To succeed.

“Close some doors. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance,

but simply because they no longer lead somewhere.”

– Paulo Coehlo

 

Driving campaigns, planning modules, designing workshops and rolling out community events may not sound like much. After all, where’s the glamour behind a (comparatively) quiet desk job without the adrenalin rush of midnight emergencies, the rigor of academic exam after exam in a compact residency specialty program and the challenge of facing clinical dilemmas?

Over the past few months, I’ve had more than an invited number of stares and questions about what I’m doing now at a desk job doing community health promotion work, rather than enrolling myself in a rigorous specialty program at a hospital advancing my career in a sensible and predictable way.

No opportunity has presented itself better than this- for me to examine the true meaning behind work, the value it gives us, and the meaning it brings to our everyday experience called Life.

Once upon a time, I thought work was completely fallen. After all, after Man fell into the deceitful trap of the serpent, wasn’t fruitful labour cursed to become toil? Or so I thought. But I am slowly beginning to realize, how wonderful work is, how crucial it is to our inner beings, and how it can either corrupt and corrode us slowly, or empower and set us free.

“We were built for work and the dignity it gives us as human beings, regardless of its status or pay. The practical implications of this principle are far-reaching. We have the freedom to seek work that suits our gifts and passions. We can be open to greater opportunities for work when the economy is weak and jobs are less plentiful. We no longer have any basis for condescension or superiority; nor is there any basis for envy or feelings of infidelity. And every person should be able to identify, with conviction and satisfaction, the ways in which his or her work participates with God in his creativity and cultivation…

… Through our work we bring order out of chaos, create new entities, exploit the patterns of creation, and interweave the human community. So whether splicing a gene of doing brain surgery or collecting rubbish or painting a picture, our work further develops, maintains, or repairs the fabric of the world. In this way, we connect our work to God’s work.”

–      Every Good Endeavour by Timothy Keller

We were built for work, just as much as we were built to live, to breathe, and to love. God worked for six days to create the world and on the seventh, rested. In the same way, I am learning, He calls us to similarly, create beauty out of dust, and order from chaos. Meaning, fulfillment and joy, then naturally comes from the fruit of discovering how our personalities and talents fit into this beautiful cause-and-effect, and seeing how our work impacts society. Understanding the core of this, then helps us to see how beautiful work is, how truly, it is a labour of joy and dignity, how it brings glory to an amazing Creator who created us so uniquely for what we do.

It is simple, and yet not quite. Being at the receiving end of consistent gasps or looks of bewilderment has sensitized me to the nuances of stigma.

No, doing health promotion at a community, campaign, policy level, instead of climbing up the typical clinical specialty residency route has not been stultifying. My creativity has, ironically, been more at work than ever. Strangely (or not), this has not gone well with most, when their criteria for judgment involves financial reward, career prospect and status advancement.

I guess I should not be surprised. After all, we chase jobs that promise tangible rewards and prestige; we want no work-life balance; we want to show the world that we’re good at one thing, and the best at it in the field. Contentment, is a dirty word. Why would you ever want to reach that state? Keep climbing, keep reaching, why stop, ever?

Which is not wrong, if in the spirit of excellence and innovation. But at what cost?

This is not to say there has been no share of pressures, demands or disappointments at work. My point is that… we have a choice. And people tend to undermine the power that they have over their lives to make choices.

But if I don’t apply for this training now…

But if I don’t take up this offer now…

But if I don’t enter this program now…

… Then what? Tell me.

The fact is that we all have a choice to define the route we want to take in life. Success has been over-rated. You want success? Sure, but you can’t be successful at everything. Success needs to take a bow and admit that it loses out on something. It always does. Any wise person will accept, that to be successful in a certain way, will involve not being successful in another.

But what gives? You decide on that.

So I have no regrets. I have been happier, more fruitful, more creative than I have ever been since making this decision. (It may not be permanent, meaning that at another point in my journey, entering a rigorous training program may be something on the cards again.) But being able to make that decision to say no herd-mentality, no societal pressure and no mould had the power to make me conform has been incredibly liberating.

So don’t feel trapped to make decisions you know would look “right”, in terms of status, or money, or prestige. Because those things burn to the ground when you die.

You want to work and leave a legacy behind?

Choose work that brings you joy, enhances your creativity, and glorifies God. Only then will your talents truly bring hope and love and meaning to the people around you, and ultimately, leave a glorious mark of anything close to permanence at all in this brief life we live.

 

“And one of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. If I said to you that there is somebody behind the screen who is very very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind. You would think that person might have made a lot of money, achieved renown in some field. My own theory of success — and I’m somebody who is very interested in success. I really want to be successful. I’m always thinking, “How could I be more successful?” But as I get older, I’m also very nuanced about what that word “success” might mean.

Here’s an insight that I’ve had about success. You can’t be successful at everything. We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance. Nonsense. You can’t have it all. You can’t. So any vision of success has to admit what it’s losing out on, where the element of loss is. I think any wise life will accept, as I say, that there is going to be an element where we are not succeeding.”

“A kindler, gentler philosophy of success”, Alain de Botton, TEDxOxford