Hello!
First of all, thank you immensely for the “question-answer” section, you read and read, you understand something for yourself, and then you yourself are ready to formulate your question, and when you formulate it, what is happening becomes clearer to you.

I'm fine. I’m 24, I graduated from university, I travel a lot around the world, periodically living in some distant country, I have a wonderful young man, we don’t have any more serious problems than grocery shopping, I have excellent parents and a sister. In addition to periodic missing relatives, melancholic or negative emotions I don't experience it. The problem is work.

I like to work. If I do something, I do it with all my involvement and effort. And the very fact of work gives me joy. The thing is that I don’t like the very essence of the vast majority of works.
(Here I will immediately say that this is only my personal perception, I am not saying that this is really so)

All my peers, friends and acquaintances work in jobs in which I see no point. Someone actively sells something, someone sews dresses, someone makes jewelry, someone takes photographs, someone writes, someone draws, someone sets up production in a factory, someone is a model, and someone is a project manager. All this work seems pointless to me. If there are a certain number of fewer dresses, jewelry, photographs, magazines, drawings, factories, billboards, cars, etc., etc. in the world, absolutely nothing will happen. How can you seriously engage in something that has no meaning?

I can’t work as a doctor or anyone else who brings tangible benefits; I have to work in jobs like this with a “zero” charge (neither negative nor positive). And I work from time to time, but I work only when a lot of bills have already accumulated and the interest-free period on credit cards is coming to an end - I am aware that I am doing garbage to solve money problems. And for me, I think it’s better to limit my needs instead of pointlessly making money from them.

Speaking about “meaning,” this is only my perception, I do not impose it on anyone, but on the contrary, I really want to disabuse myself of this, because I sincerely envy everyone who sees meaning in their work. Because I really want to work, I love to work, and I want to do it constantly, not in bursts. Like all normal people :)

What meaning do you see in your work? What about your readers?

Hello!
The first thing I see in your letter is a contradiction - at the beginning of the letter it is written: I like to work. If I do something, I do it with all my involvement and effort. And the very fact of work gives me joy.
And after a paragraph and a half we read: And I work from time to time, but I work only when a lot of bills have already accumulated and the interest-free period on credit cards is coming to an end - I am aware that I am doing garbage to solve money problems.

So, do you work with all your involvement and diligence and do you enjoy it, or are you consciously “doing bullshit to solve money problems”? These are, nevertheless, different things. Judging by the first part of the letter, there is some activity that you like. So you don’t do it when you earn money, and earn money with something else? Or is it all in one - you both like it and think it’s bullshit? :-)

In any case, the first thing I would suggest is not to rack your brains about why and why others work at their jobs. They have a million of their own reasons why it makes sense to them. And the fact that you don’t see the point in this doesn’t bother them at all. If you ask them, they will probably all give reasons for their actions. But it won’t make it any easier for you if you don’t consider your activities to be something serious or worthy.

I can tell you what motivates me when I work.
There are a lot of motives here.
First of all, I still like to work. and I like to receive the results of my labors. I like to develop somewhere, learn, grow, and I also like to suffer crashes, because it’s interesting and also teaches me a lot. And it feels good when you survive another crash and manage to survive.

Secondly, I work to earn money. Money is a very important resource for me. For me, being able to earn my own living means a certain degree of freedom. Live the way I want, make many decisions on my own. Also, I (like many who have ever experienced truly very serious financial difficulties) have been haunted throughout my life by the “fear of poverty,” the fight against which is one of my main “testing grounds” in working on myself. And in general, money is a very interesting resource, it is neutral, but it can be turned into a variety of directions, giving it both a very negative and a very positive character. I was once very bad at handling money. Then, with great interest, I learned to do it better. I'm interested in how they work: how they appear and disappear, how you can save them, attract them, or burn them. This is as interesting as learning to use your strength, creative energy or time.

Thirdly, I believe that routine is what “falls apart last” when a person feels bad. At the same time, work is far from being in first place among such routines - it is not the last thing to “dry out”. (Before I completely fall to the bottom, there are still such simple things as eating, getting up every day, getting dressed and washing.) But still - when I feel bad, when I have grief, when I am sick (disgusting, but not yet fatal) - work , this is my motivation to get up and move, at least to a minimum extent. It's not always easy, but it disciplines me. And everything related to work brings a certain structure to my everyday life, this is important to me. For example, I work five days a week and rest for two. I am a freelancer, but for me it is important that weeks and months are not some endless series of identical days, but that there are different days, holidays that you wait for, and everyday life that you need to hold out until the end. And I am “gathered” by the fact that there are deadlines, people are waiting, new interesting projects are waiting, the work on which I “must earn money for myself” by finishing the previous ones first.

Fourthly, I know why I make all my T-shirts, tattoos, gifts, etc. I understand that the world is already so crowded with t-shirts and gizmos. it's getting bad. Sometimes I feel sick too. But I regularly see both sides of the coin: on the one hand, I go into warehouses with myriads of T-shirts, and I think: “God, this is enough for the whole world until the second coming, where does humanity need more T-shirts?!” On the other hand, I have left the house many times (or scoured the Internet) with the specific purpose of gifting a specific person (or myself) a T-shirt. And then I see that there are a million of them, and I like only one and a half. Those. “more or less like” or “very good” - much more than one and a half. But I like it so much that “Yes, this is what I want to buy and wear immediately” - almost nothing. It’s strange - there are so many of them, but “mine” is not there. Or it is extremely rare - surprisingly rare. The same thing with gifts: I walked around the city more than once (and I live in a city where the gift business is so flourishing, there are few other places where there is such expanse!) to buy gifts for different people. Or I was looking for myself - a mug, bed linen, a table stand, a bowl... And “everything is not right” or there is nothing that I like. Or I see a repeating picture: before the New Year I go to 20 stores in the city center, and I see only 4-5 things that I like - but these things are everywhere! It feels like a bunch of gifts were thrown onto the market, five of them turned out to be particularly successful, and suddenly all the stores ordered them! After that, you don’t dare to buy such a thing: you understand. that all the other residents of the city have walked along the same paths, and will obviously buy the same thing there. And that one. Whoever I give this to will receive a third copy from me...

In general, I started making my own things for myself: everything that is in my store is what I myself once lacked. It’s just that at some point we started doing it in small quantities. Because many of my readers think the same. And for them (Oh, a happy occasion!) sometimes my favorite T-shirt turns out to be the same “this is what I want for myself now and immediately!”
Partly I realize that this is just luck. That among my 33 thousand readers there are 100 or sometimes 300 who wanted some of my things. Every time I am very happy about this, and surprised at the same time. But for me it makes sense. Another one. That's enough for me. Somewhere in the world someone wears my T-shirt to holes and at the same time likes himself in the mirror! :-)

And also - I wrote about this in my last book- each person has his own meaning in life, and when it is lost, everyone becomes very bad (and the person himself does not know why he lives in the world, and he feels very bad). This feeling that everything is meaningless is a symptom of severe depression, and it is very difficult to get out of it. Such people are taught to slowly seek joy from everything in the world, pleasant sensations, impressions, any activity that brings pleasure. They force you to return in small steps to basic routines. And then suddenly everything was good - as long as the person had at least some interest in getting up in the morning and continuing to live. So here suddenly any “small joys of life” become priceless: if thanks to them a person woke up in the morning and wanted to get up, then this is already a success! Because everything rests on the desire to live and continue at least something (anything). Therefore, if you look at everything from this angle, all my work (and the work of any person) makes a lot of sense! I woke up this morning and ran to look. in only shorts, how some of my designs dried out, whether they sagged from the glue, and whether the paint darkened. Or whether the client responded, accepted my work, and whether it is possible to continue. another person rushes to the refrigerator with the same zeal to see if the cake is frozen. Someone runs to an unfinished dress, because today the second half of this dress awaits him, and the most terrible of the tasks that he wants to cope with. Or some part of the process from which he gets particularly great pleasure, but which still needed to be reached.

For whom else this makes any sense - it doesn’t matter.
For some it does.
Yes, there are millions of pictures in the world, but someone just wanted my picture. And this is my happiness - it makes sense to work. And this also makes sense for the customer - he wanted his text (or product, website, cars) to be illustrated with my picture, and he will get what he dreamed of!

Someone will buy this particular dress and will wear it and look beautiful. Someone will feed their children and go on vacation because they gave him money for his work.

And when I die, I allowed my child to take everything that I left into the trash if he didn’t want to keep it for himself and there was no way to sell it. Or give it to anyone. Because I understand that it filled my life with meaning, but it doesn’t have to seem meaningful to anyone else. And it’s enough for me that it makes my life meaningful. And so I get up in the morning, go to work, then in the evening I’m glad that I worked successfully, enjoy my well-deserved rest, and think about what I’ve learned. I'm scouring the Internet looking for an answer on how to make everything even better. There are many meanings in my life - children, grandchildren, family and friends. But creativity and work are two very important ones.

I often come across people who have little understanding of why they live. They work hard. Work allows them to earn money for a living. But do they live? No... They don't live, they just survive. And I want to ask: what is all this for? What's the point? What are you working so hard for?

It seems to me that work can only have two meanings. And now we will look at them in detail.

Work as a calling

Ideal option. Man receives pleasure from my work. Human implemented in its professional activities . Of course, such a person also gets tired sometimes. She might have it too Bad mood. And sometimes she can even complain to her girlfriends about the lack of free time, being stuck at work, fatigue, etc. But these complaints are not real. This is just a release of accumulated stress. And if you start to understand, such a person still admits that he is happy with the work that he likes to work and he never dreams of any other professional activity.

In this case, the meaning of a person’s life is in the work itself. Such people can work 15 hours a day with a minimum of days off and feel great. However, you still need to keep a line... When work brings pleasure, and when she only gives unbearable fatigue?

Techniques to help you find your calling are described in the article “”

Work as a source of income

Should work always be a calling? No! A job can simply be a source of income. But! Then this work must meet the following requirements:

- you must have clear work schedule. The most convenient for you. Most often it is 2*2. We work for a couple of days, rest for a couple of days. This schedule allows you to find more time for your hobby;

- Job shouldn't be too stressful. Otherwise, you simply won’t have the strength to do anything else;

— about this work no need to think outside of work hours. Nobody should call you. When you leave your workplace, you should simply disconnect from everything that concerns you. labor activity.

But the most important thing is you must have your own hobby! A hobby that doesn't make money but is your calling is... the meaning of your life... Instead of a hobby, you can raise children, do housework... Provided that you really like it! Otherwise, again it all comes down to the fact that your life is meaningless.

What are you working for?

Let's do a little exercise. What is your typical day like? Create a daily routine by roughly calculating how many hours you spend on any activity. Make a list like this for both weekdays and weekends. For example, in a working day you spend 1 hour getting ready, 2 hours on the way to work, 8 hours on the work itself, 1 hour on dinner, 1 hour on sitting in front of the TV, 1 hour on communicating with loved ones, etc. Here we only enter what you do every day. And then calculate how much time it takes per year... For working days, multiply by 5, then multiply by 48 (52 weeks a year, 3-4 of which are spent on vacation and holidays).

Then write down those activities that are present in your week that were not included in the previous list. And count how many hours a week you spend on them. For example, a gym - 3 hours a week, a cinema - 2 hours a week, a restaurant - 2 hours a week, a trip to barbecue - 10 hours a week. Again, calculate how many hours it takes per year.

Do the same for activities that you do several times a month.

What happened? What do you spend the most time on during the year?

Most of your time will probably be spent on work. But what comes after it? Cleaning? Chatting with friends? Shopping? Or your favorite thing?

This exercise will help you see your life from the outside. And perhaps you can understand its absurdity. Perhaps you will understand that in fact there is nothing in your life except work and senseless killing of time. And what then is the meaning of such a life? You spend a colossal amount of time on what doesn't give you any pleasure!

If you feel the need to understand this situation, perform the exercise “” - this exercise is quite complex, but effective.

Love yourself! And may your work bring you happiness!

An ideal job, filled with meaning and bringing complete satisfaction, is everyone’s dream, which, alas, most often turns out to be illusory. Even your dream job can seem dull or full stressful situations. In this case, the thought may arise: is this all you worked so hard to achieve? For what? How to find meaning in work and even get joy from it? There are a few key principles and actions that should help.

1. Don't take work for granted.

There is an old Greek proverb that says, “How can you make a master appreciate his donkey?” Answer: “Deprive him of his donkey!”

The world's population is growing at an alarming rate, and anyone who has a job should be grateful to be employed. Imagine, many people would like to have a paid job, but they can’t find one. So... be grateful for your work.

2. Decide on your values

Work can be truly meaningful if it is part of life goal. And your life purpose will most likely align with your values. A life values- this is what helps to find happiness in work.

So how do you clarify your values?

Make a list of 5 things that are most important in your life. You're probably thinking about things like family, friends, spirituality, money, career, work-life balance. Then ask yourself how your work serves these values ​​and write down the answers.

As soon as you realize that your life values ​​do not contradict your work, you will immediately realize that you are lucky: you have almost got the perfect balance.

3. How to turn dreams into reality

If you have a big dream for your career—maybe you want a bigger promotion or want to work for yourself—look for ways to turn your dream into reality. You may have to work harder than others to get closer to what you want, but it may ultimately enable you to do what you want to do and be happy in the long run.

Make a list of small steps you can take to get closer to your dreams and commit to doing all of those things every day. These steps can be small: “Find a website dedicated to my dream and read everything on it” or “Subscribe to an email newsletter related to my professional ideal.” Do one thing every day that brings you closer to your dream. You'll be surprised how small, consistent actions can quickly bring you closer to realizing a big idea.

4. Understand why you work

If you want to be happy at work, you need to understand your attitude towards it and your motivations for doing this work. There must be some reason that forces you to act, otherwise you will not get out of bed in the morning. Of course money is driving force, but there must be other reasons that make you jump up in the morning and rush to work.

So what's important to you? Answer the following questions:

1. Do you work out of necessity or do you strive to achieve something?
2. Do you really want to get out of the house to be around people?
3. Do you want to work for yourself?
4. Do you want to excel in your chosen field?
5. Do you really want to help others?
6. Do you want to be creative?

Look at the questions where you answered yes. Are there elements of your current job that satisfy these needs and desires? If yes, then everything is fine.

5. How do you evaluate your work?

Each work has an inner meaning. It doesn't matter what you do. It will not only give you income, but will also influence other people and even the whole world in which we live.

While working, we will all certainly come into contact with other people - this important fact need to be realized.

Work becomes more meaningful when it brings fruit to our lives. own life and the lives of other people.

What happens if you stop doing what you're doing? Write it down and admit to yourself that your work is needed by someone else besides you. Realize that you are making a difference to the people and the cause you serve.

And then all efforts will gain true meaning.

6. What is your goal?

Every job has a purpose. Make a list of the three most important tasks for which you are hired for this job, and be sure to include why you need to do them well.

Set goals to accomplish these tasks more effectively and you'll definitely achieve more, plus you'll gain extra respect from your peers and employer.

Having a clear goal and clarity on how your time should be spent will help you find yourself focusing on what's important.

7. Major or minor?

Wasting time on unimportant tasks is futile and leads to dissatisfaction. Many people work 10-12 hours a day and still nothing seems to be moving. And despondency sets in.

What if you eliminated everything that takes up a lot of time or is not so important during the working day? Learn to set goals for yourself to complete. important tasks, and not torn to pieces. Make a list of tasks and check yourself to see how things are going. It will keep you organized, motivated to get things done, and you'll be surprised at how satisfying it is to check off those boxes on your to-do list. And you will immediately tune in to a major mood.

8. What do you want?

It is obvious to everyone that at the top of the list of motivations for work will be money. But if this is the only goal, such activity is unlikely to bring much joy. So, besides just making money, think about what else you want to work for.

1. Is having a permanent job the most important thing to you?
2. Would a flexible work schedule suit you better?
3. Do you want a promotion or salary increase?
4. Would you like to have the opportunity to learn and develop your skills?
5. If you work from home, is this a suitable option for you?
6. Do you not hide the fact that you are simply earning your pension or funds for an entertainment or sports club?

Look at the number of positive responses. Is your goal to satisfy most of these needs? So it's time to talk to the boss. If you can't change something at this job, it's time to look for something else. Apparently this career is not for you.

9. Build the right relationships with colleagues

Good relationships with colleagues are a powerful factor in being happy and successful at work. Not everyone is born with a great character: many people are gloomy or awkward, or they think that everyone treats them badly, etc.

Good relationships are something without which it is impossible to work in a team and improve, all together and each individual. Learning good interpersonal skills, in particular, is an integral part of your job success and satisfaction. If you can learn to consider other people, they will reciprocate and your work will be much more enjoyable and rewarding. Here are a few rules to note:

1. Getting people to treat you well means always finding something good in them, including saying a kind word to them.
2. Don’t be lazy to ask how your colleagues are doing, show interest in their problems.
3. Treat people with respect and be grateful for any advice or help from them.
4. Know how to be useful.
5. Learn to compromise.
6. Try to always be in a good mood, because joy breeds joy.

Smile! Work with pleasure and you will find meaning in your work. You deserve it!

The main idea of ​​​​the work of a leader at any level.
The idea of ​​a manager's position.

The purpose of a position is a brief statement of why this position is needed at all. And of course, the work of a manager is necessary to ensure that the efforts of individual employees are as effective as possible, coordinated with each other and lead to the production of the desired product.

When it comes to small companies and divisions One difficulty arises. In such companies, very often one employee combines the work of both a specialist and a manager. For example, this often happens in the sales department, where there is a head of the sales department and a couple of salespeople. In this state of affairs, the head of the sales department will usually also perform the work of the salesperson. It is important to understand that this person performs two completely different functions: a salesperson and a manager. Each of these
functions of your design position.

For example, the intent of a sales position could be summarized as: “to help potential buyers make a profitable purchase quickly and without unnecessary hesitation by finding out their needs, giving them advice and getting them to pay for the goods.”
The idea of ​​the position of head of the sales department could be called: “to organize the work of sellers so that they effectively direct their efforts, give 100%, help each other and, thanks to this, make a large volume of sales.”

You see, these are two completely different ideas. And when someone starts doing the work of a leader, he must become very good at it. A brief statement of the plan, which is indicated at the very beginning of the document describing the responsibilities, helps a person from the very first minutes of studying such a document to understand main idea his work.

“A leader’s principle cannot be anything other than “get people to do their jobs.” - L. Ron Hubbard

Central idea The intention of any leader is to “achieve efficient work” and to do this he needs to influence people to act in a certain way. What’s interesting is that not every person is comfortable with the idea of ​​“influencing” others. Some people prefer to deal with equipment or plants rather than people. Such guys will never make leaders; in their hands, no leadership tools will work. Of such a person it could be said that his personal intention in relation to work does not correspond the design of the leadership position.

“Thus, we see that whenever a manager personally undertakes to carry out any part of any work available in the organization, he makes a mistake. A “bad manager” can do this in two ways. The first one is quite obvious. The manager simply tries to do the work of a few separate jobs, leaving many other jobs unsupervised and without coordinating many details. It deprives employees of necessary interaction and does not provide oversight of their work. The other way is less obvious. He takes away from people in various positions the “tidbits” that require a “team decision”, leaving them with frankly tedious work related to to insignificant details. In other words, he skims the cream by doing a little of each job and thus creating a state of irresponsibility in these people.” - L. Ron Hubbard

A common example of this “second method” is when a manager performs the work of a sales manager or technical specialist when it is necessary to serve old and loyal customers who bring the lion's share of the company's income. Of course, this approach is pleasing to both the client and the manager - after all, mutual understanding has been established with this client for a long time. This also gives the manager the opportunity to demonstrate his importance and delegate to his subordinates the formalization of all technical aspects of cooperation. A less obvious example of this approach is when the head of the sales department, instead of giving his subordinates an accurate system of discounts for regular customers, reserves the right to make decisions “manually” about providing discounts As a result, his sellers are forced to regularly “bow,” and he acts as “good and caring” in the eyes of the client, leaving the seller all the “dirty” work of selling and “extorting” money.

It does not matter what motives motivate a person when he performs any part of the work for a subordinate. We can only say that if what he does does not lead to an increase in the ability of subordinates to independently cope with the work, the manager is not following the design of the position. If the manager explains to his subordinate how to properly demonstrate the product so that he can do it successfully in the future on one's own - This is the job of a leader. If he moves towards the seller, seeing an important client, and himself working with the client for fear of losing the sale, he will be able to do a good job as a seller, but at the same time he is acting against the intent of the manager's position.

It doesn't matter what level of manager we're talking about, the intention of the manager’s work remains unchanged, only the tools change. So top manager company, sitting in a beautiful office, uses strategic plans in order to coordinate the work of different departments and aim their deputies at a specific result. And the excavator foreman distributes tasks to workers right at the construction site, drawing up a plan for the week in a work notebook. Both of them essentially do the same thing - they ensure that their subordinates work harmoniously and achieve their goals. But of course, when you describe the work of a manager and formulate a plan, reflect in this formulation the specifics of the work of this particular position. This will help him quickly understand what the main idea of ​​his work is.

RESULT: A GOOD MANAGER IS THE ONE WHO DOESN'T WORK, WHO HAS THE ENTIRE WORK PROCESS SET UP (ENTERPRISE, ORGANIZATION, FIRM, CLUB), and IF the manager does it himself, the question is why he needs a team, subsequently he is bankrupt!
SO WHAT SHOULD WE DISCUSS THIS TOPIC?