Life is Work
Hi there!
Welcome back to the MoodiNews. Every Thursday, we discuss a variety of matters related to mental health and self-improvement.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Today, we will be continuing our current series on: THERAPEUTIC ONE-LINERS! YAY!
The phrase that we will be reviewing today is: Life is work.
Life is work essentially means that being alive is equivalent to exerting effort.
It also means that the level to which we participate in life has the power to dictate our perceived experience (either positive or negative) of life itself.
The one-liner Life is work has proven to be an unexpectedly popular phrase with many of my clients, which is why I’m including it in this series.
In therapy, I commonly apply the one-liner, Life is work, in two specific situations:
When people struggle with mood-dependent behavior and simply do not want to participate in life or take care of themselves (this is a common symptom of depression).
Life is work reminds people that, whether they avoid their problems or address them—they will inevitably end up exerting a sizable amount of energy in doing either one.
In other words, coming to accept (and respect) the fact the ‘life requires work’ can help people resist less the work that lies in front of them and use their energy more wisely in the early stages of their recovery.
Secondly, Life is work also applies well to people who struggle with work-life imbalance. Clients who have been successful in their professional lives respond well to this one-liner when they find themselves needing to regain control of their lives at home.
For people who tend to overwork in just one area of their lives at the expense of everything else (i.e., workaholics), the idea that Life is work can offer them a new definition of ‘work’ that can prove quite useful.
Lots of people who have a strong work ethic but struggle to address the more seemingly trivial (but eventually critical) aspects of their daily lives can use this one-liner to expand their definition of ‘work’ to also include personal activities.
To this type of person, I will say, ‘Your entire life must take on the same importance as your work. If you prioritize succeeding at home like you value succeeding at your job, you will notice a new and meaningful challenge being cutout for you!’
(Often, these individuals tend to be goal-oriented and/or competitive, so thinking about their personal challenges as a ‘work projects’ can help them justify the effort required to improve their personal lives.)
At its core, the one-liner, Life is work, is important because it readjusts people’s expectations of how life ‘should’ or ‘ought to be.’
People often forget that life’s automatic default setting is one of chaos and uncertainty—not consistency, clarity, or ease.
Therefore, the phrase Life is work can normalize for all of us the irritating reality that we must constantly work to create stability if we wish to experience any kind of ordered existence in life.
Of course, life is not all about working—play and connection, for example, are important to the health and balance of every person.
However, a lot of people have become too accustomed to thinking that the practice of exerting effort is an inconvenience that they should be able to successfully avoid at all times.
(I often hear clients complain, for example, about having to cook dinner or clean the house. In such situations, their frustration is valid, but they are also forgetting that convenience is not their birthright—nor a luxury that most people can afford on a consistent basis.)
In such cases, the statement Life is work serves as a humbling reminder that being alive takes effort—and that, if you aren’t willing to put in the effort, you won’t reap any of the rewards:
You really do get out of life what you put into it.
And finally, the one-liner, Life is work, simply reminds us of the value of hard work in general.
When we embrace the idea that Life is work, we find that it’s less often the prospect of doing ‘work’ itself, but rather peoples’ attitude towards their situation, that negatively impacts their quality of life during moments of hardship.
In fact, it’s very possible to derive satisfaction from even the most mundane tasks in life—for instance, cooking for yourself and cleaning the house—when we start to approach these duties with a more humble mindset overall.
In summation, the takeaway from today’s one-liner, Life is work, is simple: Effort is not your enemy!
When we stop villainizing the fact that we must work in order to stay alive, our entire relationship with life can change for the better.
Again—we get out of life what we put into it—and therefore, satisfaction comes from purposefully choosing to engage in life in perpetuity, rather than avoiding effort in pursuit of ease at all costs.
You don’t have to love every minute of your life in order to embrace your inner work and live skillfully anyway.
Furthermore, do not underestimate the value of exerting effort in your life on a daily basis—because, eventually, that effort will culminate into the overall contribution that you will be able to make in this lifetime.
Life is work—and it always will be.
Working often feels annoying when it’s essential, but it can also be good for you, too—and that’s ultimately the means by which you end up building a ‘life’ that’s truly worth living.