I think we can all agree the environment that we are living in has changed, and for some of us it has created drastic changes in our life, and for others of us the changes are smaller.
We really aren’t good with change. It’s hard, and scary, and our footing gets shaky.
But the good news is that we adapt quickly… and we are starting to adapt to parts of this new reality.
So if you are starting to adapt enough that you are ready to build again, I thought maybe it would be a good time for us to revisit my favourite Thomas Merton quote.
“Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything”
My favourite thing about really well written pieces of wisdom is that the words and their meaning change depending on what’s happening in your life, what your struggles have been, and who you are becoming.
Your “work” might mean your job, but it doesn’t have to. Your “work” can mean many different things from the way you show up in the world, to the people you influence, and the way you break a sweat.
There is a good chance your work is different now than it was 3-6 months ago.
I encourage you to go back and read this quote and apply it to your life today. You might start to see things differently.