How to Choose Work?

Questioner: Hello sir, my name is Tanu. I love this quote which you have written in your new book: “If your work is not lovable, life won't be livable.”

So my question is: if I don't find happiness or excitement in whatever I do, is it maturity or some kind of mental illness? Some people say it is because I’m becoming mature, and some others say it is because I am mentally ill. So what do you think?

Acharya Prashant: It is mostly ignorance usually. See, no work can bring you joy or bliss or happiness. No. Work is a product. It's a choice. You don't just randomly plunge yourself into work. Work is chosen, is it not? You have chosen to be on the stage. You have chosen to be in this institution. You choose to accept a job offer, right? It's a choice. Sometimes you create your own work because nobody is offering it to you. So you create it for yourself. It's a choice. It's creativity. You must have it within you to make the right choice.

Otherwise, how do people choose their work? How did India choose its works in centuries? Your father is a barber, so you are a... Where is the choice? Is any self-awareness needed? You are born a girl, so you'll be a housewife. That's your work. Is any self-awareness needed? Born a girl, how will you be an astronaut or a swimmer? Chii, ugly. There is no self-awareness that is needed. Or I'm in this campus, everybody is running towards the placement office, that particular company with the fattest pay package, that’s how work is chosen. What self-awareness?

My Paa is a dentist. My Maa is a dentist. I already have a clinic. I'll be a dentist. They got me admitted into the MDS course by paying a fat donation. What choice of work is there? My mother is an actor. My father is a director-producer. So I'll be an actor kid. What choice of work is there? My entire family is politicians, so I'll do politics. What choice is there?

When work arises as an expression of your deepest clarity, only then can there be love. For most of us, work is a random accident.

It happened. You suddenly find yourself, you are in the body of a woman. Because you are in the body of a woman, certain professions are ruled out. Now there is no clarity. There is a body. Or you belong to a religion or a caste or a place or a country. Therefore, the choice stands sealed. What choice is there then?

You know what work really is in the deepest sense? That which challenges your weaknesses. That is the purpose of work.

But for most of us, work is a livelihood. I go there, spend my time, get a salary check, that is work. No, that is not work; that is livelihood. Real work is when you know who you really are. I know who I am, I am the suffering ego, I’m the conditioned self. Therefore, I need to take up something that challenges my bondages and can raise me to the highest position of freedom and fearlessness. That is real work. Are you getting it?

But for most of us, it is not life, just livelihood. And that's why we say, “Let there be a distinction between personal and professional life.” What personal, professional life? Work is life. Most of the time you're working. But you, “No, I work only four hours a day.” Sir, any action that you do is work. Does it not consume calories? How is it not work then? Does it not require your discretion and intelligence? How is it not work then? you say, “No, but I'm not being paid for it, so it is not work.” You're randomly taking a stroll, how is it not work? Explain.

You're sitting here. Is it not work? Or you listen? No, no, we are students, we don't work. How is this not work? You're watching a movie, how is that not work? Every single action is work, and every single action must come from a point of deep clarity. But we are so obsessed with money that work gets reduced to just something you are paid for — livelihood. Otherwise, we don't believe it to be work.

This is work. That does not mean only this is work. You start sipping the entire day. You just laughed, right? That's work. Karma, Gati, Prakriti — work. And physics would say, not just philosophy, even physics would say, force multiplied by displacement in the direction of force, that is work (Work = Force×Displacement). You're burning calories, that is work. Everything is work.

If everything is work, why do you want to act foolishly in any moment of life? Are you getting it?Our concept of life, livelihood, action, work, and choice stands totally distorted. Therefore, we say certain things are done for the sake of tradition. So I have a family. Then a certain thing you do for the sake of running that family, that you call work. After 6 p.m., what you have is the action that arises from tradition. Right? You have a husband or a wife and you have kids. Where is that action coming from? Tradition. Though even that is work.

All these rounds you took around the fire, how are they not work? Even that is work. But that work gets done blindly in the name of tradition. And then now, because you have a wife or a husband or kids to take care of, you say I must do some other work to take care of them. So there is a distinction. A line gets drawn at 6 p.m. Before 6 p.m., it is work. After 6 p.m., it is family time. No.

Every single action is life, and all of it must come from a single point of clarity. Let there be no distinction between the personal and the professional. You cannot live with two centers. A man cannot have two masters.

Getting it?

Do not let your choice of work be dictated by social norms or established channels. “I am going in the commerce stream.” Don't go to any stream. All these are pre-established channels, and you have the entire sky to fly. Don't limit yourself to these narrow roads. And don't worry too much about livelihood. If you're doing something that is very, very good for you, the rule is — it will be good for others as well. You will have some money. You will not have billions, but you'll have some money, enough to eke out a living. What's more, you'll have love. And when there is love, you don't need too much money.