For decades, most of us have been conditioned to believe that the primary reason for formal education is to find valuable and lucrative work. Career days, debates, high school personality tests, and choice of subjects all gear toward one goal—preparing us to be excellent professionals who will someday storm the labor market.

However, after accumulating a wealth of work experience, we often find ourselves grappling with the age-old question on a rainy morning when all we crave is an extra hour of sleep:

” What is the point of all this?”

“Why do we have to rise each morning to interact with colleagues we may not resonate with and partake in activities that drain us—physically and, at times, emotionally?”

“Heck, why did Adam and Eve ever have to sin?”

These questions have echoed through the ages – it is a universal human experience.

We have all been there. It is, therefore, not surprising that most of us will spend years wondering how to find fulfilling/ meaningful work. We fail to realize that while there may or may not be such a thing as fulfilling work, the first step to attaining any fulfillment in what we do would be to understand why we work and why this sometimes stressful activity is so crucial to our well-being and existence as humans. 

Of course, earning money to buy the things we want would be an easy guess. However, if it were so simple, many rich and content people would have stopped working. Yet they don’t; even when they aren’t working for money, they find ways to engage in productive activities.

Perhaps it’s because they have attained a level of understanding that most of us aren’t privileged to know, let alone experience, that life is more enjoyable when you can contribute to society. 

Here are three unconventional reasons to help us better understand why we work.

Work is a tool that empowers us with a sense of control.

We live in a chaotic world, and whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, most of what happens in this world is not within our control. We can’t control the emotions of the people around us; we can’t control the weather; we can’t decide what time the sun should rise or set. 

Yet, with work, we can acknowledge that, though we can’t control these things, we can somehow control how we engage with them. Perhaps it is this thought process that inspires creatives and innovators alike to create even the most mundane things, like curtains for when we want to shut out the sun, heaters to warm us through the cold winters, etiquette to help control our emotions around other people, and stories to kill our boredom. In the wise words of Aristotle, “The end of labor is to gain leisure.”

So, if we work because we want to control things, we feel a little less helpless when we work, which brings us to the next point—understanding.

Work serves as a gateway to a deeper understanding of the universe.

Life and the world we live in are complicated. We frequently find ourselves in a state of shocking ignorance: we have no idea when or how we will die; we sometimes have difficulty understanding our own moods; we are propelled by feelings of exhilaration and terror that we can scarcely comprehend.

However, work is one area where we can build up a precise and comprehensive field of knowledge over time. It reveals explanations for why things happen or how they came to exist. For instance, an astronomer can explain why there are no stars in the sky on some nights, while a financial advisor can tell you when a company is on the edge of bankruptcy. 

Work encourages specialization, so to these specialists, a small part of life is not a mystery because their work has enabled them to understand it.

Work is a catalyst for improving our self-esteem, making us feel valued and important.

When we consider Aristotle’s understanding of work, it’s easy to see why work improves the mind. Aristotle defined work by first dividing it into Praxis and Poiesis. Praxis, being an activity done for its goodness, means any action that is in itself worthy, while Poiesis, on the other hand, is an activity aimed at producing something valuable.

Despite this distinction, many of us continue to assume that the entire concept of work is Poiesis – to produce value and earn income. 

Of course, working to create value is excellent and necessary; after all, it is how people create the wealth that affords them the ability to care for themselves and their families. Nevertheless, this is not the kind of work that offers fulfillment. If this is what work is all about, what would happen to people with substantial investment returns, inheritances, or lottery wins that could sustain them for many lifetimes without working another day? 

Indeed, many of us would envy such people. Yet, research contradicts our thoughts by pointing out that people who do not work are more likely to face physical and mental challenges like obesity and depression. Through work, we can gain recognition for our skills and achievements, which in turn makes us feel like we are part of something bigger than us, thereby improving our self-esteem.

In a nutshell…

The idea of working can be compared to solving a jigsaw puzzle. We may be confused at first, frustrated in the middle, and possibly throw a tantrum, but in the end, after much devotion, we finally grasp what’s going on and are pleased with our contribution to the universe.

Therefore, we should be taught to appreciate work because of its usefulness, not merely because it affords us luxuries or a better standard of living. We should be taught to view it as our personal board of jigsaw puzzles that we use to satisfy our innermost desire for order, understanding, and acceptance. 

Lastly, work improves the mind by boosting our self-esteem and making us believe that our existence is needed and worthwhile. After all, self-esteem is linked to what we think of ourselves and how others perceive our competency and contributions.