The Gym that Pays You to Exercise

I had my breakfast here at the cafe and after taking a brief stroll in the mall, I'm back at the cafe to write my weekly blog article. It's the end of the month and another quarter has ended and it's time for me to reflect a bit on what I've been doing these past 2 pandemic years.

Initially, I thought the pandemic was a good opportunity to take a break. A time for me, to recharge and perhaps re-skill myself. But a chance recommendation from a friend led me to my current job which I've held for almost 2 years now. 

It's a low-key, low-profile, work-from-home engagement which I had planned to commit to for at most a year. But as always, time flew and I got swept by its currents; I made friends at work, and after a while, it felt like I'm just helping and supporting friends everyday, which strangely, made it rewarding.

It is also liberating doing a job that is not a career. I'm just happy to get a regular pay-check without having to worry about invoicing and chasing for payments as in the past. My years of work experience stand in good stead when it comes to dealing with people. And I find that humour always helps.

I always try to see the lighter side of things. Everything related to work is ultimately "not important". You can always have a good laugh about it. Not taking things serious doesn't mean you are slack. Every company aims to maximise shareholder value as its goal--in other words, to make more money. Unless you are working in a hospital ER, most of the time, what you do is not a matter of life and death. 

It is my habit to work hard and to give 110% in everything I do. But as I've touched upon in past articles before, having a job is like having membership to a gym: you get to use its facilities to get yourself a good workout. The workout benefits you first and foremost. Every interaction, every meeting, every presentation session that you have is an exercise that improves your moral and mental fitness. Over time, you are the one who benefits. You can even look at your employer as a gym that pays you membership for working out everyday!

Work becomes stressful only when ego comes into play. This happens when you try to compete with your co-workers to gain the recognition of your boss, so that you might advance in your career. You will alway encounter difficult people at work. But one must understand that everyone comes from a different background, perspective and level of spiritual development. Everyone is grappling with the demon of their ego. Some kindness and understanding goes a long way.

When you can joke and make someone laugh,  you immediately breaks all barriers of distrust and suspicion.  Working without expecting anything in return is the best policy. You do that by learning to immediately forget about your accomplished task, for you have already reaped its rewards, by exercising that opportunity to serve. 

One does not need to volunteer to work in a homeless shelter or donate to the Red Cross to gain spiritual merits. Everyday human interactions already provide one with ample opportunities to be kind and helpful to society. As Ram Dass puts it so beautifully: we are simply walking each other home. 

Everyone is struggling in their own little way. The high-earners have to keep up with people at their level: always being conscious of the clothes they wear, the car they drive and the place they live in. Do not envy them--they are just working out on a different set of exercise machines, which if they are not careful, could even cause injuries.  

If you have a tyrannical boss, who makes life difficult for you, ask yourself: what riles you up the most? And why does it make you so? What is the egoist stance that you are trying maintain, which is causing you the pain? If you do not care about your image, does the pain go away?  But if you think that your stance or opinion is right, by all means, fight for it. What's the worse that could happen? Will anyone die?

Change gyms if you must. But in the end, you don't quit your fitness program because of one faulty piece of equipment. We are all exercising each other and when done with the right attitude, it can be mutually beneficial.