Community!

[Geri Lafferty]

My Ho'ohana comes through choosing clients whose work is meaningful to me -- meaningful on a large scale, and ideally, globally. As clients leave, as they sometimes do, I am replacing them with those who want to make the world a better place now and for generations to follow. They seem to be falling into the category of awareness and education and funded as non-profits. I also seek out clients who are philanthropically minded and want to fund such endeavors.

Work doesn't feel so much like w-o-r-k when I know I am helping so many others. It's a great feeling to know the world is in a little better place because of something I did.