#209 – What's the message struggle has for you?

You think suffering is virtuous? Think again.

When things come easily for you, do you doubt their value? Do you believe you're half-assing them? Do you feel that, if it's easy for you, it's worthless?

No pain, no gain, we're told.

The country where I come from (Spain) glorifies suffering. In Easter, gore images of Jesus bleeding on the cross are taken in procession by hooded men on narrow streets while people weep and macabre music plays. If He suffered for all of us, we must suffer too, we're unconsciously told.

And so when we're having fun in our work (which is supposed to trigger our brow to sweat profusely), we believe there's something "sinful" about it.

My former client C.F., the General Manager of a production studio at a global entertainment company, had been a successful movie & TV producer throughout his career.

Until he was made General Manager and felt inadequate. Part of his job was reviewing and selecting scripts for production, the only part of his job he loved and felt equipped to do well.

Yet unread scripts piled on the four corners of his desk and computer folders.

Why? Because the Ghost of Misplaced Guilt was running the show in his mind. Doing something that was so easy and enjoyable to him made him feel like he was cheating. Was that a "sin?"

Of course, he wasn't aware that, even being from a different country, he'd been indoctrinated in the same glorification of pain. No pain at work? Tsk-tsk.

Can we please understand once and for all that it's the other way round?

Suffering doesn't validate our work. It merely signals we don't like what we're doing – and so, why do it?

How much longer are you willing to tolerate tasks, a job, or a career that make you suffer?

Love,

Carolina