My Reward for Work

Hey team. Here we are. I wanted to share with you a quote I read from a man named Paulo Coelho. I believe that’s how it’s pronounced. “The reward of our work is not what we get but what we become.”

“The reward of our work is not what we get but what we become.”

I’m not discounting the fact that we need to get paid for what we do. And to be able to provide for our families and survive and all that kind of stuff. But as we get older in life, our worth and our focus of what our worth is and what we do becomes more about what we have, what we’re becoming, what we’re leaving behind. I think as we get much older, I think about it from the fact that it’s what legacy am I leaving behind. But in the same process, how am I being changed by what I’m doing? The work I put in, the effort, the amount of effort, and the things I do depend mostly on and focus more on, for me, on what I’m doing. I’m doing it to better myself and/or I’m doing it to better others.

I focus more on being a person of value than a person of success. I believe success follows value, and you guys have heard me say that before. So the work I do is about who I’m becoming. Or who I’m helping and helping them become something or understand something.

A lot of Monday and Wednesday messages are about me investing thoughts and ideas and encouragement into your lives.

I had somebody on our team the other day say it was amazing to just think that I literally, for such a long period of time, which has been years now, that I can do roughly 104 of these messages every year. Two a week, Monday and Wednesday, and sometimes I throw a few more in there here and there for a Training Tip Tuesday or a Family Friday or a Thank You Thursday or something, and I might throw something else in there. And that I’m able to consistently, years on end, continue to have something to say.

I think about that, and I told this person the same thing. It’s really about what I get fed into me, so I’m constantly reading and studying and learning and searching for more stuff to impact me and to change me. The chances are, I’m doing this video now, but it’ll be aired in a few weeks. The fact of the matter is that I’m probably needing to hear what it is that’s going to come out of my mouth here in these next few minutes.

There are so many times that I watch my own videos, and some of you are probably sitting there going, “Oh my God, he’s a narcissist. Oh my God, he can’t even get enough of his own voice.” That’s not really what it’s about. I do watch my own videos when they get aired. Really what it comes down to is sometimes the thing that’s being said I happen to need that day.

I don’t know how many of you that resonates with. But I do hear it from time to time. I hear staff will either tell Jimmy, or they will send me a direct email, or they’ll tell Sonia or somebody else that the words I’ve said have inspired them, and they’ll say thank you. Again, I don’t do it for the thank yous or anything else. I’m just glad to know that some of what I’m saying is resonating.

Ultimately, the work that we do is about what we become and what we can put into others.

So, Paulo, I agree with him that it’s not about just getting paid and making money for something and producing something, but it’s about changing lives and, more importantly, changing my own life in the process. I hope you feel the same way, and if you do, shoot me a line, drop me a note. I’d love to hear it.

As you go through the rest of this week and as we march into July, God bless you. Have a wonderful week. We’re right around the corner from Independence Day in just a few days, and we’re running right into summer. Some of us are taking vacations, and some of us are spending time with family and more time at the water park, and hopefully some hikes, and taking in this beautiful scenery that we have in the Northwest.

It’ll get gray and cloudy and rainy again, and we’ll hate it in just a few more months. So enjoy every minute that you can of what you got going on in your day. Spend time with your family, hug on your loved ones, because time is fleeting. As I get older, I come to realize that more and more.

So that means the work that I’m doing, I am very intentional about what I do to make myself better so that I can give more to others and help their lives be better too. I hope it’s working for you. God bless you. Have a wonderful week. I’ll see you next week. Bye.