I want to follow up Janae’s posting on employee engagement with this quote from a colleague Dr. Joan Marques, Founder/President at Academy for Spirituality and Professional Excellence (ASPEX). “There’s a difference between apathy and acceptance. Apathy lets you endure life. Acceptance helps you enjoy it.”
How many times have you seen co-workers drudge through their day just trying to get to 5:00 or the weekend? The idea of engagement that Janae wrote about includes having energy to do your work and feeling a sense of joy or passion for what you do. Sometimes that’s hard to muster when you have a lot of little ankle-biter tasks stacking your desk. It’s easy on those days to just keep your head low and plow through your stack until you see some light of day.
Whether you face your mundane tasks with a sense of apathy or acceptance is yours to decide. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, Choose Your Attitude. Feeling apathetic about your work, as if you are slugging through mud, can actually be draining, emotionally and mentally. Rather than fighting, struggling or dreading what’s on your desk, find ways that you can shift perspective and remain open to what the Universe is asking of you at this time. Perhaps you can even invite with joy and anticipation something fun to come from it – a new opportunity, learning, or connection to others while doing your tasks.
Acceptance means welcoming, greeting, what is yours to do. Acceptance is embracing what is yours to do with as much spirit of service and contribution to a greater good that you can feel. You have to get the task done anyway, why not find something enjoyable in doing it!
Here’s a related story I heard some years ago. One day a group of mountain climbers were working their way up a steep cliff. One of the climbers lost his grip and slid down the side until he caught hold of a small outcrop of rock. In the rock slide his left eye contact fell out and he felt a bit dizzy and disorientated only able to see clearly from one eye.
His buddies below called up to him to hold tight until one of them could climb up to bring him down. The climber called down that he lost his contact and could they look for it below to bring up when they came to get him. Otherwise, he’d have a hard time making his way back down.
His friends frantically scoured the ground below thinking it was probably futile looking for the contact. Even if they did find it most likely it would be broken or scratched and useless to their friend. To their surprise after 10 mins. of looking, one friend saw a small bright gleam of light and bent down to see the contact laying on an ant. He grabbed the contact, wrapped it up and put it in his pocket to go get his friend.
Meanwhile, the little ant was relieved to have the giant piece of glass taken from its back. The ant was almost baked in the heat of the sun through the glass. After the man took the contact off his back the little ant cried, ‘Lord, I don’t know what you put on my back or why you had me carry it across these rocks, but I’m glad I could serve you in this way today’
You never know the meaning or purpose of the load you carry. I invite you to accept what is yours to do with the humility and grace of the ant, knowing that there may be a purpose to your small daily tasks much bigger than you can see.
Feel free to share here any stories that you’ve heard or experiences you’ve had where you’ve been able to accept something that was yours to do or where you shifted from being apathetic to finding meaning in what you were doing.
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Linda J. Ferguson is a job coach, inspiring speaker and author – www.lindajferguson.com
Loved the story of the ant, Linda, and thanks for using the quote as an initiator to this great posting! As I read it, I was thinking of a nice story I once read about a monk and two travelers, which can easily be included in this context.
A traveler on his way from one village to another asked a monk who was working the fields what it was like in the nearby village. “How was it in the village where you came from?” asked the monk. “Dreadful,” replied the traveler. “The people were cold, and I never felt at home there. So, what can I expect in this village?” “I am sorry,” said the monk, “but I think your experience will be much the same there.” The traveler hung his head and walked on. Then another traveler came by and asked the monk the same thing. “How was it where you came from?” asked the monk. “It was a wonderful experience. I would have stayed but am committed to traveling on. I felt like a member of the family in the village.” “I think you will find it much the same,” replied the monk. The traveler smiled and journeyed on.
As you mentioned above, Linda, it’s all about choosing your attitude. Two people can have entirely different perspectives about the same experience, depending on their attitude toward it. When we accept a situation, even if it’s not as ideal as we would want it to be, we can cope with it much easier than when we wearily endure it or dread it.
I have, by the way, included this and many other useful moral stories in my book “Joy at Work, Work at Joy”.