14th February 2022

You should always try and actively enjoy what you are doing, as if you enjoy what you do then you usually feel in control and will probably be ultimately successful in what you are doing, including your ‘work’. I often like to quote the old saying that says that if you find a job that you love, you never have to work another day in your life!
However, you need to find pleasure in doing the positive and constructive things, not the negative and destructive things. Unless you find positive and creative things to do purposely, you usually end up finding negative and destructive things to do without realising it and may then end up doing something that you did not want to and end up regretting something later on.
You also have got to be very careful not to become addicted to just one thing, particularly your work, even if you really enjoy it. You need to remind yourself that you are always more than just one thing, a spouse, a partner, a parent, a child, a friend etc.. It it so easy to become focused on just one thing, that you then can become one-dimensional and ignore or unconsciously not see the other things or people around you.
For example, you will have noticed that when you are totally immersed in what you are doing, you often become lost in it. You then (again unconsciously) ignore what is happening around you and may even forget to eat or do things that you should do, as the time just passes by so quickly. As people like to say, time always passes quickly when you are having fun.
You also have to always be flexible with your attention, so that you can then still be in touch with the other things happening around you, so you will then know if and when they change and can then adapt yourself accordingly. By paying attention like this, you are also constantly being actively involved and learning about something, rather than just being a passive observer, who is standing by the side looking on.
A very simple example of this is that you should always try to make a note when somebody is telling you something. Although you may think that you have a good memory, if something is just passively heard by you and just recorded as a thought in your head, it then needs to be thought about again, in order for you to understand it properly. And what you remember being said, may be very different to what was actually being said to you at the time.
But when you write something down simultaneously (or contemporaneously, as many people prefer to call it), you will always then immediately process it and thereby will understand it better, both then and later. This is because you are then actively involved in what you are doing. So, learn to try and keep yourself actively involved or pay attention to what is happening around you.
And almost paradoxically, you also need to try to be in control of your own consciousness, so that you then can also use your mind to concentrate on what you are doing in the present and not waste your time worrying about the past or the future. In fact, if you do not concentrate on what you are doing in the present, that may have consequences for your future!
Also, do not take your life too seriously. Always try and enjoy life if you can, even if you are doing something boring or repetitive. For example, you can listen to something at the same time that is more enjoyable or even inspiring or positive, like music, a podcast, or an audiobook that may help to lift your mood. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not just survived!
Finally, please be aware that constantly enjoying what you do is virtually impossible. You should therefore resign yourself to this fact and know that you cannot enjoy what you are doing when you are doing it all the time. Also, do not try to convince yourself that you should feel differently to how you feel about something when you are doing it, as that will just drive you crazy, because you will then be constantly thinking about it, but not be able to make any sense of it.
So, this week, try to enjoy whatever you are doing, no matter how boring or repetitive you think that it is and also, make sure that you are actively involved in what you are doing; and if you find yourself putting off a task because you feel that it is not enjoyable, instead of creating a mental block around it, find an enjoyable way of doing it and do it now if you can!




