The Illusion

Sometimes it’s so easy to get sucked into work, and fall into a twilight frame of mind that sees life in terms of the work that you do. It could be the sign of one’s weak constitution.

So there you are, a fresh graduate with remarkably good grades, at your first day at work. You’ve been given many accolades for being a model youth and you’re put in some ivory tower from where you see the rest of the world as needing your guidance and light.

This translates into high expectations on yourself at the workplace. You expect to do a lot of difficult work, as you’re in an officious-sounding organization, but you think you will pull through. You also subconsciously think you will be given a similar ivory-tower kind of treatment.

Lo and behold, the work starts at a fast and furious pace. You are unfamiliar with the quality and quantity of work. Surprisingly, and rather illogically, you are expected to learn very fast and be an expert on subjects you have barely heard about in recent years. You are also expected to give instant answers to instant questions posed to you at a pin drop, on things you have no clue about. But you rationalize these expectations and impose them all on yourself. After all, you got remarkable grades and you’ve been put up there with the rest, right?

Then the boss, the Teacher and the Guide, the True Source of Inspiration, belittles you on the second encounter. Your lack of knowledge of the subject matter and slow reaction time in responding to questions on a variety of facts and figures are exposed. You receive sarcastic remarks on your choice of degree and ability to do work. These are unfair and unwarranted comments – but you rationalize them and agree with what you hear. Yes, you have no subject matter knowledge when you ought to have so and you are not able to answer questions immediately on a variety of facts and figures when you ought to be able to do so, because you got remarkable grades and you’re in an ivory tower.

You believe more and more of what is said to you, and you internalize it, until you only think of whether you will get penalized for saying or doing anything wrong - or right. You thought you were something, but in the end, you are not really anything in this officious organization. The pessimism of work overtakes you. Anxiety is commonplace.

~~~

After a while, you tend to realize the folly of your thoughts. The Lord takes mercy on you, and shows you some signs to help you consider and remember the true meaning of your life. You begin to untangle the mess that your mind had conspired to make. You understand that somehow along the way, you had believed what others said – the good and the bad. The good inflated you, the bad deflated you.

Your key take-away will then be this – although the work you do takes up most of your waking time, don’t be fooled – it is only a very small part of your whole life. You should control it, with all its complexities and internal dynamics. You have a choice in how much of your work makes up a part of your life. Once you let it become more than that, it will control your life.