Work for the sake of work

Over the years in my student and professional career doing what I do, i.e. understanding earth processes, from time to time, my boat gets rocked.  I compare these moments of instability with the very earth processes that I strive to understand.  The rock record is a testimony of having endured whatever it was put through – subduction, compaction, thermal and pressure stress, upheaval, faulting, folding, jointing, erosion etc.  My story is one of endurance too, except that unlike the rocks (or sediment, in my case), my testimony carries emotion with it.  During one such recent event when the ground shook beneath my feet, I found the same old emotions surfacing again.  I couldn’t help but reflect upon the fact that the nature of the calamity was generally similar to others of the past as were the emotions associated with it.  The only difference was that of space and time and the personnel involved.  Thus, upon further reflection, I’ve arrived at the following conclusion: one’s objective and effort is best spent in striving to persist with the work involved – that alone is a constant;  other factors surrounding one are variable and subject to change at short notice.  In other words, carry on doing whatever you’re doing, if you still care about it and if it still interests you, for the sake of doing that work to the best of your ability.  There’s more merit in it, than in doing or not doing something for the sake of pleasing or abhorring personnel.  Let work itself be the motivator, not the people that you’re working for, although they benefit directly or indirectly from the former.