Dedication and Love Towards Work

Most of the time, I work just to get my work done. I measure time to complete the work and then track my time. It’s always just to complete the work.

I compete with myself to get my work done faster than before. It’s always a chore for me. Wake up, do this, after you complete it, do that. After that, if you have time, start another project. Make some time, complete something else.

I have been operating in that fashion for as far as I can remember. It’s all there is for work.

Get the work done and go out to enjoy. The faster you complete your work, the faster you get to go out to enjoy.

But I think there lies a serious problem: I’m not loving what I do.

When I look onto professionals and masters of some skillset, they tend to love what they do. They love it so much that it doesn’t even feel like work. It feels like who they are and what they do.

They feel alive when they work, and feel lifeless when they don’t get to work.

I watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi yesterday, it was about a old man in his 80’s named Jiro who’s working day in and day out. He doesn’t miss even a single day. They only day when he misses his work is when he has to attend funerals or during strict public holidays.

He says he feels like home, and that work doesn’t feel like work. If he doesn’t get to work, he feels lifeless.

He has mastered making sushi his whole life. He dreams about sushi, he makes sushi, and he lives it.

When he makes sushi, he has such a dedication and love towards work. He gives everything he has for making it. He simply dedicates himself to make sushi.

When you give your life for mastering something, people will remember you long after you’re gone. And that’s one of the main purpose of life, according to him.

Moving back to myself, when I do something with interest, dedication and love, I feel very alive and happy. No world exists during that time. All there exists is the work I’m doing and me. Everything else is a distraction.

That should be the real work. Not completing a set of chores during a specific period of time.

If you have to specify some time for doing your work, then you hate your work. Either try loving what you do, or if you can’t do that, stop doing that and find something you love.

I’m writing this with love and dedication. I’m putting my sole and effort in writing this. I’m loving it.

Usually, I write to just tick off a list from my todo list. I write because I have to. But now, I’m writing because I love to write.

After working with love, you start to see how you can improve it. How you can make it better. How you can use it to help the people of the world. How you can dedicate yourself with it for the rest of your life. That’s when you produce some serious shit. That’s when you work for real.

While you do something with love, that activity reaches whole new level. If I read with love and interest, I tend to read more clearly and vividly. I feel like I’m the character of a fiction book I’m reading. Whereas, if you read just to read, you won’t enjoy as much.

In the same way, if you write just for the sake of writing, your writing won’t be good. But when you write for the love of it, you’ll reach the whole new level of writing.

Working for the sole purpose of paying bills won’t get you anywhere.

Infact, people who master their work never care about money. They’d rather live in a slum and work for the love of it than work on something they don’t love.

That’s why most of the successful startups start from garage. They do it not for the money, but for the sole purpose of producing excellency.

Yesterday, while watching the above mentioned documentary, Jiro said that money doesn’t matter.

Straight off, I wouldn’t do what he did if it wasn’t for money. I can’t even think of doing the same thing day in and day out for the rest of my life. If I did, I’d only do it for money.

But they don’t do it for money, they do for the sole purpose of loving their work. They love their work and making sushi so much, they really don’t care about money. They probably don’t care what other people would say about their sushi as well.

However, they earn lots of money. Mostly because they don’t care about money. Their sushi place is probably one of the most expensive in the world, compared to time the customers finish their set.

They create value. And when you create value, people will come to you. When people come to you, you earn lots of money by selling the value you have to offer them.

That’s the way world’s greatest products are produced.

Jiro needs to satisfy himself – only himself! If he loves the Sushi he’s making, then that’s it. He doesn’t care about anything. He doesn’t care about others remarks. He’s the boss.

It’s because he loves his work and he knows what he’s doing. He knows when the sushi tastes good. He knows when it’s not upto the mark.

The effort and amount of time they put to create a simple food is incredible. It’s simply unbelievable.

I like to look at is as an art form. Love for your work is a form of art. If you love your work, you care about nothing else, just the work. And it won’t feel like working at all.

I don’t feel like I’m writing this. I feel like I’m enjoying just like how I’d enjoy in the mountains watching the scenery. I’m loving the work of writing.

Life is all there is, and you cannot afford to waste it working on something you have no interest over.

When you create something with love, you’ll know it. You’ll see the difference. You’ll know why it will strike off everything else that’s there in the world.

Today morning, I went up on the terrace and took some pictures of the flowers. I was doing it with love, dedication and interest. It didn’t feel like work. Instead, I found joy. I simply loved the experience.

Love what you do. If you do something, it’s worth doing with your heart. If you don’t love your work, either learn to love it, or leave it and find something you love.

Life is limited, you can’t afford to waste it on something you don’t love.