The Price of Life

In the game of life
Aim at a price
The one who wins
Is the one who tries

This little poetic but powerful word was written to me by my longtime friend Sindhu Ravidran from India. And it’s been centuries now but I have kept this words-which was attached to her parting gift to me -in my heart dearly.
In this words are set deep meaning to life’s issues and how to conquer their challenges. And it actually applies to everything in life from your output to your input. Yet, I’ll choose to deal with it one at a time, starting with your work.
To everything in life there’s a price to be paid but the trick is in knowing and recognizing the price. If you know the price, will you pay for it? Or will you rather find a shorter cut to getting what you want?
A price is the cost of something bought or sold. It is sacrificing something to get something else and also it is the measure of value of something. It is a sufficient bribe!
To elucidate that further, a price paid as a sacrifice is something you lose or give in order to achieve a particular position or condition - an estimate of what that thing is worth, how important, useful, or irreplaceable it is to you. It is the sum total of what recompense you’ll have in return for what you’ve agreed to do. Therefore, in doing a job there’s an agreement of what you’ll like as a worthy payment and there’s also a sacrifice to be made in other to get that payment which now becomes your price. Your aim is not the money or benefits thereof but the aim is the price for your sacrifice.
Look at your desire job maybe as Lecturer for instance, you earn like $4,000 in a month which is the sum of money you have in return for agreeing to Lecture students. Good! The sacrifice is the time you spend putting your notes together, your services of rendering explanations to those notes and teaching others what you’ve learnt and the attention you pay to that work, doing it diligently, dedicating your resources and time to it and making sure that nothing is missed out. Now the price comes in different ways as the blessings of your work, no wonder the Book of Life says there’s a reward for hard work. Surely you work for your wages but in it there’s a price to be aim at to win, which is your service to God and mankind.
Your price becomes the knowledge you’ve imparted to others, your contribution to your generation and the society at large, the promotion that you get, the incentives you receive and at other times the satisfaction of plain good work well done!
It is no use now, working without satisfaction being guaranteed. It stifles productivity and set in feelings of frustration. Yet so many jobseekers are anxious to be financially empowered not caring about the job satisfaction which actually gives one the joy of earning a living from what you do.
The joy you get from doing what you’re called to do is immeasurable and cannot be overemphasized. You can look into your life style or character to build up your career, your destiny’s purpose is inside of you, packaged in your being. First you must desire it to birth it. The strength of your desire will produce the determination to be the best in what you do; this same strength will produce discipline to do your homework with dedication, stirring up the spirit that produces diligent that will make you know how to double check that the T is crossed and the I is dotted. Your approached to work goes a long way in determining how far you can get in life. It can also give out a lot of message to your personality. It will define your character as an individual.
There’s no better educational qualification that can take the place of hard work. It’s the ladder to the top. Procrastination kills production. The work you left undone yesterday will crowd your today’s work and piled up for tomorrow. This will automatically cluster your life with sorting out the past instead of facing the future. It’s a rotational circle of failure. The time you spent undoing the cluster is so wasted!
But you can change your work life by just following these tips:
1. Accept and understand who you are – your uniqueness and peculiarity.
Never try to be like your colleague or friend, learn to accept who you are and get to know yourself in such a way that you know what you can and cannot do. When you know this you’ll be able to make a good career choice that suits who you are and put in your best.
2. Know your opportunities and find out the challenges you have.
What are the resources available to you? How can you make a maximum impact through it? Plan your life with what you have right now and run with it.
3. Strive for excellence!
Know your calling or gifting and stick to it. Be the best at what you are called to be or do.
4. Be a time-saver.
Look out for what is most important and prioritized practically. Don’t kill time for stuff which is not necessarily important. Go first for the urgent and important ones and do them first, next sort out urgent but not important issues and delegate those that can be delegated then attend to the ones that are not urgent but important and check if it can be re-schedule and explain your constraints in good time. Let go of some activities completely so you can function well in other areas – cut out gist time in the office and be proactive.
5. Be coordinated, plan ahead!
Draw up a daily schedule that is guided by your priorities and think up schedule days in advance. When do you start? What do you do or delegate? What can you re-schedule or strike off your to-do list?
6. Minimized distractions!
Have a time-table to reduce any form of distraction while you are at your tasks. Create time for ‘No Visitors’ and turn off your phones if necessary, switch off your Televisions and other gadgets. Cut out gist and less important things. But create room for emergencies; don’t be too up-tight.
7. Free yourself from all burdens and increase your performance.
Get rid of excess baggage –gossip, jealousy, negativity, malice, sin, showmanship, evil-speaking, deceit, unfaithfulness, competition, pretence and envy. Clear up the clutters and structure your office and home space to a functional environment for productivity. Don’t be choked up with unresolved issues.
8. Relax and rest from all your labour.
Find peace in your soul and enjoy! There’s nothing that can be compared to the healing and strengthening power of a merry heart. Enjoy now! Whatever your now is; do it! Deliberately create a down time for rest and relaxation; I call it my ‘Me-Time’. Yes, do it for just you! Do some shopping therapy, beauty treat, leisure outing, watch movies, listen to music, have some entertainments, dance classes, sun-bathing or sleep.
A healthy and happy person is better at everything including managing time, work, and family, stress.....everything!
9. Be spiritually minded!
Whatever is your spiritual source, firmly hold-on to it. Be a solid person by serving God and stick with it! Everything in the physical is encapsulated in the spiritual. You can’t make it in life physically without a spiritual backing.
10. Love yourself and love others too!
Love yourself more and the love will radiate to everyone that you come across in life. It is the gift that you give to yourself because you can’t help others and function well in life without loving yourself first. You can only give to others what you have. And finally, ‘to whom much is given much is expected’ share what you have and support as many people as you can attain that level.