Well. . .
HAVE YOU WON THE LOTTERY?

No. . . ?

You can’t answer,
“I DIDN’T PLAY”

If you have a job
If you have chosen a career path
If you work:
YOU’VE PLAYED THE LOTTERY
Now,
The big question that literally is ever asked over your lifetime is:
HAVE YOU WON THE LOTTERY
by your choice?

The graduating class of 2019 was told that they would not have
FIVE JOBS
in their lifetimes,
They’d have
SIX CAREERS!

Labor day is now a few days safely behind us,
laughing, taunting us in our rearview mirrors
mostly telling us:
SUMMER IS OVER
but has it had you reflecting on
WOULD YOU DO WHAT YOU DO
ALL OVER AGAIN
or would you choose a different job/career path?

When asked, many people claim that money is not just the main reason but the only reason for having a job. Can that be true?

The problem with money
The problem with money can be simply stated. It is effective at forcing people to go to work but no one likes to be forced. When we feel that others are pulling the strings, we go away mentally. Money saps our internal motivation for work.

This phenomenon was explored by psychologists many decades ago. In one charming early experiment, children were given felt-tipped pens to play with, an activity that most enjoyed. Half of the children were than paid for playing with the pens.

Would the money increase children’s interest in playing with pens? The evidence was clear. Children who had been paid lost much of their interest in playing with the pens when given the opportunity to do so without pay. Play had been turned into work.

People do all kinds of work because they enjoy the activity for its own sake. Anglers love to fish but it is not because they use the fish as food. In fact many practice catch-and-release and continue fishing with unabated enthusiasm. Motivation theorists say that we are intrinsically motivated for such activities. .

We are not intrinsically motivated for work, which is why we need to be paid. Money can be highly effective at motivating hard work. In fact, when employees are paid under a piece rate system, where a fixed amount of money is paid per unit of work, they work so hard and take so few breaks, that they endanger their health. Piece work is so bad for health that it was outlawed by unions and people around the world are mostly paid for time on the job rather than on the basis of productivity.

Powerful though money is as a form of control over workers, it is not the only reason that people show up at work and probably not the most important.

Taking money out of the equation
Yet, there is abundant evidence that employees find their jobs intrinsically rewarding. Ask yourself what people do when money is taken out of the equation.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, public employees went unpaid for months at a time. Yet most continued to show up on time for work. The familiar routine of work was somehow preferable to spending the day at home.

Lottery winners fall into two camps. One group says that quitting work is their first order of business. The other says they plan to stay on the job.

Retirement is a similar conundrum. Some retirees cultivate rewarding hobbies and never look back. Others cannot face spending the day at home with their spouse and return to the work force after a week off.

What else does a job offer?
Being good at a job makes the work more enjoyable whether you are building a wall or writing a piano concerto. The reason, of course is that coworkers and clients alike appreciate a job well done and are liable to express their appreciation.

Behavioral psychologists, like Dr Nigel Barber, refer to this as social reinforcement. Social reinforcement is every bit as powerful as money. Adulation, praise, or affection, are as potent as any drug in motivating people to work hard. What is more, social reinforcement increases our interest in the work we do because it gets imbued with social significance. These experiences, and not money, are what makes people want to return to their place of work day after day, even after the age of retirement.

We should not forget that most jobs are vastly entertaining. The workplace is a stage and all the men and women there merely players. What is the point of winning the lottery if you cannot make your coworkers green with the news.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . .

So,
ARE YOU A LOTTERY WINNER
Is what you’re currently doing
Feeding you as well as Dinner-ing Others. . .

Maybe Labor Day
is more
much more than a
DAY

Maybe being a true
Lottery Winner
is just realizing
more than just every once in a while
OUR WORK
ISN’T WHAT WE DO;
IT’S WHO WE ARE. . .

Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst of the Day:
There’s no retiring from
T H A T

The News isn’t good,

Class of 2016

The Word is

You won’t have five jobs.     .     .

You’ll have  S I X   Careers;

The Word is

Only 27% of you will actually get a job related to your major;

The Word is

You will greatly enhance and most likely increase very quickly the 43% of Americans who have significant debt due to your student loans and quickly adding up credit cards;

The Word is

n     o     t          g     o     o     d

Well.   .   .

Speaking of

 W  O  R  D  S

Do  you  remember?

Do you remember the any single word or cleverly arranged phrases at your Graduation?

What’s the most memorable graduation speech you’ve ever heard?

One that happened whenever you graduated?

One from when one of your children or grandchildren graduated?

From a Movie?

One you’ve given yourself for any one of the ga-zillion

G    R    A    D    U    A    T    I    O    N    S

you’ve experienced in your personal life

from job to job

relationship to relationship

health to illness

year to year

life phase to life phase

life lesson to life lesson

life to life’s many different slow deaths

You’ve given the greatest Graduation Speeches the World has ever known

most of all without speaking one audible word.

S     E     L     F  —  T     A     L     K

will do that for you

without a syllable ever being uttered.

Do they match Robin Williams

from his movie
J     A     C     K  ?

No

They far exceed it

The most powerful words you’ve ever heard

aren’t those spoken to you during any Graduation Ceremony

but the ones you continually speak to yourself

because they’ll either have you

settling

or

exceeding

not the world’s expectations

or predictions

but the only ones that truly ever

c     o     u     n     t  :

Y          O          U          R            S

Congratulations

Class of 2016

Go out and conquer the World :

Y          O          U          R          S

Make your Life

S          P          E          C          T          A          C          U          L          A          R

Make   T  H  A  T

Your Life’s Work

and the World will never be the Same

Y          O          U          R        S

.         .          . O            U             R            S 

WHO ARE YOU ?

It’s a question we get asked all of the time, isn’t it. . .

It’s a question we. . .

WE ASK OURSELVES

. . .A LOT, too, isn’t it?

Does the answer ever

C          H          A          N          G          E   ?

THEY

tell us that our children and most especially our grandchildren will most likely, in their lifetimes, have not just five jobs, but actually

FIVE OR MORE CAREERS !

So if we are

WHO WE ARE

as a profession or how we earn our money or

WHO OUR HEART SCREAMS WE ARE WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS LISTENING OR WATCHING ?

Hint:

You know you’ve been

E      A      G     L     E     D

when you  START   OVER 

. . .especially if it’s not been your choice to do so

We never have a purpose

We never have a reason

We never have a destiny

We never have a meaning

We, out of the very many things, the very many labels, the very many roles, the very many people we actually become and occupy, the absolute one is that we never stay

T   H   E          S   A   M   E

The Eagle doesn’t so much teach us how to soar. . .

so much as

HOW          TO          SOAR          AGAIN

(and here’s the best part)

AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN

If that’s not a celebration of

Labor Day. . .

you quite possibly

have never worked

have never changed,

have never finished/begun again

have never celebrated

have never lived

(enough)

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