In today’s world, having a job is indispensable to sustain an everyday lifestyle but many people do not take any pleasure in their work as it does not bring fulfillment or enjoyment into their lives. The right career paths are challenging to find and to figure out for each different individual. Careers differ from jobs as careers bring about goals, personal accomplishment, success, and overall happiness. To find this true calling, as the author and professor at City College in New York Gloria Watkins, also known as bell hooks, would put it in “Work Makes Life Sweet” (1993) job choices should be made in the mindset of “right livelihood” so that work may bring “well-being” and “intrinsic rewards”. These intrinsic rewards could be expressed through
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According to hooks, if the chosen work is to have meaning in the life of an individual it should be done with the concept of “right livelihood”. First, to illustrate this notion and its rewards, the example from Gladwell’s essay with the hockey legend Wayne Greztsky could be used. In the end of the essay Gladwell writes about how “he had what the physical genius must have before any of the other layers of expertise fall into place: he had stumbled onto the one thing that, on some profound aesthetic level, made him happy…” (276). At a very young age Gretzsky found what he was meant for, what he loved doing and what he wanted to be doing. That’s when he started to pursue his profession as a hockey player. He put in the work, the effort and the rest was history. He consciously chose the right work in his life that would make him reap and sow a great and “productive” career, fulfill many goals and rewards. He even became known as a “physical genius” as described by Gladwell. This shows that anyone with that level of enthusiasm in their job could potentially become a “genius”. So what is the “right-livelihood” that Gretskzy chose in his life that brought him so much fame and success? Bell hooks defines this term by quoting Sinetar’s definition in her text. She states “Right livelihood […] embodies self-expression, commitment, mindfulness, and conscious choice […]. When we consciously choose to …show more content…
Rewards from a job might also be the adversity and difficulty faced by a person because it gives off a feeling of accomplishment when the problem is resolved. Here, the “flow” of work talked about by Rose applies. Rose states in “The Working Life of a Waitress” that waitresses felt “flow experiences during those times when a person responds successfully to significant challenges from the environment” (282). In other words, waitresses felt good about surpassing challenges and showing their physical or mental prowess throughout these stressful periods. Moreover, Rose goes on saying that it was then that they worked at their best or full potential. The work in itself might be hard but the rewards of doing something such as memorizing orders, balancing plates and taking care of annoying customers can be a source of enjoyment in some way. The tedious and stressful work may bring pleasure and give off personal satisfaction when resolved. With this idea in mind, it could be said that simple jobs such as a waitress, or being a teacher for example, could feed us the same fulfillment as new problems are faced and resolved each day. This could be seen in hooks writing when she talks about the life story of a black American woman named Onnie Logan. Logan, was a woman that was never recognized for what she had done in her life, she never finished school or went to college and never
According to hooks, if the chosen work is to have meaning in the life of an individual it should be done with the concept of “right livelihood”. First, to illustrate this notion and its rewards, the example from Gladwell’s essay with the hockey legend Wayne Greztsky could be used. In the end of the essay Gladwell writes about how “he had what the physical genius must have before any of the other layers of expertise fall into place: he had stumbled onto the one thing that, on some profound aesthetic level, made him happy…” (276). At a very young age Gretzsky found what he was meant for, what he loved doing and what he wanted to be doing. That’s when he started to pursue his profession as a hockey player. He put in the work, the effort and the rest was history. He consciously chose the right work in his life that would make him reap and sow a great and “productive” career, fulfill many goals and rewards. He even became known as a “physical genius” as described by Gladwell. This shows that anyone with that level of enthusiasm in their job could potentially become a “genius”. So what is the “right-livelihood” that Gretskzy chose in his life that brought him so much fame and success? Bell hooks defines this term by quoting Sinetar’s definition in her text. She states “Right livelihood […] embodies self-expression, commitment, mindfulness, and conscious choice […]. When we consciously choose to …show more content…
Rewards from a job might also be the adversity and difficulty faced by a person because it gives off a feeling of accomplishment when the problem is resolved. Here, the “flow” of work talked about by Rose applies. Rose states in “The Working Life of a Waitress” that waitresses felt “flow experiences during those times when a person responds successfully to significant challenges from the environment” (282). In other words, waitresses felt good about surpassing challenges and showing their physical or mental prowess throughout these stressful periods. Moreover, Rose goes on saying that it was then that they worked at their best or full potential. The work in itself might be hard but the rewards of doing something such as memorizing orders, balancing plates and taking care of annoying customers can be a source of enjoyment in some way. The tedious and stressful work may bring pleasure and give off personal satisfaction when resolved. With this idea in mind, it could be said that simple jobs such as a waitress, or being a teacher for example, could feed us the same fulfillment as new problems are faced and resolved each day. This could be seen in hooks writing when she talks about the life story of a black American woman named Onnie Logan. Logan, was a woman that was never recognized for what she had done in her life, she never finished school or went to college and never