From Complaints to Joy: Embracing a New Work Mindset

In today's episode we are talking about finding joy in work by shifting mindset, focusing on gratitude, refraining from negative language, and viewing work as a way to honor God. I also talk about Adam from Genesis and Solomon from the book of Ecclesiastes  to help illustrate the importance of work. We also discuss maintaining a positive attitude and perspective towards work, that ultimately leads to peace and fulfillment. 

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*Affiliated with Painting Miracles, INC & Certified Life Coach through the I-A.M System

Transcript

0:05

Hey friend, welcome to the restored mind podcast, where we are going to be talking about various life topics surrounding mindset transformations. These topics are coming from a faith lens and will propel you into a life of peace and joy. My name is Caroline, wife, mom of three, daughter of the one true king. Host of this podcast and certified light coach through the I am system by Painting Vehicles Incorporations. My hope is that this podcast brings God's light into your life and you break free from the chains that are holding you back. Friend, it is time to shift your mindset into one that will help you flourish. Ready? Let's go. Hello and welcome to the restored mind podcast my friend, how are you doing today? Happy Wednesday I'm, so excited that you are here. My name is caroline. And if you are a new listener, welcome to the restored mind family I Hope that this episode is inspiring Inspiring for you and that you are encouraged not only that but that you see God's light in your life Despite whatever is going on in your life my friend at the restored mind We are looking at mindset transformations that comes from a faith lens. So what does that mean? well That means we're using scripture to help ground us to move us towards a life of peace and joy because essentially that is what we Are searching for a life that is filled with peace and joy whatever is going on in our life, right? and if that is you, I welcome you. And I'm super honored and excited that you are here today. If you are a returning listener, hello, my friend. How are you? I'm excited to have you here. Thank you that you are making the choice to come back. and join me on another episode of The Restored Mind. friends, you have no idea how much it means to me that you are listening to an episode of The Restored Mind because I started this journey not knowing where it would take me, doubting that people would even listen. And so here we are, a year and some months later, and the Restored Mind has grown. We've gone through change in the cover art and just really rebranding in general and it has been so fun and exciting, but if you're new here i'm moving to california I've been living in north carolina since 2014 And so we are going through this big shift in life where we're moving to California for my husband's work. And so we are leaving at the end of May. And so what that means is that there might be a gap between me uploading episodes, but my hope is that if you can join me on my Facebook page, I will continue to have content there that is going to encourage and uplift you if you need it. And also answer any questions you might have all of the way. are going to be in the show notes. So that'd be my Instagram and my Facebook and all the things. So join me outside of the podcast and take this conversation beyond the podcast if you want. And let me know what your thoughts are. So last week we talked about not staying in the dreaming stage of reaching our goals, but taking that first step and making it happen. And it was inspired by a note that I found written in my journal that read, one day or day one. If this is something that sounds interesting to you, I would highly recommend that you take a listen to it. And my hope is that you find encouragement and inspiration from this episode. This week that we're going to be talking about working with joy and this episode was inspired by my reflections on Adam in the Garden And I alluded to that in last week's episode when I mentioned how work doesn't have to be dreadful, It does not have to be dreadful This episode is going to help encourage you in shifting your mindset so that you can find joy in your work And we're going to look at the world view and the world mindset of what working looks like And of course, I'm going to share with you ways that you can begin working towards a more joyful attitude when it comes to work. Shifting your perspective when it comes to working is important because it is going to be essential to what drives you Instead of relying on motivation to carry you through the hard days Motivation is wavering my friend it comes and goes as it pleases. I have previous episodes that talks about motivation and we all Experience it. We all experience the feel good feeling of what motivation is like, right? But we also know that it doesn't stay with us very long and typically when it leaves us We begin to wonder if the work that we're doing is even worth it or if maybe we were meant to even do this type of work in the first place. Showing up when motivation leaves is really hard because you're not motivated to show up, and then we start finding things to complain about. take a moment and think about how you react when motivation isn't there. Do you drag your feet to get work done? Do you skip out on showing up for yourself? Do you complain about the amount of work that is ahead of you? Most of the time when we don't have motivation to do something, the chances of us doing it are slim to none. That's if we don't learn to detach ourselves from the feel good feeling that motivation gives us. Now, motivation is a welcome feeling, right? We love that feeling, but we cannot rely on it to keep us going. And so that is where when we find joy in our work, we don't have to rely on motivation to keep us going steadily. When it comes to work of any kind though, the world likes to tell you that it's okay to complain about your work, right? Because it's not supposed to be enjoyable for whatever reason. I don't know who made that up and said that your work was not supposed to be enjoyable, but it can be and there may not be enjoyable moments, but overall, it can be enjoyable if you think about it, when someone says that they genuinely love what they do, there is an assumption that that person hasn't made somewhere in their life. They. Might get sarcastic comments like oh, it must be nice that you love your work Your life is perfect or whatever, right? But the assumption is there and why do we have that assumption? It's because of the disbelief that we have that we too can genuinely be Joyful in the work that we're doing And it can be hard to wrap your mind around someone who is not stressing over the challenges that's happening in their life or that they're meeting their challenges with so much calmness that it can kind of be irritating to you, right? Because you see them struggling and you're thinking to yourself, how can you not fall apart during this time. But my friend, most of the time, these type people have a sense of peace and calmness and joy in their works, in their life. And so that's the huge difference, right? in the world, when you look at the world, it tells you it's okay to complain. However, when we are taking a step back and reeling it in, we're going to talk about Solomon and Adam in a little bit and how we can shift our perspective to work and honor God. Now, does having a shifted perspective about your work mean that you get along with everyone all the time? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. There are times where we might not get along with our kids or our coworkers or even our spouse, and that can be hard. Now, does it mean that your work is easy and enjoyable every time you show up for work? No, my friend, not at all. There are days where you might be the one that's delivering bad news, or you're making hard decisions that's going to affect the people around you, and it's not enjoyable. These times are not enjoyable. They're hard times. as a matter of fact, you might not like the work that you're doing at the end of the day, right? But you get to decide how you move and what your attitude and mindset is like. You get to choose those things. So, If having a shifted perspective is not going to make work more enjoyable or make it easier to be around the people around you, then why would you want to have a mindset shift towards working, right? That's a good question, my friend,, and I want to answer with this. Because The more that you complain about something the more you're going to find yourself not liking it and you still have to show up No matter what you do in life every day that you wake up and get out of bed You're at work Whether you are a stay at home mom, a new mom, someone who works in their office at the house, someone who drives to the office whatever it is, you are going to work So if you know that you're going to work on a daily and you are complaining on a daily I would say that that's probably harder to deal with than to start shifting your attitude and your mindset towards joy where there is so much more peace even in the midst of the hard times. My husband and I were actually talking about this topic and he brought up a quote that he heard and it says, if you go to work as if you go to work for God, it changes your perspective, which I wanted to share with you cause I thought it was very fitting for this particular topic in today's episode. And so it made me think about Solomon and how he went to work and did all of these things under the sun and yet found no pleasure in all of his toil. Now, if you have not yet read the book of Ecclesiastes, I would highly recommend you reading it. It is probably not the most joyful book to read because it starts out very gloomy. Solomon's questioning what is the point of doing all of this work if it means nothing. And, um, I have found that there are still so many truths and wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes. The longer that I sit in it, the more in awe I become of God's good words. And so yes, there are many truths and wisdom in all of the books, but Ecclesiastes has been very eye opening to me, so I would highly recommend it to you. In Genesis chapter two, verse 15, it says the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And I've read this before and I'm always kind of skimmed by it, but thinking about it some more. A couple of things caught my attention, We know that work requires effort towards a task. So God put Adam in the garden to work it, which requires effort. So no matter your job, my friend, whether you are a wife, whether you are a mom, whether you work at home or in the office, whether you're setting aside time to build your business or better your health, whatever it is. All of these tasks require you to put forth an effort. Yes, even something as simple as changing a newborn diaper or making a simple dinner, it requires effort and work. In the beginning of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes about how he went and did all of these things under the sun, right? We just talked about that, but he found no real meaning. Why is that? and maybe my friend you're wondering what all of this work is for What is the point of all of this work? Things might be getting really heavy for you right now and the burden might feel like it's coming down and your walls are Getting smaller my friend. I would encourage you to not give up in this moment. Don't give up If you want change, something has to change. The work that you put in day in and day out produces the progress that you want to see happen. Now, it might not happen right away, but over time, your small wins are going to add up, as long as you are consistent. Shift that mindset that says, it's not worth it, to let's keep going, or let's take that first step. Most importantly, work like you're going to work for God. And if you knew that you were going to work for God, would you complain? Would you show up and put in half the effort? I truly believe, my friend, that your calling is to Him first, and your work is to glorify and honor Him. And so, yes, your first step might get messy, but guess what? You still put in effort. And if this isn't your first step, and you've been on this journey for quite some time, and now you're starting to feel like the things that you're doing are really repetitive and quote boring, now is not the time to give up. You did not come this far to stop. Keep going and go to work as if you're going to work for God. The second part of Genesis 2 15 also says to keep it, right? So God put. Adam in the garden to work it and keep it. So what does it mean? What does that second portion mean? My friend in my reflection, I believe that when you keep something you are to preserve it and then you become responsible for it. When you are responsible for something you own up to the success or the failure of that area. It doesn't matter what you do in your job. You might be thinking that the work you do at work is not Not going to affect anyone, but it potentially could even if you are working as a cashier at a store How you come off to a customer is going to determine whether or not that customer has a good experience and I get it Not all customers are easy to deal with. I've worked in retail for many years I worked in customer service for many years and not everyone is kind Everyone has a bad day. People are grumpy. We don't know their reason why but still you have the ability to control How you conduct yourself. And no matter what your job is, if it's building a small business, if it's starting a podcast, if it's in your fitness journey, whatever it is that you're doing, you have the responsibility to preserve that task, that goal, that dream, or that business. Why? Because without this preservation, it's going to die. That means that the decisions that you make matter. So if it's your fitness journey, And you said that you were going to show up to work out, but you never show up means that progress is not being made. If it's in your business and you said that you were going to start this business and all it is, is a one day mindset. It's not going to become a reality, right? And so you have the responsibility to preserve that dream in a spiritual way. Preserve can also mean to protect. It's up to you to protect the beauty of your work. And it's been given to you by God. That means that your decisions, your actions, your attitude, your mindset, all of it plays a bigger role than you might think. If you wake up complaining about the work ahead of you, you're most likely going to find an excuse to not show up and become irritated at the work that has now been feeling repetitive and mundane. If you wake up grateful for the day, you're going to most likely find yourself joyfully working, ready to serve. and showing up with a joyful attitude, with a joyful heart. And yes, sometimes our days don't go as planned and things get messy. But my friend at the end of the day, like I said, you still have the ability to control your mindset, to control your attitude. and sometimes we fail like that. We're not perfect. This is not a journey of perfection, but a journey of progress. so how can you begin to work joyfully? I would say start with gratitude. I know we talked about this earlier But you being grateful places you in a place of humility to know that what you have Has been given to you by the grace of god and it can begin to help you see that this day truly is a gift. In my reflection of Genesis chapter 2 verse 15, a thought came to mind and it was this. I'm going to share it with you, so it might be a little jumbled, but, to sum it up, a couple of verses before this, we know that God had already created the earth and the waters and all the vegetations in it. He created the garden of Eden So God took the time to create the things that was needed on this earth. And then he created man after all of this had been created and he placed man into the Garden of Eden. God did not create Adam first to leave him with an empty void of nothingness. God is a beautiful and wonderful homemaker. He created everything that Adam would need. before he made Adam. And my friend, I'm saying this because I believe that when we take a look at our work and realize that everything that we need has been given to us already, and now he's placed us here to work and keep the task that we have been given. So it's up to you, right? You get to decide whether or not you're going to maintain that work in honor of God or for yourself. And, when it's for you, most of the time we'll end up like Solomon. Doing all of these great and wonderful things. But, not really being fulfilled or satisfied in our work. When it's for God, though, we're showing up with joy in our heart. We show up for God, it's a completely different ballgame, a completely different shift in mindset. Going to work with joy changes your perspective, especially when it's rooted in Scripture, at least in my humble opinion. So how can you start by being grateful? I would say the easiest thing to do is, after you turn off your alarm in the morning, before you even roll out of bed, Say one thing that you're grateful for. And I had to practice this cause I didn't really know at the time with the negative mindset that I was in, I couldn't find things to be grateful for. I found many things to complain about. And so what ended up changing my perspective, my mind was simply saying, Lord, thank you for, thank you for the breath in my lungs. Thank you for the rest that has been received. Simple thank yous, meaningful thank yous. They matter. And so once you are building this simple list of gratefulness, maybe you can move into journaling or maybe you can move into including being grateful in your prayers. And of course the most challenging one to do is to find things to be grateful for even in the hard moments. So say you and your spouse just got into an argument. What is there to be thankful for in that moment? Because it's really easy in that moment to complain and wonder if you made the right decision in marrying this person. If you have a hard conversation with your boss at work, it can be very easy to complain about how much you hate your job or how much you dislike the people that you're working with. But what in that moment can you be grateful for? It's so easy for you to complain and say a lot of negative things about your work. So I challenge you in those times, when they do arise, list one thing that you're thankful for. And then number two, I listed is to stop using negative words in relation to your work. Now I know that it might sound like a no brainer, but honestly, how many of us are thinking that we should speak positively about the work that we're doing? It's very easy to talk about how many long hours you're working, how busy you are and how much you dislike this person or that person at work because they're hard to deal with or they don't understand or they don't communicate the way that you would like them to. It's hard. All of it is hard. But the more negative words that you use about your work, towards your work, it's going to shape your mindset and your attitude. Remember that the world doesn't mind if you quote hate your job or that it comes with annoyances and people around you are quote no good Remove the blinders my friend and see them as brothers and sisters whom god loves The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And how do you love yourself? by understanding the love of god And when you understand the love of god, it's easy for you to love your neighbors remove the blinders off of The way that you view your work and the people around you. And you might not be working with a lot of people. Maybe you are a stay at home mom and your work consists of you being with your toddler or your newborn or your kids and they're not yet in school. You still have to be patient with them because kids will get into things. They'll question you and test your patience. My friend, that's still work. That's still work that you're doing to honor and glorify God. and lastly ask yourself this, if you were to show up to work knowing God is your boss, how would your attitude change? If you were to go to an interview for your own business, for your own self, would you hire you? If you were to go sit at the dinner table with your attitude and your mindset that's in complaining, would you be a pleasant person to eat with? We can all make improvements. It is so important that we are shifting our perspective to work with joy. Working with joy brings so much pleasure, so much peace and calmness in your life. Despite the, craziness, the hard times that comes with our work. Adam was put in the garden to work it and keep it. And my friend, you were placed at this task to work it and keep it. And I know you're doing multiple things. You're probably working a nine to five. You're probably a stay home mom. On top of that, you have other tasks to do too. Show up and do it with joy. And I know it sounds so much easier said than done, but my friend, you can do hard things. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to listen in on this episode. I meant what I said. You can do hard things, so don't let the daily challenges stop you from reaching your greatest potential. If you are ready to take the next step in your journey and are finding that you are in need of help and would like someone to keep you accountable, call I would love to offer you my life coaching services. Click on the link in the show notes to get started there. You will also find links to my social media pages where you're able to connect with me as well. My friends, I look forward to speaking with you again next week here on the restored mind podcast. Go in peace.