Overview

I believe there are two types of people in the world – those who love to work and those who hate regardless of what they do for a living. If you fall into the latter group you may feel like you are endlessly searching for the “dream job” to no avail, often resulting in you developing Career ADD and switching jobs every 1-2 years when you become bored or dissatisfied. After a few years of jumping from job to job you have to begin to wonder – “Is it the job or is it me?”

In the book, Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work, author Christopher R. Edgar offers a surprising and unique perspective into how we choose to make our work suck. He suggests that hating our work stems from our internal thought processes and our lack of experience in managing unhappy thoughts and emotions we may be experiencing. Edgar brings a spiritual element to the workplace and helps his readers rediscover happiness in their work through a series of independent exercises that help you identify your true purpose in life, work through stressful moments, and allow yourself to experience joy in the work that you do (even if it does seem boring and repetitive!)

This book truly challenges your view of work and requires an open mind and a willingness to suspend your existing beliefs to truly see its value. If you have a strong spiritual centre you will love this book! If you are a little bit leery about spirituality as I am, it may take you a bit longer to get into the book and feel comfortable even attempting some of the exercises suggested. However, if you do stick it out I guarantee you will at least find a few gems of knowledge that will improve your relationship with your job.

Here’s a few of the key lessons I learned from Mr. Edgar:

1. Our bodies are connected to work. Even you sit in a desk all day, you can begin to notice that your shoulders become tight, or you get a knot in your stomach when you’re having a bad day at work. We cannot forget that our bodies experience work at the same time that our mind does, and if we can learn to listen to our bodies we can adjust our experience at work more effectively.
2. Satisfaction comes from effort, not results. This is a really interesting concept that Christopher repeatedly mentions in his book which means if you’re having fun actually doing your work, not just in reaping the rewards, you’re more likely to be able to sustain your motivation. I have to say I agree with this concept as there are days where I’m simply happy entering data into a spreadsheet, or sweeping the floor instead of working on a daunting strategy. The joy is in the task, not the results. However, I think this view is grossly contradicted in today’s workplace especially as we move towards results-oriented workplaces where employees are rewarded only for results and not for effort.
3. We must satisfy our needs. The first step to satisfying our own desires is to understand what they are. If we don’t know what makes us happy we will never find it.
4. Don’t be a Martyr. This is by far my favourite lesson and is spreading like wildfire among my friends. Many of us struggle with the challenge of saying “no” in our work and will go to great lengths to please others, sometimes at a detriment to ourselves. In the book, Edgar says “We confuse compassion with martyrdom – with giving anyone whatever they want, when they want it, without attending to our own interests, or how tired or overworked we are…. to be martyrs we must close our hearts to ourselves – we must treat our own wants and needs as unimportant.” When we become martyrs we end of up hurting everyone and the quality and productivity of our work. So, don’t be a martyr.
5. If I talk about work, I must complain! I know I have fallen into this trap along with many of my friends. You’re grabbing a few drinks after a long-day and your friend asks “So how was work today?” – Most of us will respond by complaining about it in some way and if we were to say it was great I friends would probably look at us like we’re insane. The book describes that many of us have been complaining about our work for so long that we’re no longer aware of other ways to relate to our work. So, I ask you – are you are complaining because your work is that terrible or because you simply don’t know what to say about it? Let’s try an experiment together: The next time you’re asked about work, tell a great, positive story about it and see if it makes you like your job just a teeny bit more?

After reading this book, I’ve also learned a few new techniques for managing my stress and negative thoughts about work while I’m on the job. I must confess that I’m not sure how we’ll they’ll work but there’s no harm in giving them a try! I can say however that some of the stress-busting exercises have helped me alleviate some headaches almost instantaneously. So, if they can cure that here’s hoping they can cure a lifetime of resentment about working.

Greatest Lesson

The greatest lesson I learned from this book is that work is something we do, it’s not who we are. However, in our society we tend to believe the opposite. The first question we ask when meeting someone new is “What do you do?” When we receive negative feedback about our work it often hurts us to our core and we feel like it’s a reflection of us. The mere thought of losing our job or career makes most of us feel like it would be the end of the world (or at least of our ability to maintain our lifestyle, home, and family).  When we become too connected to our work, we become obsessed about it and fearful that we will make a mistake or someone will uncover our weaknesses, which makes us despise and hate our work. Ironically, this makes me wonder:

Is the real cause of employee disengagement that we identify too much with our careers?

Perhaps organizations need to focus on helping employees identify who they are outside of work to truly engage them at work. By distancing our identify with our career, theoretically, we’d be more willing to take risks with our work, less sensitive to feedback, and less likely to focus on our own agenda and instead focus on moving the business forward. What do you think?

Recommendation

I highly recommend Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work, if you are trying to escape your own Career ADD and are willing to take a new age, open-minded approach to finding true happiness and satisfaction in the work that you do.

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