There is something I have been reflecting a lot about these past two weeks - and it is is excellence. I feel truly inspired when I encounter people who are excellent in their areas of work – be it a singer, an actor, a speaker, a writer, a civil servant, a cook, a waiter etc etc. It makes me realise the best that area was meant to be (music, policymaking, managing, influencing). These are usually people who do not treat their work as a drudgery, but treat each piece of work as if it were the last piece of work they will do and give it their all. I felt this keenly when I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting several such people a few weeks ago, one after another. I met a team of worship leaders who composed such beautiful songs I truly thought they were Hillsongs songs (snippets found at http://www.lighthouse.org.sg/light_the_way.asp), I met someone who manages his time so well and yet pushes the envelope constantly in terms in his work. I met an energy efficiency expert from USA who was extremely jet lagged (he worked on slides from 230 – 430am the night before) and yet appeared fresh and enthusiastic as a puppy when he delivered his talk. He must be pretty old, he has a head of white hair! I was truly amazed. I must have stared at him with my mouth agape for a good part of his talk because I could not believe my eyes – here was an elderly man, who not only must be dead tired and delivering this talk for the umpteenth time (he is also adviser to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team and sits on many other committees), but he is as crisp and clear and engaging and fervent as ever. I told myself, when I am old, I want to be like that. Not something I get to tell myself often, mind you J When we meet such “work” mentors in our lives, treasure them.
This epiphany of sorts also came at a time when work was becoming a bit of a drudgery for me. I found myself lamenting to people around me the seeming lack of correlation between hard work and rewards at my workplace, and how many of colleagues were already taking the easy way out and deciding to ‘slack’ as much as they could get away with. After all, we all get the same pay anyway and the boss is too busy to notice us. And as I went along this trajectory, I started to see my work as just something to get done during the office hours, like a robot of sorts, and my life really starts after work. However I realised how this sort of thinking ironically made me value my work even less, and as I put in minimal effort, and cared less if I submitted things which were lackadaisical, I took less pride in work and work seemed even more of a drudgery!
As I was attending a worship service, images of such people excelling in every field kept flitting through my mind. I don’t know why. But I realized what makes me happy is excellent work. And I believe that deep down, everyone does. There is that sense of satisfaction when we have done a good job of something, whether it is something as simple as cleaning the house, to creating a piece of prose, to creating a set of powerpoint slides (yes we all know the “just throw the text up on bullet points” sort of slides, which is really the last resort and is really not that inspiring to look at). I realized there is a vicious cycle, and a virtuous cycle at work in work :P. When I put in my 100% to anything I am doing, and I tell myself to do a good job of it, cos it is something worthwhile, it brings a sort of positive energy and time flies, and my mind is engaged (instead of ‘switched off’), and work becomes what it was always meant to be. Of course, we should beware the other extreme (which I have also experienced) of caring so much about work that it consumes our every thought and it squeezed out other important things in life. That is not healthy as well. But I am talking about putting in that effort, to do a good job, and that immense satisfaction when we produce that good piece of work we are proud of. I call it “the virtuous cycle of excellence”. Just put in 100% to something you don’t really like, and strangely, I believe we will start liking it!
