Where I come from, hard work is a must at home, at work and at school, so I take that with me. Up to maybe five or six years ago, people sometimes called me a workaholic. I didn’t quite like that term because I already realized life has to be balanced. You have to have other elements. So I started to branch out at that time to really see more.
I make a goal every year — something like “adopt a new sport” or “learn a new skill.” A lot of conferences teach you that, but I really put it into action. Now I’ve been playing table tennis twice a week for two or three hours, and I take my whole family to a place we’ve never been before. When you have children, sometimes the small things really warm their heart — you just have to do it. We go to the Bay Area, maybe a small town that we’ve never seen, to have lunch one afternoon and then go sightseeing. Sometimes when you live in a place for a long time,you just forget that there’s a lot of good places nearby that you’ve never been to. We rotate to choose a spot, and every month we go to at least one spot. We go to these local places together and we really have fun because we make an effort to get everyone’s ideas.
I also stopped working weekends. I only work when I have seminars, but other than that, I don’t. I also started doing a little bit more volunteer work, and I feel that that’s really good for me. Previously, I just never got the chance to do much other than my own career. When I do well professionally, when I really put my heart out to help people, I also get a lot of satisfaction, but I serve a little bit higher-net-worth clients, so sometimes I feel I’m not contributing enough. When my children were very young, my time was really occupied. So I started doing volunteer work in recent years, like substitute teaching at a Chinese school. I’ll be the one doing the calligraphy, and I also do some seminars for some of the local communities. They are a different kind of targeted audience. They are lower-income, but they need advice just the same and can’t find anybody. They sometimes tell me, “I’ve been trying to ask someone for more than a year; I just never get any good advice.” No one tells them anything.
When I do things like that, I also get gratification, and I feel this helps me as a person. When I’m a better person, I can do better with my work too. It goes hand in hand. So volunteer work is part of the spiritual balance. It balances your life.
For more Whole Person ideas
- “Well mind and body” (pdf)
- “Don’t allow negativity” (video)
- “Whole Person balance quiz” (pdf)
Written by Zoe B. Ng, a one-year MDRT member from San Francisco, California
What is the definition of working hard?