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When we were little, our parents probably said to us, "Eat your vegetables!" We probably didn't want to eat the vegetables on our plates at dinner, because perhaps they didn't appeal to our young taste buds. Or, we may have been affected by the way our parents said that--as though it was a chore that we had to do, something we wouldn't want to do but had to do. When we were little, mom or dad may have said, "clean up your room!" And we didn't want to do that. But we had to, or we were in for the ire of our parents. Thus, we were taught at a young age that doing things we don't want to do is part of life. 

Doing things that we don't want to do are/is a part of life. Yet many of us have it so deeply ingrained that we have learned to inflict punishment on ourselves. We may feel that we are not acceptable unless we've done enough unpleasant tasks. And look, we see it all over the media. People on exercise machines because the idea out there is, we can't be acceptable unless we have a toned six pack of abs and firm thighs. We are not acceptable unless we rise to high income levels. We can't accept ourselves (men) unless we adhere to the manliness ethic; (women); unless we are thin enough and attractive enough. 

Being too hard on oneself is not a virtue. Those who punish themselves for the misguided notion it makes them acceptable may be at higher risk of developing a psychiatric condition from that. And while that's only an opinion, I think it is a well-founded one. 

In the work world, there is plenty of punishment going around. Society in the U.S. is saturated with ways we can be punished for things that, to many of us, are natural behaviors. At some jobs, if you do not punch your timecard at exactly the right moment, it is a mark against you and it might even find its way to your file. If you don't meet your production quota, it increases the likelihood that you can be fired. There is a lot of punishment in the work world, and there are insults as well. 

Most Americans feel that work is the bitter pill we must swallow to keep our bills paid, our stomach and gas tank filled, and a roof over our heads. People live for their time off. They sacrifice the concept that either they could be doing a job that brings happiness or could find ways to be happier with what they currently do. I've heard it said that: "If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be called 'work'." This is exactly the attitude that causes a person to flush down the toilet the chance of being happy on the job. 

I believe that work should be joyous. 

I was especially miserable in most of the jobs I acquired. I stuck with it for as long as I could. When I hit twenty-five and was earning a minimal living doing part time delivery driving, I decided I could get hired at something else without a problem, and I was going to give notice. I did give notice and got an even worse job. I applied for Social Security benefits soon after that point. I obtained a retroactive check, after a period of not having any income, and following an inpatient stay due to severe psychosis, due to treatment noncompliance. When I recovered to an extent from this repeat episode, I was able to reinstate utilities, electricity, gas, and phone, in my apartment. 

When I settled in at home and had reliable income that didn't entail going to a job, it was a huge relief and a burden off. And while I struggled with self-esteem for years afterward, I was nonetheless better off. 

Yet, even after all of this, I still had a desire to be self-employed. With a government grant I opened an electronic repair and exchange shop and ran it from a storage space. However, I wasn't up to the task. I closed the business after about a year. Someone else took the storage space and took advantage of the fact that there was preexisting customer traffic for electronic work. 

Part of work not being punishment entails that you are well enough and thick-skinned enough first. If you are hypersensitive, or if you are afraid of being too uncomfortable, then work is going to seem like punishment, regardless of changes of attitude. This is tangential to the idea of people needing to prove to themselves that they're working hard enough, for the sake of self-approval. 

In life in the U.S. and in other countries (I am extrapolating from my limited contact with foreign people) many people do not feel they deserve to like themselves unless they've done enough tasks that they didn't want to do. The period in which people measure themselves could be a day, a week or other. The point is, it is almost universal in human cultures that people may feel they have to "earn" self-acceptance. 

Work is often hard, but that doesn't mean it has to be punishment. Work can be all about reward. It doesn't have to be a situation where you are subjugated. Everyone needs a strategy for keeping their basic needs met. Mine is that I legitimately collect Social Security Disability. I have physical and mental issues that prevent me from working competitively. 

Yet, the work I do producing pieces of writing, even while it hardly pays anything, is a source of satisfaction. If there is nothing in your life that you are doing, that you really love to do, then life itself could be a task. And that could lead to misery in general. Is there some life activity that you could do that could potentially make you happier? Do it. But only if you want to, and not because you read an article in the Berkeley Daily Planet advising it. 

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