Work And Life

Work is part of life. It's something that we'll find to be very useful in this earthly journey. But beware.... WORK IS NOT LIFE.

I had to stress this out because a lot of us, especially single men, get so much into work, that we forget about life. We think that we have to really work hard so we can get a promotion, or perhaps a very big increase in our paycheck. We want to do this so we can have more money, so we can buy more, go to places where we'd like to go. We work so hard because it's part of our pride being men. We have to be the best. We have to show everyone in our work place that 'I'm very good at doing this job!'. People may have different reasons for the drive to work hard. I've heard of some guys who do overtime so they could fund their weekend gimmicks and hang around with a lot of girls. What a motivation. haha. (But this is not what I do. I just stick to one woman.)

Let's get back to work and life. Today I did good with my job. I resolved two issues. "You're really good, man!" my officemate told me. If you were there you would have seen my heart bloat. Quite fulfilling, right?

Wrong.

Today is also paycheck time. What's special about the salary given out this week is that it's supposed to be bigger. It covers the first workweeks when the "salary increase" was implemented. So right after I just got a high-five from my colleague for doing such a good job, I went down to my desk at the basement to check how much I got paid this time. My boss told me I was given a 20% salary increase for being such a hardworking guy. Not bad huh? Considering 20% increase is the largest my company can give to an employee. Excited, I sat on my chair, I opened our online salary statement... and then... to my surprise... I just got an net increase of P1,000 from my previous payslips!!! Hah! So much for the 20% Increase!

We'll, my company didn't cheat me. I got that increase. But most of it just went to tax payments, and I ended up just receiving a very meager pay even though I was killing myself just to finish projects and solve issues at work.

I could fix things at work... but I could not fix things with my life. Working hard does not help me solve my financial problems... it does not help me pay my bills. Even though I get all the commendations, I still wouldn't be able to use them to provide for my family. I couldn't even buy my wife the bag that she likes even with all the kudos I get from the workplace.

My point is, we should not be totally drawn into working. It's only part of life. Even if we fail at work, it does not mean we fail with life. There are a lot of people who don't even work, but succeed greatly. And then, there are these people who are successful at work, but suck in life. It all depends on what our priorities are. For me, I now choose life over work. I've made a very big mistake before. I was thinking too much of closing my projects and tasks that I lost sight of the most important thing... PLANNING WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE.

At age 27, I'm just starting to make my plans. Because in the past years I was only concerned about being good in school and then at work... but no plans for the future... just living in a 'come what may' world. Now, I've got a family to raise. It's quite tough now that I'm married and I have not planned on what to do after it.

It's never too late to start... I hope... I just want to make up for the wrong priorities I had in the past.

My Prayer For Today: Lord, please give me a second chance. I just want to make my family happy. Now that I've realized my wrong, help me to do things right... help me to love my wife and family more... so that I can be the best that I am for them in this life You gave us.