There are 365 days in a year.

If we take away the 52 Sundays, it leaves 313 days left for work.  We at least have 12 declared holidays per year, which leaves 301 days for work.  We are further entitled for 12 days of sick leave, 12 days of casual leave and 12 days of privilege leave.  It leaves 265 days for work.

On the days we work, even taking those who do not work by the clock as benchmark, we spend on an average about 12 hours each day away from work.  And that accounts for 133 days (half of 265).  There are 132 days left for work.

Within those 12 hours at work, we spend at least 2 hours each day on coffee breaks, lunch and snacking, which accounts for another 11 days (132 x 2 / 24) each year.  It leaves 121 days available for work. 

And, that’s just 33% of a year is spent at work.

Of course, those of you with a 5-day week (and most multi-nationals and Government offices only work 5-day week), it comes down to just 69 days. 

And that’s embarrassing 18% of the time at work.

Even for this 18% or 33% of work life, there is so much cribbing.  People want TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) and they suffer from Monday morning blues.  Yet, we desire abundance!  Utter nonsense, isn’t it?

And those of you, who do you personal work during the work hours, keep searching for another job during your work hours, spend countless hours on social media, personal mails and personal chatting through your smart phones during your work hours, counsel your colleagues or gossip with them during work hours… you will have to calculate further downwards from 121 or 69 days and arrive at your own calculation.

Oh, what a tragedy?  Though born in a culture that taught the world that ‘Work is Worship’ and through work (Karma Yoga) the divine can be attained, we have lost the sanctity of work.

The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the shelter we live in and the luxuries of comfort we enjoy are the rewards from the work we do.   Let your heart be ever filled with gratitude for the work you do.  It has not only given you the rewards of life but it has also added a sense of purpose and dignity to your life. 

Irrespective of the people you work with, the organisation you represent, the designation you carry, the portfolio you hold, let every morning of yours begin with gratitude to the work to do.  Let us go to our work place with greater reverence and devotion than we would go to a place of worship.

Work should be an expression of your inner joy.   Work must be seen as the expression grounds to your innate talent and potential.  Work should provide expansion to your personality. 

Work must not be an effort; it should rather flow through you with the same ease as the morning breeze.  Work must be a celebration.  You must dance your way to work and come back whistling your favourite tunes.

The duration of work, the compensation package, the position at work should all be other details compared to the expression you find at work.  Your work should not be quantified by what you get in return.  You must always deliver more than what you get paid for. 

When Christ said, “Go the extra mile,” it is also a management philosophy as much as a spiritual doctrine.  If every homemaker or mother would begin to equate the quantum of their work with compensations, then this world would come to a grinding halt.

Please get your perception about the sanctity of work right.  You don’t work for anybody.  You work for yourself.  The organization and others may benefit from the effects of your work, but the main beneficiary of your work is yourself.  You discover yourself through your work.  Work expands your personality.  Is yours a better job or is it only a better paying job? 

The chair you hold should not curb the quality of your work.  Give the best you can and be the best in what you do.  I am not saying that time, money and position are insignificant in life.  Of course, they are very significant but there is no price tag to the fulfilment the heart feels, when it finds inner expression through work.

Hey, if you have all the money in the world, would you still be doing the same work that you are doing right now?  If your answer is ‘yes’, then you are pursuing the right work.  Life’s bounties will come in search of you even if not asked for.  However, if your answer is ‘no’, then there will only be eternal incompleteness in your life.

Would you please not kill the expression of your soul by sitting in a job or business, which is not for you.  Listen to the crying of your soul.  It takes one daring decision and one brave moment to get your professional life right.  Do it now.  Shifting jobs isn’t a big decision; shifting careers is. 

Being in the business is one thing.  But, to give up a process that has succeeded for you, in search of a process that will give you peace is a big decision.  But, sometimes that’s what it takes to be peaceful… a big decision.

There is a whole range of things that you can do to earn in life, but only the work that is done as if it is your hobby will give you peace.  In fact, the secret is to make your hobby your profession.  Your competence has made you a Chartered Accountant, but your heart blossoms in your singing. 

Find a way to make singing your profession.  Social pressure has made you an Engineer, but your heart delights when you play snooker.  How about the business of a snooker centre?  Your education has made you a doctor, but your childlike exuberance comes out in cooking.  Let the world not miss a super chef.  Your money is from the corporate world.  Your soul yearns to teach.  Peace is discovered when your yearning gains precedence over earning.  Teach and find a way to become rich through teaching.

Let us break the old paradigm that ‘success is a means to happiness’.  Let the new paradigm be that ‘success is an expression of happiness’.

Come… let’s go the other way.  Find a work, which gives you inner expression.  You will find happiness in it. 

Make the world recognise the value you add through your work.  You will find success through it.  Dedicate the results of your work as an expression of gratitude to your Cosmic Presence.  You will feel closer to the Divine.  Make this work of yours useful to the world.  And, you will find your life’s purpose in that work.

Let the effects of your work be the signature you leave behind in this world.