The Virtues of a Contented Inner Work Life

Work is more rewarding when we bring a higher sense of meaning to the day's labor

While most people do work for a paycheck, they often get something more meaningful and rewarding for their effort. fizkes/Shutterstock

Your inner work life, or thoughts about work, supply your motivation and the empowering virtues you demonstrate while working.

Virtues are the desirable values and characteristics that you have the potential of demonstrating on the job. They help supply your motivation to do good work and contribute to a business’s favorable impressions of you. Here are a few examples:

• Respect and self-worth arising from earning your pay and caring for your family.
• Fulfillment derived from utilizing your time and talents productively.
• Dependability in continuing to meet deadlines and commitments.
• Contentment created by fulfilling your authentic purposes for working.
• Resilience in dealing with challenges and disappointments.
• Joy and pleasure in applying yourself and doing your best.
• Pride associated with accomplishing results and demonstrating value.
• Responsibility and integrity earned while delivering on your promises.
• Resourcefulness when making the best use of what you have.

At first glance, you might mistake these virtues for intrinsic job satisfaction. But realize that businesses control jobs and the means to satisfy. So to link the virtues to what businesses control would suggest they control your virtues as well. They don’t.