Seeing Nobility in Your Work Transforms You and How You Do Your Job

“Work is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others.” 
Author and Scholar, Lester DeKoster.
 
How profound a statement is that?  Consider it for a moment.  Your work makes you useful to others, whether that work be CEO, doctor, factory worker, or stay at home mom.  And usefulness to others is noble.  At its heart, work is service, whether it be a product or action that others need.
 
Of course, work that takes advantage of others, abuses others, or promotes injustice is illegitimate because that usefulness comes by forcing someone to work unwillingly or with the intent to deceive.  But a work/usefulness relationship that is mutually beneficial and voluntary is noble.  
 
This imbued nobility should transform our approach to our occupations.
 
The CEO should live with grand design to produce a product or service that is useful while also seeking to do only good for his/her employees.
 
The doctor should care for their patients while creating an environment of service for the good of co-workers/employees.
 
The line worker should see their effort as art and work with an appreciation of their efforts being a part of a larger process.
 
Of course, the goal of work is to also provide for oneself and one’s family in the midst of being useful to others.  When personal usefulness and the usefulness to others get out of balance, greed takes over, corruption wins and abuse abounds.  But when the nobility of work with an emphasis of serving others leads the way, employer, employee, and customer benefit.
 
Today, consider what you do as a noble usefulness to others, no matter how insignificant your work may be.  Take steps to sacrifice for others and lead other in this approach.  Remind your employees and remind each other that work can be beautiful when the bigger picture of service is kept in mind.
 
Hopefully, these tips have been helpful.  If you want to go a step further in mapping out your career/personal goals, ProSight created a planner that enables you to do this each day.
 
The planner works like this.  It breaks each day into 3-hour segments to help you fuel up and power down.  But even better, it helps you figure out how to approach each part of your day. 
 
Pick up a Streamlining Planner, and transform your day.
 
--
 
Gordon Duncan is the CEO/Consultant of ProSight Success.  He has worked in the eye care industry for nearly 20 years.  He has consulted in the medical field, manufacturing, accounting, and many other disciplines.  You can contact him at gordon@jgordonduncan.com
 
ProSight offers a host of resources for the optometric and small business field.  You can find front desk training at our Front Desk Academy.  Additional resources can be found below:
 
Digital ProSight Success System
Paperback ProSight Success System
 
And our best value:  the ProSight Success Workbook that includes a digital copy and a free hour of consulting.

---