I have had many jobs in my life and I have to say: I loved all of them. When I was young, I did not have this clear picture of what I wanted to be, as for me this felt awkward. What is there to be?
If I was asked the question by adults, I would answer with ‘a mother’, but this was more from a feeling that I needed to reply than that it was coming from truth.
I have never been the career type either, planning my future and needing a specific function within a company. For me, most importantly, working had to be about people: being with people and working with and for people. Everything extra was extra. And it had to be fun!
The beauty is, most of the jobs I have done found me, instead of me finding them. I always believed, and still do, that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something. There is a reason why we are where we are and from all of my jobs I have learned a lot, mostly about myself, but also about people and how to be and interact with one another.
I worked as a PR manager, I worked in a children’s day care center, I have made toasties in the smallest yet most popular Toasty place in Amsterdam, I have worked as a secretary, as a Management assistant in a bank and as a receptionist in a law firm. I have made breakfasts in a hotel, worked as a waitress at a lunch place, worked as a mentor with children who could not live at home, and for the past year I have worked as a receptionist in two different companies: a bank and an IT company.
When I applied for this job I was of the assumption, however, that it would be for a short time. Somehow a belief had come to the surface that this job was not ‘good enough’, that I was wasting my talents and that I could do much better.
Even though I could feel I was needed in these two companies, my mind was playing games with me. I started to compare my situation with people around me, with those who had jobs that I thought were more important, more busy, received more recognition and earned a lot more money. This has taken some time to let go of and at times I still compare.
The picture of what a working life has to look like, being a 43-year-old woman without a career, is heavily ingrained. Not only within me, but within society. We live in a world where having a career or having a certain job is seen as important, but also that some jobs are better than others.
We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work. Working as a receptionist has taught me a lot, and still does. First of all, I don’t feel I am the receptionist, it is just a job I am doing. I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.
I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.
I am just as important as my manager, my HR colleague, the staff in the kitchen, the cleaner, the postman and the IT specialist. We are all needed and we all bring something unique. Thirdly, my sense of worth does not depend on what job I do. I am not worth more because of the job title I have.
My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.
Working as a receptionist gives me the space to meet a lot of people, to connect and to talk about life and everything that has to do with it. For me it is not so much about the tasks I have to do, but far more about the connection I have with the people around me.
I bring my flavour, and my fellow receptionist colleagues bring their flavour to the job. Together we form an awesome team. Every single one of my colleagues is great at certain aspects of the job, and so am I (and with certain things I am not so great and that is fine too). I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.
Today, I have fully embraced working as a receptionist and the beauty is, I just have to bring me. Work is something I do, it is not who I am.
Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.
Deeply inspired by Universal Medicine and all those wonderful people that I meet every single day.
By Mariette Reineke, receptionist, Self-Care consultant, practitioner, PR manager, Amsterdam/Holland
Further Reading:
There is Honour In Every Job
Breaking The Consciousness of Being A Cleaner
Am I In The Right Job?
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
I can so relate to this sentence. ‘I have never been the career type either, planning my future and needing a specific function within a company’. I have had many ‘jobs’ too as from very young we all had jobs to do in order to earn our pocket money we were given a variety of jobs to do which expanded as we got older and became more responsible. What has caught my interest though is the word ‘mundane’ and is it possible that we are all living a ‘mundane’ life because there is little to no real richness in what we are doing? That we are just in the doing? For example I have come to the realisation I am living a very mundane life not in the appreciation of all that is on offer because I’m lacking full and true intimacy with God. If the richness of God is not in my every movement then life has to be mundane.
It was great to read this article again, and this statement stood out to me today, “every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life”. This is a confirmation that EVERY job matters. As everyone one of us play a pivotal role in our positions in employment.
I love how if we all enjoyed our jobs, no matter where in the temporal hierarchical world we were situated, there would be no bullying, no disgruntle-ness, no arguments etc because the appreciation would be so magnificent, that we wouldn’t allow interference to come in.
Could such harmony exist? Yes, it’s always on offer. It’s us that gets in the way…
Mariette it is so beautiful to read this sharing, it’s something the whole world should read. It is so true, ‘every job matters’. But the pinnacle for me was this statement, ‘and the beauty is, I just have to bring me. Work is something I do, it is not who I am’. I’m learning this in a role I’m currently in, all I need to do is bring me and this gives permission for others to be themselves too, if they so chose to do so.
And in that the job is the job, there is no status or identification, it is something that is needed.
The funny part is this is no different to an ant colony. Every ant has a role, a purpose and they get on in their merry way. No ant is bigger, smaller, prestigious than another. They just continue with their lives too, humans are no different. It is the being that is asked to come forward more and more…
It’s the human that gets in the way. The spirit that resides in a human that have tantrums and continually sabotages us to be well away from our divine Soul. It is that simple, often rejected yet it is always there when we are ready.
The foundation of every job and task we undertake is to be who we are.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” – just like no person is more important than another, no job is more important than another. For example, to have a leader or manager is just as important as having a cleaner – though more often than not we seem to value more the former, and yet if all cleaners were to leave to become managers we would be in big trouble as there would be no one to clean… A healthy and balanced society does not value one person in a job over another but instead appreciates all that a person can bring to each role.
Henrietta I totally agree with your comment. Where I used to work, I appreciated the cleaners, but there was one that stood out for me the most. For when she was on holiday and there was a replacement, the ward felt different. For me it was joy full when she returned, she cleaned in places others wouldn’t think about – so much different in what energy she left the ward in. And guess what? She would return the following day to repeat the cycle all over again and yet her standards never dropped – amazing role model and that is a cleaner!…No problem to me, she’s just as important a team member as anyone else.
Mariette, a few more pearls of Gold that you share here:
“Work is something I do, it is not who I am.” – this is a the key, to not lose yourself in what you do but always know who you are first and living from that. The who we are is all about simply returning to the same essence we were born with and has never left us but seems to be forgotten as we grow older and take on roles in layers.
Every person is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle with not one piece more important than another – if any one of these pieces is missing at the end it affects the whole puzzle. No different to every role in society that needs to be filled by someone.
Mariette – great blog highlighting some of the things around getting jobs and I particularly find this sentence key: “We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.” – there is a constant sizing up of a person, an endless way of pressuring someone in terms of what they do rather than appreciating who they are.
Absolutely, our worth comes from inside, how much we cherish, adore, and love ourselves, knowing we are all amazing just as we are, ‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’
Having been a Jack-of-all-trades and master of none, I can feel that the judgement I used to carry about others was very belittling and was never serving any one and it is time to relinquish such thoughts.
Mariette I have had lots of jobs and on the whole have enjoyed them all. But the realisation I have come to recently is that I am responsible for my every action because how I am affects everyone as we are all connected, so I have no right to have an off day because my off day affects the whole. As you correctly say we are all an equal part of the universe everything we do matters and we all matter always.
I love the title to this article. It reminds and inspires me to have no airs or entitlement in my work; that I am simply there to deliver, reflect and offer all that I possibly can; an essential part of a big picture that I do not have all the details about.
Thank you Mariette, so lovely to read this again, it’s a beautiful study in equality, just being ourselves and appreciating what we all bring to life without comparison or rank coming in around beliefs attached to specific jobs. I have worked in reception before and felt how important the role is as the first point of contact, and also in the amount of people I was connecting with every day. Each job has different conditions which offer the potential to evolve and serve humanity in different ways.
Just being ourselves, and appreciating what we bring to life is enough, ‘We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.’
‘that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something.’ I love this and often reflect on what I’ve brought to the job but also what it’s asked me to learn. I can see such evolution through my working life with each job teaching me invaluable skills and understandings – and not all obvious.
Thats great to reflect on what we have brought to the job, and what we have been asked to bring and learn.
I spent so many years striving to be something, someone in order to be of ‘worth’ and now understanding that “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself” has changed the very foundation of how I live.
Mariette, I love the fact that you are not competing with the other receptionist and can feel that everyone brings their flavour to the workplace and the work.
We all have much to offer, and that is unique to each of us, together we bring so much more, ‘I bring my flavour, and my fellow receptionist colleagues bring their flavour to the job. Together we form an awesome team.’
I agree with you Mariette for me it is the people that matter connecting to and being with them. And I have a position that allows me to meet many people from all walks of life all over the world. How amazing is that.
We are all worth so much more than a pay packet.
When we bring ourselves in full to work then it does not matter what job we do.
It does feel like that and there is never an end to the work we need to do any ways.
This is a beautiful and important point to highlight Mariette – ‘My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’ We cannot wait for the perfect job to complete us, we are all ready everything as we take this quality to everything we do.
Many people feel buffered and bolstered by their job title, in exactly the same way that some people feel buffered and bolstered by their partners good looks, the sporting achievements of their kids, the power of their motorbikes or their hair. The list of the things that we lean on for identity is endless.
I used to work as a receptionist in a community law centre and know what it takes to do this job well, especially when people are distressed, angry or anxious for reasons related to housing, immigration, education or criminal offences. It was important how I related to clients in the few moments I had with them before referring them on and each one had very specific needs. A role I loved and learned a lot from.
Beautifully described Kehinde. An insight into the way we touch each other’s lives in everything we do. And often in only a moment.
I’ve always valued administrators for the order they bring to organisations, often working in the background, putting systems in place and supporting whole teams, they are foundational to business success. Receptionists the front of house and first people we meet are positioned to welcome, listen, give information and guide people to where they need to be. When we enjoy our work and understand its purpose, we give so much more to the people we work with and meet.
Very beautiful Kehinde, what a great example of how each part serves to ensure the whole runs efficiently.
It was a new start to re-train as a carer in my sixties, a role I hadn’t imagined I’d be doing almost full-time and had no idea what it would be like to care for elders in their own homes. Now, it feels like a role I was born to do and value it equally to my other roles in the corporate world. Both involve working with people and this is what I love to do.
It feels like you now have settlement in your body: All roles are of equal value and comparisons with other people and what they do can leave us feeling less. When we embrace what we do and find purpose within the role brings enjoyment to work.
It is not the role that’s important, it’s what we bring to it.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” So true. I have been travelling recently and visited 3 airports this week. There was a cleaner in every washroom I visited and I appreciated every one. Without them the washrooms would be unclean and unhealthy. They were surprised by my appreciation. It would seem their presence is often ignored.
I have been reading about power for my studies, and what you have shared about your self-worth reminds me of it. Not needing the job to bring self-worth and knowing your value from within is like the ‘power-within model’. This is very different from ‘power-over’ (needing to be more than others) and deeper/more solid than the ‘power-with’ model (sharing power with others). Having power-within means you know everyone is equally powerful and plays an equally important role.
What a beautiful study to be embarking on Fiona, everything you have shared here is so interesting, be great to get a blog or article from you to explore this more – a great topic, thank you.
The ability to be fully content, settled and steady in yourself in no matter what job you’re in is such an important part of life, it’s part of knowing that where ever you are and whatever you do you have something incredibly important to contribute.
I so agree Meg. Life throws us many challenges and learning to accept and grow from these opportunities can make a huge difference to our quality of life.
‘There is a reason why we are where we are and from all of my jobs I have learned a lot, mostly about myself, but also about people and how to be and interact with one another’. Yes indeed the world of work is a playground of learning, learning about oneself and how to interact, communicate and work with others for the greater good.
Just like you Mariette I have come to know that, “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself”, and it is this quality that I take to every single job I do and to everyone I meet. From cleaning someone’s toilet to caring for vulnerable children, from finding someone their forever home to a temporary receptionist at our local hospice, all of these diverse jobs have offered me so many opportunities to share all of me with those I work with; yes. ‘every job matters’, as does every single person.
Beautifully said Ingrid – valuing our selves and knowing our own self worth is a key and foundational quality to have to live in this world. And this is not a mental thing where we say a few mantras to value ourselves, but rather a body felt experience when we connect deeply to who we are and come from here.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” This truth is so needed in human life, to bring us back to our intrinsic value, of ourselves and of each other.
With all the jobs you have done you have made a career of meeting people and inspiring them with the loving way you live.
A career of love, what wise words Mary.
I was pondering on the phrase ” most of the jobs I have done found me, instead of me finding them” and what it meant for me, and I can say that for me there are a few angles to it. Firstly what comes to my mind is that in all the jobs I have had in life I have come to find me because in the activity of a job I brought my unique expression to it that is different from any ones else. Secondly, I have to agree that indeed Jobs have found me simply because of me being open for a new opportunity and never from searching for a job, as to my experience for me that has never worked.
I was always surprised in being in a certain position at work that other people would admire me for but for me it was just a job I have to perform, and was not something I was striving for as needing to be in a certain position of prestige or of power.
“Today, I have fully embraced working as a receptionist and the beauty is, I just have to bring me. Work is something I do, it is not who I am.” Well said we are never what we do, only who we are.
My beliefs about work came from my parents and society. ” You need to get good job” “You need to be an engineer.” It was not about trusting myself that I knew what to do.
Understanding that everything that we do is important, has helped me let go of those beliefs. It makes so much sense and it simplifies life if you just do your best with whatever is in front of you.
If we can understand our quality of self worth and feel how delicious the connection is to it then we have everything we can ever need, as nothing we have in this material world can be compared to it.
It is not what we do that matters but the way we do it – do we approach the all we have ‘to do’ with the all that we are, or do we reduce ourselves and thereby reduce that which we offer to others?
These days I really enjoy my work. At the start of my working life I avoided people, especially myself and work was a huge drag I felt forced to do. These days I am far more connected with myself and enjoy my job with people as a 1:1 or 2:1 support worker. If I don’t then I know theres a part of myself I have withdrawn from.
Leigh it’s such a beautiful and wise way to look at life and work, so often we feel it’s something outside of us we are withdrawing from or that has led us to not feel great, instead of realising that it is actually ourselves we have withdrawn from. If we bring ourselves in full to life whatever we do is not of such great consequence.
Speaking as an employer, everyone in the business is important… each role supports others in the Company, and they all contribute to the whole. The admin / reception roles are so important in our business as it provides the backbone to so much of the clients experience of our services.
With this philosophy, I would love to work for/with you Simon. Looking back over my working life there have been few employers with this attitude to their staff, but those few were always a joy to work for, and getting up and going to work was never an issue. For the whole of the business world to embrace this philosophy would no doubt see a massive turn around in so many areas of business, and of life.
I agree – sometimes the jobs we consider the “smallest” actually have the biggest effect on a company and it’s clients.
This really needs to be shouted from the roof tops – every job matters and has value, every person is intrinsic to the whole, we aren’t going to evolve as a few but rather as the whole, I look forward to the day when we actually live this teaching of equality.
This Is a pivotal awareness to develop for our evolution
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” Such wise words Mariette; a great reminder that it is all one life and how we are in one area of it affects all the other areas. I see so many take on a different persona for each part of their lives, a persona that is often at odds with who they truly are. A most exhausting and confusing way to live, whereas taking all of us to everything we do is so simple, so natural and everyone around us benefits
What I feel reading this blog is life is about embracing all of us and what we learn and evolve together with and how in fact every little thing matters and often in the most surprising ways and that’s the magic of it.
And for me I get the message ‘bring your all, all of the time’ which I am seeing and hearing a lot and seeing the benefits for others and myself when I give something my all.
And sometimes when we live life in constant contraction and have made this our norm, ‘giving it our all’ becomes an abstract concept we cannot relate to due to the reductionism we have adopted in its place. Hence why we need the reflection of others ‘living their full package’ to be amongst us so that we do not hold back that which is already there within us (the Soul’s light) that is bursting to be expressed so we develop a new norm that is based on such fullness and not the diminished glow we have accepted in its place.
I’m not sure that there’s such a thing as ‘our all’ because when we do give what we consider to be our all then in that moment our ‘all’ increases.
Every job we do throughout the day is equal in importance to every other job and ought to be treated as such. Living in this way makes our day fun and light.
I agree Elizabeth, then there are not begrudging thoughts or feeling like being forced to do something you don’t want to do. You just get on with it and it’s not an issue.
Yeah Elizabeth I have been playing with this with house ‘work’ and valuing washing the floors for the lightness the activity brings as somehow I had made it an arduous task rather than the simple activity of cleaning. Life is infinitely more enjoyable when we completely commit.
Its so true… commitment is like the blacksmith’s fire in which we are transformed
I have had many different jobs more so when I was very young, from running errands to shopping for my mum, working in a hotel kitchen preparing food, washing up, chambermaid, looking after other people’s children these jobs are extremely basic but from them I have built a solid foundation of work ethics that have held me steady and strong in everything I do.
When we connect to all our co-workers no matter there position we are giving each other the opportunity to value and appreciate each part we play. This ripple effect doesn’t go unnoticed!
I can relate to not having a career and being a woman of a certain age etc., and for me, I am becoming more aware, or at last allowing some honesty to feel how I have been hiding and justifying my lack of commitment by saying ‘It doesn’t matter what I do’ because it does in a way, not so much in the details of a job description, but there certainly is tension when I know how much potential is there but in reality I am not living up to that.
It does not matter what job we do in the sense that we can always bring all who we are to it but it is important that we do what we have the potential for to do. In that way sometimes a job like receptionist can be holding back if we actually have the potential to work as a accountant for instance but don’t do it because there are things we find challenging in that job.
We have the capacity to make anything meaningful or meaningless. It is a profound choice. Appreciation is the key for making it meaningful.
Love that Eduardo – no matter what we do, its our choice
If we know worth no matter what we do it is exactly the same.
Whatever job we do if we make it about people first it changes our whole perception of what work is and it becomes so much more enjoyable. I know for me, working in the supermarket started as a job to get me back into being with humanity (I had withdrawn into making life and work about security and protection) but gradually over time I saw that it was so much more than a job, I was learning how to be with people knowing I was there to offer a service. Now I love my job, I have met so many wonderful people and can feel a strong sense of purpose each time I walk through the doors.
I feel we do get identified by what we do, relearning to just be who I am no matter what I do and to bring all of me to all that I do has been a challenge as it has gone against the values I took on as a child. Bringing the focus back to just being me no matter what has made life actually very simple.
When we are respectful of our spaces we set the standard of what is given to another. When we lower the standard or do not question how supportive this is to another we then begin the cycle of complacency.
The roles we have in life are important. But even more important is that we allow ourselves to be ourselves first. Then it doesn’t matter what job we find ourselves doing because when we bring ourselves, everything matters.
“I always believed, and still do, that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something.” This is great wisdom to ponder on and claim where we work… I am about to finish at a job and this piece of Glory I will add to my Glory Box! So, what did I bring to my latest job for 10 months – I brought trust, a high work ethic, to show others especially my team that all our clients I treat equally. I also represented the dedication and commitment I have to always delivering a high standard of service and make it about people and connection before the task.
“I always believed, and still do, that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something“. We are the two way communication of God. We are constantly receiving messages from the Universe and also constantly sending them out.
Every job does matter Mariette and I love what you have shared here and the most important job we have is to be ourselves in full wherever we are and whatever we do.
Its never ever about the job we do but its always about the quality we choose to bring there – this is where the true evolution is.
No matter what we actually do in life it’s the quality with which we do anything that is important. Energy first.
No matter what we actually do in life it’s the quality with which we do anything that is important. Energy first……
‘Every job matters’, we each have an important part to play no matter what job we are in, if I show up to my workplace committed and being all of me my day flows with simplicity and ease. Learning to appreciate and accept my unique qualities has been key with this.
Everything matters – whether that is how we breath, how we move, what we say, what job we do- it all matters and what matters is the way in which we do these things and it matters because we matter.
In this day and age for someone to say that everyday of the week is the same for them at work is very rare in my experience. Mostly people dread going back to work on Monday and spend the week looking forward to Friday. Then when Friday comes they can’t wait to stop working and have the weekend off. This is not normal despite the fact that so many in the world do it. There is a way to love what you do and have endless energy to do it and this starts with learning to self-care.
I am allowing this attitude to pervade more and more of everything I do so that I do not shrink from tasks like I did in the past but see that everything we do matters and every job, even jobs around the house, have a value, an equal value, and we can bring value to them all equally.
I feel that having a foundation of true self-worth, something that we can build, refine and develop, does make a big difference to the quality of work that we do.
In order to function as a collective whole there are all sorts of jobs that need to get done to keep our society in sync and in harmony. This is something we all need to appreciate for without that occurring there are gaps and openings for chaos, inequality and judgment to fester and create disharmony for us all.
When I am taking great care of myself and know who I am, whatever I am doing, I am with myself and contented. I do not need any other job or job title to make me feel better or thoughts about money that tempt me to change my work as I feel no matter what I am doing, I am doing my part in service. I get a sense of my self-worth and value knowing this is key in my contribution to the whole.
Every job does matter; and essentially we all have the same job in essence just in different expressions and fields. I love going to work because of the fact I get to embrace and connect to people. My purpose at work is first to connect and build that relationship while at the same time stay absolutely focused and deliver IT services to exactly what is needed for each person. The challenge is to continually let them in so they feel all of me and just how much I am cherishing the every moment of being with them like it was the only moment we will have together for some time while, also resolving their IT event as soon as is possible. Its quality custom-delivered gold plattered service that not only brings them a IT resolution but gives them a feeling of absolute respect and decency that they mean everything to me, and that they too can do their job once again in the quality I was able to deliver to them – that is what I love and is love – inspiring a connection they too can have with the next person they meet.
We live in a society where people are judged by the importance of their job and seen as more or less, but what we fail to recognise is that everyone has a part to play. Where would we be if everyone wanted to be a doctor – who would clean up after them?
That’s fundamental to know Mariette, thank you for this simple example. “Today, I have fully embraced working as a receptionist and the beauty is, I just have to bring me. Work is something I do, it is not who I am.”
As I was growing up, I fell for the societal ranking of jobs, which affected how valuable people were considered, based on their work. I feel a lot of this comes from parents who want ‘the best’ for their kids and a job that will set them up with status and security. Having this ranking may stop people from becoming a cleaner for instance, which may be exactly what they are great at. But at the moment, it is seen as a last option, even though it is such an important job for how a workplace feels.
There are likely millions of people around the globe that are in jobs they really don’t enjoy – possibly because it was chosen for the reasons you describe Fiona and also because we have not grown up to know that our contentment is not found because of the job we choose, but because of our relationship with our natural essence and getting to know ourselves/life from this inner aspect.
Every job matters because we matter as people. The other thing that is an important consideration too is that every job is potentially healing, not because of the job but how we are within that particular line of work. So knowing that the quality we live, is the quality that we are as we work, no matter the job. This blog lifts the lid on ‘healing professions’ for every one of them can be healing or not depending on us.
“I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.” And everyone meets Mariette and not a receptionist.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” Though we are all equal as one humanity we each bring distinctive flavours and qualities that contribute to the whole that we are an important part of.
I love this focus and appreciation for the who we are, not what we do. The honouring of who we are and the qualities we have, ensures the quality of what we do… simple.
‘Work is something I do, it is not who I am.’ This feels like the key Mariette if we are not caught up in getting recognition for our job whatever it may be then we are free to bring all of us to our current job in the knowing that we each bring our unique flavour to our work and everyone matters in whatever team we are working within.
Your blog should be published in the business world. Super inspiring for people who get identified or frustrated about work. I love the lightness and equalness that is felt in your blog through your own livingness. Beautiful reflection and imagining you in your workplace makes my heart jump!
I agree Stefanie, this blog should be shared far and wide as it is super inspiring to read.
Marriette, for me you are absolutely a woman with a career!!! You are a great role model, that with simplicity, self-conception and openness you can be situated everywhere.
Yes, a great example of being multi-faceted in our work lives. The consistency and quality is assured by our relationship with, appreciation of and steadiness in expressing our innate qualities and strengths.
Every voice and action matters. All parts that make the whole no more or less – when we make it all about one.
It’s funny how much pressure we put on ourselves and on children as growing up, to know what we want to do, where we are going and how we are getting there – we don’t foster building true foundations of worth and confidence in ourselves, and your approach to work as being more about people and what we bring to others than a stepping stone to get somewhere.
The pressure is huge Rebecca. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is often asked to quite small children. It’s a set up saying that the role of the job is the important thing, when its actually the qualities that we live that are much more important.
I agree – if I have children, I would want them to grow up healthy, joyful and connected to who they are – from there whatever they choose to do will be amazing because its them doing it.
“to bring something and to receive something” – this is crucial, because we can feel so caught in the need to do, to be something and prove ourselves and be recognised by our bosses for our good job – what can we bring to the role. But what about what we receive? The lessons we will learn and the growth we have the opportunity to go through, the relationships and connections etc. are just as important and worth considering
I know I used to get my self worth from what I did. Once we have a different understanding that it comes from within and is not linked with doing anything, it takes away the images of people better than us or more superior because they have more qualifications. We are who we are, not what we do.
When we make our work about just earning money or career success we are missing out on the whole bigger picture that our work is also about our evolution and other people’s evolution, and every job no matter how big or how small can contribute to that.
True power is lived when our connection to who we are is lived through our lives, regardless of what we do. As such there are no limits to the true power that can be brought through any job, for we are as you have beautifully shared ‘…ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’ – and every part has its much needed purpose.
We are all puzzle pieces, with one missing, the puzzle is not complete. What a great responsibility awaits us as human beings, when we really let this fact in! And how important is every single on of us. It totally wipes out competition, as everyone knows, they play an equal part, no matter how it looks like. Comparison seems to be ridiculous really living and embracing this fact.
I found this blog a bit challenging to read. I totally get what you are sharing with us, but in reading it, it exposed some of the pictures that I hold around my career ‘path’ and ‘where I should be as a 47 year old woman’ and wondered if I would have the courage to let them go and to be and bring me, regardless of the title. I know in my heart that to be the truth, but the pictures can get us in the way of our heart-truth
And just like feeling that you are no lesser as a receptionist than a CEO for instance is the fact that as a CEO you are no more well off or in any way more worthy than a receptionist or cleaner.
Yes every job matters and at the same time we ALL have the same job to bring our true selves to our Way of Living 24/7 regardless of what we do or don’t do in terms of work, family etc etc.
The best thing I ever did was get a job in a DIY store because it showed that it did not matter what the role was, or what the pay was we are all the same equal loving beings. I used to have a arrogance and think that some jobs were beneath me. It also taught me that it is not about what I am doing but rather how I am doing it that matters and is important and so no matter what it is so long as I am taking all of me to it – it’s great fun because I am being myself and the people I get to meet etc.
Images of how has to be are killer. When we cannot become the image, our body to have to endure the consequences of choosing to move in comparison, jealousy, resentment, anger, lack of self-worth etc. Holding on to images guarantee ill-being.
I agree Eduardo, images create expectations and we can end up feeling disappointed or let down.
I too have had a varied amount of jobs and pretty much loved them all – though kiwi fruit picking was pretty tough on my body but I loved the team work. It’s fundamental to our development as a species to value much more equally all parts of the jobs that make the world go around.
When we haven’t let the pictures around work and what we do pollute us quite literally, we can easily feel how much we love to work and serve our fellow brothers in whatever capacity this may be needed at a certain point in time. It’s because work like so much else in life has been twisted and reinterpreted to be a ranking game that fuels comparison that we then believe, so very falsely, that we don’t enjoy working. What we don’t enjoy is the comparison that underpins how we have set up our workplaces today.
The comparison that we all live with is ill inducing to our bodies. We live in such a way that hurts us all so very much in our relationships in all areas.
Comparison serves as a distraction from bringing our all to what’s actually needed, creating a delay in our evolution back to soul.
‘Every Job Matters’. When I saw this title of the writings I said to myself this is so important. Then I thought about nature where every single detail of every job is allocated to a species. If this chain is broken the knock affects can be devastating. So be assured, every job matters.
I agree John. How awesome it would be if that’s what’s on the many billboards around our cities. A reminder that every job is equally important in serving and supporting the whole.
Perfection is the word that comes to me on ready this or maybe a less loaded word would be harmony, when what you share is lived then harmony is the only thing that can follow.
We can truly observe and learn from this blog as it exposes the falsitity we have fallen for and that in fact who we are is not defined by the work we do. Hence we should re-imprint all those steps made within this illusion – as who we are lays in our heart. So lets walk our steps again from our heart.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself”. If more employees felt like this, there would be so few issues in workplaces. I see the need for recognition as the driver behind much of the competitiveness, stress, underperforming if not getting praise, tensions between staff etc. When you have an inner sense of self-worth, you become needless and stop expecting your workplace to value what you are not valuing within yourself.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” this is such a beautiful truth, we all matter no matter who we are or what we do or have done in our lives, we are all equal sons of our Divine Father.
” Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life. ” This is an important realisation , for we all need to contribute our piece of the puzzle to the puzzle, so we learn the purpose of being here and once the learning has been understood we can leave once all the work is done.
Yes John it all seems a bit like a bad dream but we created it through our loveless ways and do now we have to come back to truth.
Absolutely, every job matters, when we bring our presence and our quality to every moment and all we do we have an affect on everything connected, ‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work. ” This is so true and if more people did this l have a sense that more people would love their jobs more readily. Particularly those who currently dislike their jobs and pine for something different.
I agree Mariette, ‘Every Job Matters’ and also the energetic quality of how we carry out our job(s) is highly important because everything we do is about energy first.
Super simple Mariette, and beautifully expressed – we all matter and we each bring us, our quality in whatever we do. It’s great to break all these pictures we have of what work is, who we need to be there and just bring it back to being us there no matter the role and there is such an equality and appreciation in that for all.
Full of so many wise gems, I love to revisit this blog. This line truly resonates with me: ‘that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something’. Yes we are.
” l always believed, and still do, that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something. ” This is a wonderful truth to embody when we are out there job hunting, as it can be confidence boosting at a time when our self worth is put to the challenge.
I also didn’t have a picture of what I wanted to ‘be’ when I grew up, but felt a pressure to need to have one, something to aspire to, a picture that people could match me to. It’s not about not having a vocation, but not being attached to having one, and knowing that whatever we ‘do’ is only ever an expansion and expression of all that we bring, i.e. all that we naturally are.
Reading this, “The picture of what a working life has to look like, being a 43-year-old woman without a career, is heavily ingrained.” feels the same as women worrying about their ‘biological clock ticking’, both imposed on us from ideals and beliefs, and setup to influence every decision and movement we make. If we stopped and connected to our essence, that connects us to all, we would feel the impulse from humanity of what is there to do.
Absolutely, our self worth does come from within, never from outside us, ‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’
Work, any work is a place where we can bring our full potential, or a place that we can use to coast through life with. The choice is always our own and the choice made is very pertinent. For we can through our humbleness, serve humanity in our work, or literally rot our own bodies by not bringing our full potential.
I love how you say that we are all needed equally so and that your sense of worth does not depend on your job title – that is such a valuable way to approach life and work, knowing your worth in whatever it is that we do and bringing that quality with us, for all the benefit from.
Over the last week or two I have had very little to do at work, the tasks that did come my way were menial and small. I started to feel a bit starved and a bit like a fraud, with no value to add. I had to stop yesterday and see this wasn’t true or real. My presence just with my team mates says a lot, the way that I move, hold myself and carry my body is delivering everything. Maintaining my quality is my true role, and going into concern about not having ‘anything to do’ was a big distraction and let down of what I’m really here to do. Thanks Mariette for this delicate reminder that our job on the plane of life is much greater than what we think it is.
So many, including myself, at times struggle with seeing what they bring to work, life, family, school etc. What we accomplish in a day is very very different when we include, “My presence just with my team mates says a lot, the way that I move, hold myself and carry my body is delivering everything.” that’s it! I’m sharing this with someone I know would love to hear this.
This is really keeping it simple and truly knowing our worth.
Thank you for sharing Joseph, and so easy to go into to feel less because we are not “filling the day’, so to speak. ‘Maintaining my quality is my true role’- yes it is, thankyou for the reminder.
Beautiful sharing Joseph,…’our job on the plane of life is much greater than what we think it is’, amazing. When fully embrace work with true purpose and grandness, then no job is too small.
“Every Job Matters” i often wonder why people don’t appreciate their roles but then have to ask myself do I appreciate that every single job I do matters, not because of the job but because of the quality I can bring to that job.. intersting one for me to ponder and test out with my day.
It is great that you have always been clear about what was important for yourself, ‘For me, most importantly, working had to be about people: being with people and working with and for people. Everything extra was extra. And it had to be fun!’
Thank you Mariette this has reminded me to pay equal importance to every task I have to do in the day, to bring all of me to even the jobs I shy away from because I think they will be too difficult. It also reminds me to play and move my body, sing and dance for this lightens the load so to speak and allows a greater flow in my body and a connection to my body intelligence.
It took me a long time to get that work was not the problem, and that it was my relationship with work that needed an overhaul, and especially how I was whilst at work.
“Work is something I do, it is not who I am.” This is key. So many of us describe ourselves by the job we do, which isn’t who we are. The work situation is just one aspect of our life. albeit an important one
Living in constant appreciation of who we are is the key for it is then that we understand that everything that we do leaves an imprint that is felt by another to be inspired to be more of who they truly are, so there is nothing too small or insignificant when done from an open heart.
We all have a life purpose , that purpose is to be who we are in full , to be full of ourselves in all that we do and all that we are , truly that is our ” job “
Thank you Mariette, because we have such strong pictures of work and what’s valuable and what’s not, we may miss the purpose for us being in the work we have, even though it doesn’t fit our picture or expectation.
You could say I have had many jobs and also loved them all, however I really always only have one job and that is to do whatever is needed. It is an ever changing, ever expanding and ever fun rewarding job which I am fully qualified for.
Identification and recognition are the false pillars of the way we approach jobs nowadays, not only is this a lie but it’s also an excuse to rely on patterns and behaviours that are dishonouring of our truth. For when we know who we are and appreciate what we bring, we know that it’s our quality that matters and not the doing in life.
I am going to be moving again in a few weeks, and at the moment I have not a job lined up, although I have been applying for jobs in the new area. But the most important question is; Where am I needed? And from this question, I trust I will find where I am supposed to be and have no pictures or beliefs about an ‘ideal job’.
Mariette your blog is all that I have gone through and still are in accepting that I am enough no matter what job I do. Learning that it is our quality that needs to be appreciated not our career. Seeing how all jobs are equal and all need people to do them. I always see it the same as the food chain, all are just as important for the next to function, so none can truly be less because every animal needs the other animal to survive. When we look at all jobs as equal we see the beautiful brotherhood that is on offer and appreciate all jobs for being just where they need to be, no more, no less, just needed. When it’s looked at like this we can take the job title out of the equation and see people first.
This blog came to mind when I was watching the gardener at my work place yesterday morning. The detail and care he took in maintaining the lawn area was a marker of how much pride he has in his work. A great support for those who spend their lunch break sitting in the sun on this patch of grass.
I was recently offered a temporary job at an organisation where I have worked before, this time managing a donations line. I accepted as I love to work and like you I know that ‘every job matters’ but the thought of sitting at a desk for many hours wasn’t all that appealing. But three weeks into the job I am loving it, simply because I have the opportunity to connect with so many people during my day. I don’t see their faces and I will most likely never get to meet them but in the short moment in time that I am talking to them we are connected, in a relationship, and if they have to ring back I can feel the foundation that was built in that first call when I had taken the time to be with them with all of me. I have now applied for the permanent role!
Having just read your comment Ingrid, it is inspiring! It can be that easy when we say yes and try things out, and now your applying for a permanent position, go you.
With age and hindsight, I can now see that every job does matter and appreciate why I was there and what I learnt that now supports the work I do. I don’t know that our young people understand that (as I didn’t) and I suspect that is partly due to the role models they see in the adults around them. Most people don’t love their jobs or fully commit to their work and dream of retirement or holidays. There is also a hierarchy in people’s minds of the importance of certain jobs, which undervalues all jobs as being equally important.
Today I stopped to appreciate the job of the gardener at the company I work for. Often a very quiet and shy natured man but what he offers in his support for the grounds has far reaching effects for all of us as we sit on benches and enjoy the beautifully landscaped scenes. A gift to us and of equal importance of what we all bring.
Yes, its not the job that gives us our self worth, however if that is the case, then our self worth would plummet if we lost that job and became unemployed. Starting from a foundation that we as individuals matter and that we all matter, means that no job is more important than another. Super blog Mariette.
Just like every person matters every job matters.
There seems to be this pressure on children, in fact, everyone to have an image of what they want to do and who they want to be in future – and we often call that being ambitious, or having a dream. My mother recently reminded me how I used to say ‘Wouldn’t that be great if we can live to the end with a smile on our face?’ and I guess I struggled for many years wondering what would bring me a life like that – whether that would be money, marriage, a well-paid job, a societal position, fame etc. Maybe it is ok not knowing what to do with life in details, maybe life is simply about upholding and confirming a quality that truly nurtures us and expanding it as we express it through what we do.
‘For me it is not so much about the tasks I have to do, but far more about the connection I have with the people around me’. For a long time I have got this back to front making it all about the task instead of connection!
No-one can give us self-worth for it it always there within and when we have lack of self worth we have lost connection with the love that we are and come from – our Soul.
Likewise, I can look back at all the weird and wonderful jobs I’ve had along the way and I’ve both enjoyed all of them (from dairy farmer, florist, washing up, pub staff, labourer, market researcher….) they have all taught me things in one way and another not least the value of hard work.
I think what you share here is really important – about not identifying with what we do but bringing our focus to the quality that we bring in all that we do and how appreciating who we are and that we don’t need to be validated by a certain job description helps us to not need recognition back from it.
When we connect to what we can bring, and give our focus to that, even the more mundane parts of our jobs start to feel not just bearable but actually enjoyable. Treating every part of our job, every job we have in life, with equal value and importance, makes it more fulfilling, and the whole experience more enriching and expanded.
Our number one job is simply to be our true authentic selves to the best of our ability and apply this in everything we do. Put simply – we are here to infuse all that we do with the All that we are.
‘We are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something’, so very true. So wherever we find ourselves job wise that is where we are meant to be, and there is always a two way flow of giving and receiving. There is always more learning especially to share and express more love.
A cracker of a blog Mariette, so many little gems to ponder on and beautifully summed up with: Work is something I do, it is not who I am. Profound yet powerfully true.
When we foster our inner world and feel the beauty of this connection – it actually doesn’t matter what we do as we can bring that inner grace to all aspects of life.
Every job as every life, has the potential of being lived in full or not, The job is a remunerated opportunity of offering ourselves to the world. How we work is just a reflection of how we live.
I so agree Mariette, “that every job matters”, but what matters more than anything is the energy that we bring to the job we are currently employed to do. I have a work history as diverse as yours and often when I look back over what I have done I really surprise myself. The current job is a great example; I am preparing orchids ready for export. A very simple, exacting and repetitive job but I get to be with many lovely people and thousands of beautiful orchids that are daily making their way to many different parts of the world. It is a short-term job but I am taking all of me to it every day and leaving at the end of the day with all of me as well. Right now this is the job that matters and the next one I know is not far away.
Loved your sharing Ingrid, how beautiful to work with thousands of orchids and be a part of the process of shipping them to different parts of the world, and your presence that you bring to work will be felt by everyone not only at work but by those who end with the orchids!
Yes Mariette, every job and thing we do equally deserves Love – that is the truth. There is no part we can ignore, turn our back on, or do half-heartedly. If we understand that everything is one, a literally made up of the same matter – how can one thing be more important? It cannot. Isn’t it more realistically a case that there are some things we like to prefer? Letting this bias govern us is letting lies govern our life.
It’s taken a long time for me to receive this but I am starting to see in my work that there’s no deadline that is more important, no project that ranks higher, no deliverable that’s more significant, than the quality I choose to be. It’s this in everything that determines what’s next, this that supports others to choose truth, and ultimately its what it truly means to be me. Thank you Mariette – your words overflow with a zest for life and a true thirst for work – great job!
My work contract ended on Friday and I have woken up a bit discombobulated about work/self-worth this Monday morning, so to be reminded of this today – “my self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.”, is very welcome and empowering. Thank you.
‘I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.’ I love this quote Mariette and I am sure most people think they come and go as themselves but very often we loose ourselves in a role, or are in a rush without considering we have a human body, so where are we then? And indeed it doesn’t matter if you are there on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, it is just about being you!
According more importance to one job over another can easily lead to comparison and envy, even jealousy; the truth of the matter is that every task and every job is just as important as any other – we all contribute to the whole that is humanity and this world of ours.
The part about not having a career or ‘climbing the ladder’ I can feel that I have adopted this belief as I can feel the lack of appreciation for what I bring to the working world (as I love to be at work, with people) has been chipped away at by this ‘you’ve never been promoted so you can’t be that good’ – even just typing that now feel horrible and yet I have had this running in the background for a very long time. It feels cool to start to remove myself from this belief. Thank you Mariette.
Not having a picture of what job I want to be in as a child, I didn’t carry this picture after I graduated from University. I just did what I felt I would like to do and until today I find that all the different work that I contribute to are very different in nature, but they all make sense.
No matter what job we find ourselves in, we are there for a reason for there is never any co-incidence where we end up and the people we work with. If we stay open, what we are there to receive and/or learn can greatly support us and prepare us for what is coming next in our life, for everything counts.
Your love for people, being with people and connecting with people shines through Mariette, and you do bring your own flavour and style as we all do and that is what makes life interesting, especially when we work and pull together so we all feel valued and respected. And I totally agree and love this little gem of wisdom: ‘ that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something’.
It feels wonderful when we drop the identification with a job role and embrace ourselves for who we are first. It is then possible to appreciate any job, as the title that comes with it does not matter.
‘I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.’ It is super important to not lose ourselves during a working day. It is about bringing our fullness, our light and to leave in the same quality to go where ever we go.
Love this blog Mariette and what you present here. Every job is important – we cannot hold a cleaner any less than the CEO of a company for each have essential roles to play and have a big impact on the company and its clients. And when we let go of being identified by the job we do we free ourselves up to truly value what we can bring from our essence and don’t limit ourselves to a job title or description.
“I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.” – Amen Mariette.
Beautiful. We do all have value no matter what we do, or whether anyone else values us…it’s for us to value ourselves.
Wonderfully simple. We all matter, there is space for all of us and every job is important!
Hi Mariette, thank you for sharing your wisdom and ‘we are not what we do’ I totally agree. Understanding the diversity of colleagues and seeing the qualities each offers is a great way to build a team and support one another in those things which are not so easy for us. Each member bringing a part of the puzzle to play.
‘Doing something well’ is such a trap and can in fact lead to us doing something in an energy that isn’t true. It would be much more truthful to say ‘just be you when you do whatever it is that you do’.
What you present here should be part of any school curriculum. Understanding that life is not about achievement but always bringing ones fullness to everything we do and thus learning how do be in this world without bending and conforming oneself into something one is not.
Well said Esther and I agree. To be ourselves and nothing less can be challenging in a world that has been set up to champion the ‘less’ as if it were somehow ‘more’.
I agree that it can be challenging in this world to “be ourselves and nothing less” but really it should be the other way around ie challenging to be anyone other than ourselves because that must be much harder than to be who we naturally and genuinely are but somehow most of us manage that. There you are Liane I managed a long sentence without a comma another achievement and a much easier one 😉
Hi Mariette, just reading your words this morning reconnected me to the awesome ‘can do’ enthusiasm we can bring to any situation, person or job. Why make it a big struggle and stress when you can jump in and just say a huge ‘YES’?
There is so much glamour and illusion around different jobs and their relative statuses that if we abandoned ourselves from an early age, as most of us do, then we are easily influenced by these external beliefs. It’s very humbling to reconnect to the knowing that we are all equal and that every job is of equal importance to any other.
When we go to work with this wonderful attitude it reflects all around us and within us, and is a solid foundation for our lives.
‘ I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.’ This is great Mariette, as many people can drag themselves to work on Monday after a big weekend and can’t wait until Friday comes around, when we commit to everything in front of us regardless of the day or the job we are doing we get to feel our true qualities and the joy and purpose this can bring.
Mariette I just love this blog, like you share so clearly every job matters we are all equal, the work we do does not define who we are. This is something I truly come to understand and appreciate for myself.
Thank you Janina, this is a great opportunity for all to let go of any pictures or misconceptions we have about other cultures and start to appreciate and value the reflection that they offer us to be more love and understanding and to feel what true brotherhood is all about. We need to take responsibility of why we have allowed these countries get to this level of despair when we are all equally sons of God so it is up to us to support them and teach them another way to live that is supporting and loving for all.
I love your career myth-busting attitude Mariette! You are right, there is as much pressure on today’s women to have a blindingly brilliant career as there was to be a mother in our mothers’ day. The truth is we are women first and foremost and we simply choose what to do from there… where and how we can best express ourselves to support humanity, whether that is a receptionist, cleaner, team leader or CEO. Simple.
There is only one life, one love across the board, we are bringing us and who we are to everywhere we go and every occasion we encounter, to every inspiration met and to every challenge faced, every conversation we make and every meal we cook. Every single day all we are asked to bring who we truly are to life.
For me today Mariette, what you have written here is so beautiful and a powerful reminder that it is not what we do but who we are that really matters;
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do”.
Comparison is lack of self-worth’s fluent language. When comparison rears it’s ugly head we can use that as a marker to know that we are firstly; not appreciating who we are within and secondly; not totally humbled by that fact that we can express ourselves from the depths of who we are in everything we do. What is there to compare when we are all unique and completely connected to each other?
Through the blog I could feel the connection to everyone being a part of the ‘jig-saw’ puzzle of life. It’s possibly a pretty well known experience that even in a 1,000 piece puzzle if one piece is missing it isn’t complete, it just doesn’t feel right. No matter if the piece is a simple piece of blue up in a corner, it still matters – so do we and so much more than we might appreciate ourselves for. No piece is ever greater or more important, if this is true for a piece of cardboard then it is a trillion times more true for a divine being of the Universe.
What you share Mariette is so lovely to feel. This is an appreciation for us all as the equals in life we are. If we can understand and accept the opportunities that our everyday life presents to work together supporting each other and ourselves in a unified purpose i.e. work for instance, then what an amazing school of lived experience we have established and can reflect this out to others. These are our golden opportunities to support a return to harmony in our everyday. Imagine the ripple effect?
I absolutely agree that it does not matter what job we do so long as we bring ourselves to everything that we are doing. I work in a busy hospital and it is very clear to me that a cleaner is no different than a surgeon. We all have different skills and that is all the difference is.
I really loved all my jobs too, apart from kiwi fruit grading that was very intense and noisy and physically demanding. Though if I were to have to do such a job today it would be an awesome opportunity to live what I know is supportive and true and see if I could love it. What I am sitting with is that I would struggle wth the lack of talking, I could do a supermarket job because I am talking to others but if it is just me and a machine and not being able to speak with others I would struggle. But in truth if I was really connected to my self I would enjoy this just as much as any other role, because if you connect to the gentle breath and enjoy the quality of your breath and the movement of your hands as you remove a not quite right shaped kiwi fruit it would be a very confirming job.
When we re-connect with the worth of who we are innately and not attach it to what we do then we can take that worth to what we do and all whom we meet rather than needing recognition from others.
Growing up all emphasis was on what type of job you would end up doing and that then determined your status within the family, and in addition to that if you finished school with some qualifications, then you were held in high regard – having achieved something others had not. It feels awful to have this form of separation get in the middle of family relationships, whereby some feel less or better than others depending on their ability to study, and then obtain a job of a believed higher standing.
Agreed Mariette – so beautifully shared. The fact is that every job in a business or otherwise does matter equally so, as if you took that position away the business would not function with the same quality be it a receptionist, cleaner or CEO. Imagine the impact of not having a cleaner in our workplace for say 2 weeks and how this affects the way we work, having to make time in our day to clean the building, toilets, staff room etc for ourselves? It would be huge. Yet it is only our minds that categorises that one position is greater than another, and it our lack of worth that allows this to take hold and be identified by it. We all bring a quality to the work we do, yet is it not the work we do that defines the quality of who we are as our true power is in our connection to our essence, a quality that remains unchanged.
‘I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.’ How many people can honestly say they don’t change into a role or a function. As for myself, it is very interesting to feel what it does to wear a uniform, do I change the moment I put it on, do I walk the same or alter my pace, does it change the way I speak to, in this case, the patients. It feels very supportive to take a closer look to all this and to be truly honest about where I go into the role or feel myself more or less because of the function I am in.
The moment we let go of the roles of being someone or something else than you are, for example just a role; mother, father, daughter, friend or colleague, or something – we actually step away from the naturalness that we are – a unique expression, that is the base (essence) in us, that exist out of no roles, just a quality of choices that we make in life, by surrendering to ourselves, let’s all of that out..
‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do’. When the question is asked ‘Who am I?’ the responses firstly consist of doing things e.g. a mother, a grandmother, a receptionist, a friend etc, but as I go deeper all these things drop away and an opportunity presents itself to surrender into experiencing the truth that is there. The motion we get caught in drops away at this moment and a stillness presents – thank you Mariette for bringing attention to the judgement we can hold in relation to what we do and how we label ourselves as being this. Surrendering is the greatest blessing we can allow in ourselves and in life and it is there that we meet our self-worth.
I have many different roles in my life and not one of them is more important than another. I can feel how healthy it is to live like this, some I get more recognition for from outside, but if I hang out for that and want it, I get lost in seeking something from the outside. It is how we feel inside and the purpose we have when no one is watching, preparing for the day, cleaning toilets, making the bed, writing documents etc…how we feel about how we live with care and responsibility, that is how we can be steady.
Everything we do is a reflection of how we live and that is the true service we offer and receive in every moment. Life is a living project made up of little projects and in that we offer much from how we express and move everyday. So every job does matter because even how we open a door or put out the rubbish plays a part in our reflection of how we live.
Love how you shared this, everything we do is a reflection therefore everything matters. When we look at life like this we can see the power in all our movements and choices. We become more responsible and understand what true service is, there every job matters.
There is nothing in this world that will reflect our true worth if we focus merely on what we do, and not all that we are.
Very true Kylie – beautifully said. We are so much more than what we do, and when we move in connection to who we are we bring that ‘so much more’ to all we do.
What a gorgeous realisation you have shared here: “My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.”and “I bring my flavour, and my fellow receptionist colleagues bring their flavour to the job. Together we form an awesome team.” The appreciation and understanding of this should be part of any vocational training.
Every job I have done has been joyous where I have connected with people and loved them for being who they are.
I completely agree with what you have written, have also had many, many different jobs but it was always me doing them. I love working and I love the richness and equal value each person contributes when they are working in the way you have described.
The hierarchy that exists in business and grades people’s worth according to their role is deceiving us all from the truth that each job holds equal importance. Without people to clean our offices, or collect our garbage where would we be. Once this is understood workers will be able to hold their head high regardless of their role, and recognise how they are an important part of the whole.
This is a great blog that shows how simple it is to find the job that suits us best, and that job is always being all of us. It’s the most supportive job anyone can get.
Ever since being introduced to the teachings of The Ageless Wisdom by Universal Medicine, I have redefined the way I look at work, it is less and less about the “doing” and the great value is in the “being” and what I can allow myself to be, whether that is joy, harmony and in true service.
Yes every job does matter and is worth it. one of my favourite jobs to do at work is taking out the rubbish bins or cleaning up/restocking, its sets a great foundation for the other work that is done.
There is a certain beauty we are able to arrive at deep within us when we begin to see life and every moment and movement within it as an expression of our true self. By working on this ‘one expression’ and not holding one part above or below any other is our way forth to a truly harmonious and full life within ourselves and with each other.
I couldn’t agree more Mariette, I have been on the same journey with work, and are still continuously working on appreciating that it is what I bring to every job not the job itself. In truth every job is the same and equal, it is our beliefs that create them to be more or less.
Not only do all jobs matter, but all jobs have a unique reflection and learning for us. It’s a beautiful thing to clock what your purpose is in your role within your organisation.
Yes, you’re an amazing example of that and the integrity can be felt in your words.
So beautifully said Mariette. We are not what we do. The truth is no job can change who we are, the work we do simply gives us an opportunity to express who we are.
So true Leonne, we can be a garbage collector or we can be the CEO of a company, no matter what job we do we are all needed, it’s up to us to express who we truly are within each of our roles as we have the potential to be healing or harming in any role.
I agree that ‘every job does matter’ and that every person’s role supports the other, for without it we wouldn’t be able to fulfil our own roles without the other doing theirs.
It is beautiful to honour the qualities both you and others possess and yet know that your worth is not based upon what you can and can’t do but rather who you are and the relationship you have with yourself. So many people base their worth upon the role they have and then suffer as a consequence when what they identify themselves with is not what they consider a standard worth honouring and thus ignore the importance of what they can bring to it.
I am always glad to read your words Mariette, they sound so simple but boy are they true. I wonder what our lives would be like if we saw every day of work , and life for that matter as another day of learning about people? Instead of management goals or job titles, what if we were assessed on the Love, care and understanding we brought to everyone else? Then there would be no getting ‘ahead’ just support, tenderness and equality.
Each person has their natural strengths and flavour in the way they do something, and one is not more important than the other.
Like many, I work in a profession where enormous teamwork is needed to support the demands of the customer. Each and every person’s role is fundamental in providing the quality care that the customer is asking for. Often at the end of the day stopping to appreciate this and acknowledging those in our teams brings a togetherness, commitment and dedication to the work that allows others to feel confirmed in what they do and that in turn allows others to be deeply grateful with what has been offered.
Letting go of the job title that we hold and all of the pictures that come with it, allows us to bring our full presence back into the equation and from our own connection to who we are, we can simply move and express from our quality and that is true service for all.
It is important to remember that work is something that we do, not who we are. As there is so much work to do to make our societies work, therefore every job is as important because it contributes to the all we are an undeniable part of. When we hide ourselves from that responsibility and make ourselves superior or inferior to the society we live in and to the work that has to be done, we are not only missing out on ourselves but also to all of society.
This is great to read – we are currently employing more staff and it is awesome to see that people have done jobs with people in the past, as we know our business is all about relationships and therefore someone who has worked with people and has enjoyed this can bring this quality into whatever they do. If we are willing to see it – then every job – no matter what it is, has the potential to offer something that will evolve us.
Workplaces are like a jigsaw and the workers all provide their own piece that is placed together in producing the whole so just as you say Mariette no one person has a piece that is more important than another.
Self worth is something that comes from within, how we treat ourselves and what we feel about ourselves is ultimately the message that we send out to the world at all times 24/7.
We cannot drop one area of life and maintain the integrity through the others. It simply does not work.
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.” For 15 plus years I was a kinesiology practitioner and I became ‘Jonathan the kinesiologist’. It is now 10 years since I renounced that work but for many years afterwards I felt lost as to who I was and had little or no self-confidence. The confidence I had had I came to realise was the ‘coat’ of kinesiology that I wore. It is, in fact, only very recently that I feel I have a connection to myself and feel self-confident. This self-confidence feels, unlike previously, real and true as it not reliant of something or someone external.
It is so ingrained in us all that we have to work towards being something better in terms of a job title. But what’s the point of a job title if we are not feeling joyful inside or we do not truly connect with people? We need to get our priorities straight!
This is very important to get an understanding off, that every job matters and in fact is as important because it is a needed part of the whole. It is only through the lost mind we are lived by, the mind that lives in disconnection and disrespect with that grander whole we are all undeniable part of, that we make one job more important then the other, and rate it with a higher pay and status. We are seriously going in the wrong direction if we continue living like this as in this movement we separate from one another more and more while the natural move should be coming closer together as we are one and the same, belong to the same grander order to which one day we all have to return to. So why wait that long and live in the suffering it all brings.
If we could simply live and hold true the fact that ‘every job matters’ we would free ourselves of so much comparison, competition and conflict.
The moment our work or anything we do becomes a ‘drag’, we know we are not making most of the opportunity that is presenting itself.
This blog exposes how we can greatly hide behind the facades of the doing in our job. We – without doing anything – naturally love to bring this love into a form of expression. How couldn’t we? How amazing is it to put our love into action, knowing that this will serve others. We’ve done a lot to discount what we actually know inside. We love our jobs and our tasks. It’s giving purpose to life. What would life mean if we wouldn’t put ourselves into action? I’m working with unemployed people daily and there’s literally no one who’s content with their situation.
I can understand that Floris, there is so much work to do and work makes living in our society possible. We all love to be part of that and to be able to give our contribution to it. So sitting on the sideline without a job is something we naturally do not like, but in that of course there is the responsibility to question ourselves why we are sitting there, not contributing to all the work that is there to be done.
With the identification of what we do we have built a system that brings deep separation between us. Instead of enjoying each person for who they are and the quality they bring we get caught up with all the outer matters, keeping us busy and at arms length, missing out on the beauty that is there.
Every job certainly does matter and the quality of our presence whilst ‘doing’ our jobs is of paramount importance. What a pity our society does not reflect this, but as you have pointed out Matietta we can. Thank you for sharing your experiences and your wisdom.
A business is like a clock where every wheel and cog has to work in tune and in harmony with every other piece of the mechanism. If one cog is rusty, slipping or broken then the clock fails. A receptionist is like the dial on the clock that shows whether all within the mechanism is working together.
“I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.” I just love reading these words as they are a great reminder to all of us to do the same, not to change as we walk in the door and become someone else for our work hours, and then return to who we truly are on the way out. In fact this is how to be in every interaction we have. How else can we build true relationships?
I compeletly agree Marietta.
Recently I have changed my position at my work place to a supervisors role. I have to say that I don’t feel anymore special or deserving of a higher wage but instead a big step up to be more responsible in every action I perform.
The roles aren’t different in the value they bring but the responibility we bring to them. Everyone has the opportunity to bring this to their workplace.
Every job does matter even the ones we get sacked from! There is a purpose in everything we do, and there is always an opportunity to learn and evolve being presented.
It is true that it is how we approach life that counts most for if we choose to live a true and meaningful life we will naturally apply such Love to our every interaction and relationship, at home, in the community and at work.
I think this approach would save a lot of time otherwise spent thinking what I should do when whatever I do will be great because it’s me doing it. And if my awesome services are needed in a bigger scheme then welcome to that.
Some great observations – it is important to do away with pictures of an ideal job and our contribution to it but to allow life to naturally flow, offer and for us to whole- heartedly respond.
The knowing that every job matters and that every job is equal is something we see reflected in nature all the time. There is such an acceptance in nature that certain jobs need to be done and that individual just happens to be the perfect one for the job at that moment. We know from nature that nothing works in isolation and everything contributes to the whole. We in humanity are not above this, and have stepped away from these natural laws to the detriment of ourselves, relationships, society and the whole ecology.
This open and responsive way of being with work blows out the pressure that high school kids find themselves in, to know what they want to do and to strive to achieve it. You can have a great working life without any of this directness or drive. Understanding that its not about what you do but how you do it and its about having fun with people is more important than any school grades.
Gosh yes. How great would it be for children and young adults to have a sense of inspiration for what lies ahead rather than the pressure of needing to know now what their career trajectory is going to be.
Yes indeed every job matters. We are fed thoughts that say otherwise to take us away from this truth. Our systems create important titles and duties for positions that usually amount to turning up and doing what needs to be done. Some people let these titles go to their head. All jobs are really about us being all we are in the world no matter what we are doing.
What is so gorgeous about this, is the fact that with each new job you have gained that much more experience of life, yourself, and especially of people. This experience can not ever be taken away from you, and it builds each day as you continue to work, giving you this immense depths of wisdom which we all can benefit from.
Yes Mariette, imagine if we wrote our job descriptions not based on role and function but on the quality we are here to bring. What would it be like if we set out from day one knowing a tender smile and warm presence was what was truly required? Your sharing here has reminded me it’s never to late to make these true requirements our work philosophy and we needn’t wait for it to become official staff policy.
I have always felt that every job is the same in value to society, we all play our part. I do not agree with the idea that people are more important because they are managers, or cleaners are less. I have been a cleaner and manager, and I bring me in both roles, how can I be more or less? We choose whether we are more of less. We are all born equally amazing and ready to shine what ever role we take.
This is such an important lesson that you have presented to us here Mariette, one in which I whole-heartedly agree with and very much appreciate. Although society teaches us differently, every job does matter and is of equal importance.
I’ve had a range of jobs throughout my life, and each one teaches me something different, it brings me into a different sphere of people and influence, and always there is loads to learn that is not just specific to that role but becomes every so useful out in the world… and the reason is that everything is everything – its all interlinked. When I learnt to appreciate that, I realised there was no such thing as wasting time.
“I love going to work… and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same” is amazing Mariette. I feel this way too but I know for a lot of my life I did not and the vast majority of people I meet certainly do not. Work is just that… ‘work’, meaning a drag, a burden, an obligation we must meet in order to survive, a drudgery, something to get through so we can play, have our ‘own time’ etc. The word itself needs to be re-defined and be brought back in line with what you have shared.
Wow Mariette, it’s so easy to feel just how much you love the work that you do – it virtually jumps off the page. You lead me to reflect on how this ‘can do’, ‘all-in’ approach is so symbolic with how we are with life. When we divide our days up into departments and sections we loose sight of the simple fact as you say, it’s not about promotions or job titles at all but the opportunity we have to bring a quality of Love to everything.
‘Every Job Matters’ – a title that in itself de-constructs so many of our prejudices and judgments about a scale of importance applied to different careers – putting our equal value way above any job title we have.
When I was young I never considered further then being a wife and mother when I grew up as this was all I was being role modeled by the women around me. This example demonstrates the importance of true role models.
I am in a very similar situation with you – various job experiences with no career. Being able to appreciate ourselves in whatever job we do is fantastic (how many people are there out there who are in a well-paid, highly respected job and hate their life or themselves?), but what I feel I need to keep asking is whether I am just comfortable because I am not being asked to be more.
I love this Mariette “Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” What an amazing way to live fully who we are and loving ourselves and everyone equally.
When every job within an organisation is filled with people who love their job how beautiful it feels – there are times when I feel the harmony of every one working together with purpose and there is no better feeling. Unfortunately in bigger organisations it feels like cleaning is an area that money is tight, and cleaners are having to do so much in a short time that the work is no longer thorough, and this affects everyone. Every job is important and needs to be valued.
There are so many belief systems tied up in what job we choose to do, it feels like it gets more intense as you get older – like its okay to do some things when you are young but once we hit a certain age the same lee way is not applied. I was considering if anything was to happen to the business I built up with my partners, I might have to go work for someone else, it was a scary thought and I felt people would judge me for being an uneducated old waitress. This is so not true but that was the thought being fed to me. I really appreciate the reminder to value ourselves as people and never to get caught up in the details of what we do but who we are.
Many of us get brought up thinking we have to become something in life. Getting to know that life is not about fulfilling a role but about mastering being who we truly are in essence has changed everything about the way I look at and live my life and the world. Knowing that we could do anything for a living and remain who we are is such a powerful, confirming feeling.
I have noticed that as much as I say I am not defined by what I do, there is an an underlying value system I place on what I do. It comes out in how I describe what I do to people who ask. I have to be sure to notice if I say ‘I am a …. xyz’ rather than ‘I work as an …ayz’. It is a subtle difference but it shows me how defined I am feeling about what I do.
Showing us something very important , something we must all deeply feel into – we are not what we do or how we become, we are our essence first. Fhat is derived from our Soul, nothing else.
Every day at work I learn more about what it is not to identify with any role or task. Any job can expose whether we feel better or lesser because of what we are ‘doing’. However feeling better or less is all the same as it identify’s us either way.
I love this blog so much Mariette. When I read your words today I was able to feel that I still go to work in a ‘role’ rather than simply be Leonne at work. Up until now I hadn’t realised how identified I have been with what I do. Your story shows me how freeing it is to be yourself at work and I can feel how this paves the way for true connection with every person that crosses your path.
Beautiful Marriette, I couldn’t agree more. If we don’t appreciate who we are and what we bring with our every move, then we would never be satisfied with our job and forever seek more.
Beautiful every job matters, it sure does. Every job is a new opportunity that connects us to people, it is not about being attached to what we are doing but being aware that it is our connection with others that is what truly is the purpose.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” How often do we look at things or people like this. We may say we do but from my experience there seems to be many versions of how we see things. I look around me and see my view obscured at times and yet I don’t want to admit it is. There would be many out there that would argue to they are blue in the face, me included. What is it that consistently stops us from seeing everything clearly around us, especially people and what we all bring. I know I find myself in situations at the moment that are unbalanced. I know I’ve walked into them but haven’t yet seen the steps clearly. I can blame someone else or I can try my best to see my part knowing that this will take care of the other parts.
Thank you Mariette I love what you have expressed and shared with us in this blog. Indeed every job does matter; every part of the jigsaw puzzle is of equal importance. Along with this is who we are and what we bring to our jobs; a commitment and purpose from the heart is the key.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life”.
I once had a job that I thought would be for 3 months but ended up to be five years!!!! That is how long it took for me to learn the lessons I needed to there. Lessons about relationships with myself and others, how I am with myself reflects to others, to love others and not judge, to not hold back in being all of me, committing to life and most of all being true to what I felt in my heart.
Every job is an opportunity to bring all of us with commitment and service to all we do.
“Every MOMENT is an opportunity to bring all of us with commitment and service to all we do”
I love this blog because it is so true. Everyone needs to read this – we are so identified by what we do and there is the unspoken word of what jobs and roles are higher and more powerful than others. I have worked in several different sectors have come to understand that it really doesn’t matter what we do it matters how we do it and the quality of expression in what we are doing.
The interesting aspect to identify here is not about the status of the job but the quality in which you do it. I was recently watching a cleaner at my work place mop a bathroom area. The precision and detail that was taken to move items and the care in placing them back, stopped me as I was working back late one evening. It has shown me her dedication to the service she provided was not different to mine.
I had a similar experience the other day when I was having a meal at a friends house. There was scaffolding being taken down by some work men and the care and precision in their work was awesome. I had never seen such grace in this kind of work before, the men were being so gentle with the planks of wood and the metal framework and also so considerate of each other. A joy to behold.
Great subject Mariette, I got to feel from this blog how much I have identified with it being indeed about ‘being worth something’ and that by more achievement in life, you count more! But what a lie is that, now being able to see and feel more clearly that it is not about achievement (jobs, roles, money, things), but actually the love in one’s heart.. I thought I had let go of this investments, but seemingly there is more for me to let go of.. and this asks me to surrender. Thank you Mariette, well written, which is healing for all.
It is more than lovely to read how much Mariette Reineke appreciates herself and all the experiences she has had to date, counting each one as special and unique and valuable. This is what we all need to be taught as children; how to cherish ourselves no matter what job we decide to do, no matter how many jobs we try out. The important part of every work place is the people in it, and that is exactly what Mariette has brought to this blog.
Comparison is the easiest way to cap our light and ignore our true quality as we make another greater or lesser than who we are making it impossible to return to the true brotherhood where we come from.
I am at point where I would like a job but instead of focusing on the job and what I would like to do and getting impatient I realise with the support from this blog the job will come to me. All I have to do is be open, stay connected to myself and adore and nurture ME for who I am while I deepen my commitment to everything that is being presented to me now.
Well said Marietta, whether someone’s job is a cleaner or CEO, they should be treated equally and treat all others equally so. There very much is strong advertisement of the fact everyone should have a degree, a high paying and well ‘respected’ title in a career. If this is the case, who will be cleaning the streets? Who will be serving those customers? Who will drive those buses? We must look deeper into what is needed rather than what society tells us is best for us
just imagine if this was on the top of every job application in companies, in governments, in schools,… Just imagine the different state of mind of the people interviewing if they really understood that every job matters, how important the cleaner is, how important it is to both honour and acknowledge that we all contribute energetically to the whole… A great article.
The job hierarchy is part of the class system and the class system plays havoc with our natural understanding and relationship with the truth of all things. The truth of all things being the One United Consciousness of God. The one thread threaded in and through all things.
This is great Mariette, ‘Together we form an awesome team.’ and is important when working together.
Every job gives us different opportunities, a place to expand our expression to make a difference, our job does not dictate who we are, it is what we bring to the job that counts how we are with ourselves, so the more loving we are with the way we live the more that will be reflected in the jobs that we do.
‘For me it is not so much about the tasks I have to do, but far more about the connection I have with the people around me.’ I agree and I love this line, work is not about tasks, and success and money, it’s about people and connection. Once you make work about people and connection you can’t help but love any job.
The same job done in two different energies results in two different outcomes. Therefore its not what the job is that’s important its the way its done,
Yes! Indeed, a job really doesn’t determine our worth, only you we can.
You are so right ! Make the most of every job as you learn so much from the experiences – thank you for reiterating this for me x
Nothing just happens for a reason, so it doesn’t matter where we are or what we do it is our ability to connect to the quality within that matters the most for that is a true reflection of who we truly are.
What we do doesnt matter, it is who we are that makes the difference. It is the connection we bring that is holding us in joy of life and our work. It is beautiful to feel when we fully embrace ourselves, that it truly does not matter what we do.
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.” One way of supporting ourselves to not be identified with what we do is to look at the language we use around it, for example, saying we are a doctor, nurse, police officer etc is different from saying that “I work as a doctor, nurse, police officer”.
“…We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work…” This is such a trap isn’t, that we can fall into, judging and comparing jobs, when the truth is, every single job is important, like the smallest cog needed to turn the wheel of a car, is in fact the most important.
In a society haunted by comparison and an unhealthy preoccupation with levels of hierarchy defining us into classes that are basically judgments categorizing us into better than and less than, we totally miss the fact that every job is equally as important in contributing to the whole as one cannot thrive without others supporting them.
Every job matters, absolutely Mariette, and as you say it is how we are in that job, connection being a vital part, both with self and others, ‘not so much about the tasks I have to do, but far more about the connection I have with the people around me.’
I agree Mariette, what’s important is not why we ‘do’ but the quality of relationship we build with ourselves and then it is simple and easy to love any job you ‘do’ – because you are truly being you.
Acceptance and appreciation of ourselves and what we bring with our quality of energy is key, in whatever we do, whatever job that may be.
Self appreciation here is the enormous key to it all. Without self appreciation, how are we going to ever value the job we are in and what we bring to it?
I’m currently working in a profession that I am passionate about and love dearly. However recently I have come across the idea that I can do better and be employed in a more respectable job very easily.
The job would deliver a higher wage, higher community standing and respect. Why wouldn’t you change the job if you could?
I can’t predict the future and maybe down the road, this professional will open up for advancement, however, the main question to ask is how is my professional serving the greater community. Do I have a job that really makes a difference to the world or even a person? It doesn’t matter if I am wiping floors or sitting in the executive suite in a highrise. I would much rather be wiping floors if the top job serves no purpose to really service people.
It’s not what we do but how we are in what we do – work is such a valuable tool for us to learn how to be us in whatever situation arises, and offers us the reflection from others to learn from constantly.
When we expect a job to deliver us something without valuing what we can bring we never grow. This I have experienced in my current job of 2 1/2 years as a team member – in that time I have seen many people come in and be promoted ‘over me’. I say ‘over me’ because there was an arrogance that held onto what I did and there was a lack of appreciation for what I bring without any doing, just by being me as a team member and without this appreication I was unable to see the next steps of growth. Now the more I value myself I can see what a supervisor role actually requires – a care and consideration to working with people. If this care and consideration is not given to myself how could I bring that to others? Somtimes not getting what we want is showing us that it’s not life being ‘wrong’ but that we have unrealistic or unpractical expectations of how life is to be – we are all in life together and positions gained for ourselves benefits no one, including ourselves.
Building consistency and rhythm in life, to me, feels like the paramount for self-love and care. If we are consistently bringing all of ourselves to everything we do then there is no ‘switch off’ or disconnection moments. The depth we can go to in ourselves and the love we can express in life is limitless and the body of love to house this is a body that is consistently cared for and honoured in every movement.
When life is lived in full instead of in parts, the world gets blessed by our fullness in everything we do (and so do we). This fills my body with the potential of how life could be on earth, where everyone values everything and nothing is left to being less.
Not only does the work we do to earn a living matter, but the little jobs we do at home like our laundry or cleaning all really matter. They are laying the foundation for how we live and take care of ourselves.
“Every job matters.” Whether paid or unpaid, house work or professional work, each job contributes to the greater whole and we can bring our quality to every task that we do.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” This really stood out to me as I’ve often made my worth about what I do which is a completely false foundation. This is something I can bring into my day, how I treat myself, how I relate to me today as I go about what I do.
In a kitchen the dishwasher is just as important as the chef without dishes to serve food the whole service grinds to a halt, yet this role is often degraded with terms life “dish pig” perhaps because it is considered unskilled work. Yet it has its own flow and rhythm that supports the team, every job counts.
Every activity and choice matters, and the activity of work offers us a great refection concerning our relationships with others and yourself. Whatever we work in, we are in relationship. To get caught up in trying to make certain jobs more important than others, or only thinking about the ‘doing’ lessens what we allow ourselves to feel, develop, learn and appreciate.
Just reflecting on all the jobs I have done, every one of them is significant and I learnt something from it, it all supports who I am now, whether it was cleaning toilets, working in a bar, managing a volunteer project, running my own business, they all have offered me the opportunity to learn something and develop skills. Self evolvement not what we ‘do’ is the priority.
I am working in all areas of the business I run with my husband, I am a mother, I work in the home also and I study. When I fall into the trap of thinking they are different, I struggle. Why would we give more emphasis to one thing in life over another, we are bring ourselves to all we do, it is how we are rather than what we do that is of significance. How can some of what I do be more important, be give me more pride, make me more or less important. When I bring me to everything, this support me and All in ways that I am still learning to appreciate.
I love what you have shared here, especially: “For me, most importantly, working had to be about people: being with people and working with and for people. Everything extra was extra. And it had to be fun!” What a delightful way to look at work. Most of us target money, position, image, kudos, yet pretty much at the tip of everyone’s tonque is that they can’t wait till they retire and do not need to work. And what do they tend to want to do when they retire? Pretty much how you approached work in the first place – being with people, engaging with people, everything extra is a bonus and it has to be fun!
It is that simple Mariette, and so important to remember to bring me in my fullness to everything I do, ‘Today, I have fully embraced working as a receptionist and the beauty is, I just have to bring me. Work is something I do, it is not who I am.’
Work is about providing a service to other people no matter what we do, wether it is a cleaner or a doctor…we work in service for others always! This is a great motivation and giver of purpose in everything we do. EVERY job matters. In this light it does seem crazy that we judge each other by what we do and measure our own self worth against this.
Absolutely agree, our self worth comes from within, my relationship with myself and how I treat myself, never what I do on the outside.
I can relate to the fact that many of us identify with our job as that is who we are, for example if I made a mistake than that is a reflection on me as not been good enough for example. As Marietta has stated, our job is what we do, but who we are is what we bring in ourselves, our quality and then that is expressed in our doing.
‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’
This is wonderful Mariette, every single job has a part to play in the big picture and it all comes together, without one job, it would not work, that shows the importance of every single role. If we did not have cleaners we would work in very dirty environments that do not support us where we start the day in regard and cleanliness. If we did not have the receptionist, it would be chaotic and not allow time for the doctor for example to do what they do…every single aspect is covered, we are all a piece of the jigsaw puzzle, equally so. To appreciate that and see our value of what we bring is well worth it!
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” This is an amazing realisation and knowing and if we all took this on board and lived this our appreciation, joy and love would become our daily marker and way for all we are in the world and the change to true responsibility would be foundational.
Imagine if the world really understood what this article is presenting… It would be a paradigm shift of such enormous potential that really our whole way of working would change… Where the enormous responsibility of the cleaner who creates the foundation for everyone to return to everyday is understood as deeply as that of the CEO
All jobs we work in are so valuable, we all have different strengths that we bring, each and every one of us. It is so important for each of us to claim that within and bring those qualities to all that we do.
“Together we make an awesome team” I love that, just like the colours of the rainbow, you have to have all of them to get the full magnificence of the moment.
It matters not what our job is but how we are with ourselves and the quality of what we bring that’s important.
Being reminded every time I read this (as it is something that I have been aware of and letting go of), is being identified by what I do and seeking that recognition and acceptance. Deep down I know that I am me and that is more than enough and as I build this as a steady foundation I get to see when the slightest part of me gets caught in wanting the recognition or acceptance. The more I feel how gorgeous I am the more I get to see these old ingrained patterns and behaviours stick out and remember that these are not me.
I used to have a belief that in your job you needed to be achieving, doing, growing all the time. That if you weren’t then you weren’t progressing. I have since completely changed that, understanding that it doesn’t matter at all what type of job you are in, it is so about how ‘you’ are in that job. What is the quality of how you are operating in that job, no matter what it is. I now focus on of course doing a good job, but more about what i bring to the job every day.
There is too much individualism and egos in the work place, hence lots of separation, comparison and jealousy. If people worked together appreciating each others qualities there would not be separation, comparison and jealousy.
‘my mind was playing games with me. I started to compare my situation with people around me, with those who had jobs that I thought were more important, more busy, received more recognition and earned a lot more money. This has taken some time to let go of and at times I still compare.’ I have had this same difficulty when I look back on my very varied career and compare it with my fellow graduates who are still doing engineering and earning a ‘proper’ salary. I sometimes wonder ‘what have I done?’ and consider myself a bit of a failure because, as you say, Mariette, we value ourselves by what we do. What I am learning is that my true job is to bring the full me into every situation and I have not yet mastered this, so it doesn’t matter what job I am actually doing, what I am ‘working on’ is conscious presence in every moment.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” This is pure GOLD Mariette and should become part of every work-place policy and procedures and work-life culture.
I have struggled with this job stuff from early on. My work ethic was always praised, on reflection I was driving to already get to the next platform/job and not truly appreciate or settle into where I was. Self critique on what society would say about my job was constantly playing in the background. Checking in now I know my job matters enormously – I get to support and train a team of people – I get to serve hundreds of people a week – connect with suppliers and new regulars. and some are even getting to know me not what I do which shifts everything.
Mariette its inspiring to feel the care that you take with every job, no matter the job. It’s something that is not seen in society. The biggest hurdle we face is that we feel we should be paid more for the greater temporal responsibility that we have. Most of us avoiding it at all costs. Yet what you bring in is that everyone has an equal responsibility in the quality of the work we do, as in the way we do what we do. To me I am starting to understand from that what true responsibility is.
Thanks, Mariette. If everyone saw the workplace in this way, making it about relationship and appreciating the unique qualities we all bring, there would be so much more harmony, less absenteeism and most likely much more productivity.
I love that there are so many different jobs in the world today and I really enjoy finding out the unique qualities everyone has and the how truly awesome it is when we bring these qualities to our jobs no matter what they are. Every job is truly needed and the people that do these jobs are truly inspiring too. I feel that sometimes we don’t appreciate how amazing it is and the value we all bring to the world from our qualities of who we are.
Not being identified by the job we do feels very honest and humbling because on the inside, we are all the same.
Nothing is more important than the people on this planet. That means a true honouring of each and every person, for who they are, where they are at in their lives, and what job they do. Not one is more important than the next.
‘Every job matters’ – the title of this article in itself keeps dismantling for me any preconceived ideas I have about one job being more important than another – and the more I live this the more value and care I take with whatever it is that I am doing – this feels like the truth and blessing of responsibility.
Every job does matter and I have to say not everyone in life appreciates this truth. We tend to look down on people with supposedly less important jobs than us or be jealous and envious of those higher up the ladder on that front. Through being a student of the way of the livingness I have learned to appreciate what I do and what I have to offer instead of just going through the motions to earn a crust.
We have created a vicious cycle of defining ourselves by what we do rather than who we are. There are many gems that Serge Benhayon has shared over the years and this is one of them. What makes a difference is what we bring and what we bring is affected by how we live each and every moment.
For so long I was on the treadmill of lies that fed me my choices so I thought that I was somehow connected to what I did. And of course it is relevant to say that I did work doing this or that as my job, but it was only what I did never who I am. Now I have a much greater awareness and connection by a lived choice to connect to my inner-most and this connection lets me clearly feel and see both the doing and the being. Knowing my true connection to my being-ness or Livingness contributed to a great awareness thus deepening my connection.
‘I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette’ – what I love about this blog Mariette is that the truth of who we are is within and we carry this with us no matter where we are or what we do. The simplicity in what you have written is beautiful.
I can just feel how we identify with what we do far too much and how this brings in sadness, arrogance, abuse,divide and separation, and at times a very much us and them approach. . People judge each other on what they do and how much money they make, never stopping to feel their true divine essence and the unique qualities they bring. To me this feels a form of protection to stop us from feeling the emptiness and lovelessness we have created and live in, the fact we chose to walk away from God, that we miss ourselves, and our deep connection to our inner heart and each other that we so crave.
Every job does matter, whether thats putting out the rubbish, hoovering or cleaning the house, I can’t help but feel the joy in doing all these jobs around the house – they are about people rather than cleaning up.
‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’ well said Mariette.
I have never considered one job more important than another and I have always maintained it’s not what you do but how you do it that counts. I have also always felt that the quality of our work is what matters. What I have not always been aware of is the quality of energy in my body. Thanks to the Ancient Wisdom teachings as presented by Serge Benhayon and more specifically the healing courses and workshops I have developed a relationship with my body whereby I can refine the quality of energy that I choose and thus offer a greater wisdom base and quality in all that I do.
It seems that we put so much emphasis on our jobs delivering us something and then blaming the job for not giving us what we want, without realising that it is our responsibility in the first place to just be us and let the job and the people around us unfold accordingly.
Responsibility is the key to so many things in life, especially our connection to our inner-most, which then allows us a greater connection to others. Being us is a choice that takes a continuous responsibility to choose the love we all are.
I remember a poster years ago that said ‘doing a good job here is like peeing yourself while wearing dark corduroy trousers, you get the warm overall feeling, but no one notices. That was meant to be satirical at the time. But, was that just not accepting the choices we made? Was the purpose of doing those jobs only for acceptance received outside of us? When we do things because it is needed at the time for us all, is that not the best job ever?
What quality we bring to what we do is far more important than what we do per se. It is the quality that governs how we feel about the job not the job itself
I really appreciate this at a time when my job role is changing with possible fundamental changes on the horizon. I’ve not quite adjusted to the changes so far, to the tasks that I had only just started to appreciate the quality that I bring to them, potentially disappearing. I am being asked to let go of attachments to job roles – what I think I’m good at and what I think I won’t like. To open my heart to bringing quality to tasks and situations I haven’t relished the sound of because I’ve dragged past reactions to future prospects. Reading this opens my heart to bringing me to new responsibilities and dropping the judgement I have on myself and the tasks.
‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’ I totally agree Mariette. I really enjoy my job at the moment because it involves people.I love that we all bring different qualities to the team, and that when one person leaves and another comes in the team shapes in another way. There is no boredom when we bring ourselves to the job.
If we identify ourselves with what we do, we are always going to ride a roller coaster based on feeling accepted and needed. When we value who we are first of all above what it is that we do it no longer matters what our occupation is and we soon discover it is how we are in that role that matters.
Not only every job but every action matters. Am I who I am in everything that I do or do I play roles to adapt to the task and expectation? Only when we are authentic in everything we do, ie being the same and bringing the same quality will we live a life fulfilled and without regret.
True Alex, every moment matters. There is no greater one that is more important because ultimately our days are not separate in the way that we think, sliced up, sectioned off and cut into pieces by appointments and business meetings. Life is one long moment, joined up and intimately connected and its the same way with us – we are part of a bigger whole too.
On re-visiting blogs. I love how there are always some simple reminders to support something in my day. Deepening the relationship with myself is possible from how I treat myself is what stood out today, a very timely reminder bringing a ‘stop’ moment to be appreciated.
“My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do”.
Thanks Mariette, re-reading your blog reminds me of what is important, my connection with myself and others is everything, and is absolutely paramount. The job is secondary and just a way of expressing what I am here to bring for others.
‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’ And it is this worth that brings the value to everything you touch and commit to.
I could not agree with you more Mariette, what you have expressed here is so true;
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life”.
We all matter and we are all equal; it is so sad that, in general, the world we live in reflects the exact opposite.
Mariette I love and appreciate that fact that you have written that for you work is about “being with people and working with and for people” and that your view is that “we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something”. Yes issues, and temptations do come up for us to face, learn, deepen and expand with, but this is such a wonderful foundation to keep coming back to.
It feels really arrogant for any of us to assume that any job is ‘not good enough’. When I was looking for a full time job and somebody suggested retail I thought ‘I can’t do that’. It didn’t match the image I had of myself. After four and a half years in retail I can now say I absolutely love it, and it’s the best move I ever made. I can feel it when other people place a judgement on me or question why I am in retail. My quiet response is that they do not understand and that they are missing out on a great experience.
It is beautiful how you share every job matters, work is something we do, not who we are. Therefore it is us who we bring to work and share with everyone. Being a receptionist is a great job as you get to meet so many people. I have many roles and one of which is a reception, it is lovely to meet and interact with so many people.
‘Every job matters’. We are so good at taking jobs for granted. You’re absolutely right Mariette, every job is needed, they all have a place in the world, just like all of us. We are all pieces of the puzzle and together we make a world. It’s time we stop the separation amongst ourselves and bring respect, appreciation and love to all that we are and all that we do. There is no less than or more than.
Love this blog Marietta and how our ‘talents’ can be put to great use anywhere, in any job or situation equally. It is amazing what we are capable of when we let go of the images of how things ‘should ‘ be.
I’ve worked in human resources jobs for many years and so get to work and interact with people in many different jobs. It is so true that every job does in fact matter, from the accounting clerk who keeps the books accurate, to the cleaning staff who care for the building that employees, customers, students, clients, and patients spend time in, to the receptionist who is the face of the company when they answer the phone and greet people coming in.
When we can accept and truly appreciate this fact, it deeply changes the quality of working relationships. We start to see ourselves as equals in the ways that it counts most – not in job titles or status but in working and living in a way that honors a person for who they are first and then for what they bring to the work they are doing.
We don’t appreciate enough just how important every job truly is to serving the whole. No IT specialist can be doing what he/she are doing with out the support of others around them, unless of course they did it all but then they would have little time to really focus on their specialty.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” – That’s exactly it and I find that too I am just how I am, whether at home or at work or wherever. It’s so much easier than playing games and roles to ‘fit in’…
This is a great way to describe what you shared Mariette – “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” Great realisation and awesome that you made the shift to truly appreciating who you are in full.
Yes, what really matters in the job we turn up to every day, is the quality of what we bring. If we are in exhaustion, dismissal, contraction, overwhelm, then everyone our work gets impacted by this; if we turn up full of joy, vitality, openness, and love, then everyone gets that reflection… the reflection of another way, and the reflection of something they too have inside.
‘Somehow a belief had come to the surface that this job was not ‘good enough’, that I was wasting my talents and that I could do much better’ – This is a very widely held belief Mariette when it comes to certain jobs, but you’ve called out brilliantly in your blog that we can be of service to humanity in EVERY job that we do and this can make a huge difference – so our skills are never ‘wasted’ if we choose to commit fully to what we do.
In fact everything we do matters – paid employment or not. We make a difference even in what we may deem to be the most insignificant ways – returning a trolley, giving way to someone whilst driving, putting rubbish in the bin, smiling at a passerby. And it is the way we do all these things that matters most.
Very true Bernadetteglass, it is the quality in which we bring to everything that makes all the difference. This then rules out any comparison that may set in because it brings everything we do back to us and how we are with ourselves. The job or the title of the job then becomes irrelevant.
.’….Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. ‘
We matter and we can make a difference, we are powerful. This is an important message in a world where people mostly have given up on themselves.
Every job does matter and no one is better or less because of the job they do, they just play a different part in the big picture.
Having a level of acceptance and appreciation of who we are allows us to surrender to what is presented as we know that what we do is not just for self but for the benefit of others through our reflection of a different way of being that gets them closer to their soul.
“What is there to be?”… great question Mariette. It is not the job that we do but the quality we bring to the job that should be appreciated.
Bringing a consistency of quality to everything I do has helped me understand where there are areas of my life that need more attention and refining.
Yes so true Nicole, I can relate to that too. It’s great when we discover it and then do pay attention to it as then things can move again in a different direction.
Mariette its great to read this again and appreciate the fact that every job does matter. What I see at the moment is how much we compare one job against another and how if you have more “responsibility” then you want more money and are seen as more important. Yet what if the cleaner or the receptionist is one of the most important people or at least equally important in a company? It’s so hard for people to grasp, myself included, as we think about what we do as being more than the quality we are in.
There are many many examples of how every job matters and how we value ourselves in who we are, not what we do. When the cleaning service contracts in hospitals changed from in house to outside contractors in the UK, there was a period of reduced monitoring while the change took place, and the rates of infection and superbugs rocketed throughout the industry. While top surgeons may take the recognised credit for their work, the after care by all staff serves a very important part to the full recovery of any patient. Appreciation for everyone’s work is crucial for us all.
Thank you for sharing this Mariette. It is so true that every job we do does matter, and it matters how we are in the job, that we are fully present, taking all of us to the workplace. It is so easy to go into comparison and see different jobs and feel that these are more important than the job we are doing, however, when I feel like this I know that it is because I am lacking appreciation for the job that I do and what I bring to the workplace.
Our work places offer a huge opportunity to connect with others, and it does not matter what type of work we do, we are still being of service and can bring much to the places we work when we make it about quality and connection first. Imagine that, meeting another as an equal from love, I bet the absences and illnesses would diminish greatly.
Appreciating the qualities that we all bring and the opportunities we are offered to express them in harmony begins to reveal the way forward to return home.
It is such a common experience that we have at such a young age – ‘what are you going to be when you grow up’ heavily weighted on the answer that you give the adults… With this as your introduction to life then we are left standing there lost and coming to terms with the fact that this is what has to happens to be accepted, you become someone by what you do. So no surprise comparison is birthed at such a young age also. To be looking out and seeing what is going to make us you can’t but see what others are doing too. You can’t Love who you are if you are told it is something you have to seek and believe this. Becoming honest about this and that we conformed to such pressures is a truth so we can let it go and accept, appreciate and claim ALL that we are Everything that we need to be and what we do is an extension of who we are.
When I was working full time as a healing practitioner I didn’t think I would ever do anything else. I now work full time in retail as a beauty advisor, and I can honestly say that I absolutely love my job. I bring the same presence, focus and commitment to my retail job as I did to my healing work, and it feels amazing. There is no difference in me, so the difference in job doesn’t matter.
Even though I may have the same job day in and out, how I am in that jobs changes constantly. Every day is an opportunity to be more of me at work, to offer a spark of light to all I meet. That is the same for all of us, and so every job is equally valuable.
So cool, Heather, putting firmly to bed the idea that we can get stuck in a rut being in the same job for any length of time. Every moment is fresh… what is our next point of offering and learning?
I so agree, “Every Job Matters”, and how we are in that job matters even more.
So true – it all matters all of the time 🙂
Since reading your blog, it has opened my eyes further in noticing and appreciating all those ‘unseen’, less obvious and frontline jobs out there that are actually there supporting the obvious and ‘seen’ jobs. For example, those trucks that drive early in the mornings cleaning the streets and curbs with the rotating brushes, the overnight transport trucks that deliver goods … there are so many people working around the clock doing so many different unseen jobs, that are super important to the whole. Every job does matter.
Though Universal Medicine I have learnt to let go of many false aspirations about work and to value people so much, that being in a job where I can connect with people and offer the fullness of myself in service, is the most rewarding thing there is to do.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself.” This is gold and a reminder for me that it is not about the doing but the being and this is what builds our self worth.
This is something we should start to teach our kids from day one. We are not what we do.
This blog bring such an important message of equality. When we, as a society, realise that it’s what we bring from within that makes what we do great, we would enjoy all our roles and jobs over our life, because we would be enjoying ourselves in everything we do. We would feel how everyone supports another in some way, and how all this support is the brotherhood we are all from
I love the diversity of job roles in the world today and it just shows that every role has an important role to play as it is apart of a much larger puzzle for life. The diversity is needed and when we bring our own quality of living to all that we do, magic is created.
A great blog and understanding of life and the value we all have in it if we value ourselves. Everything we do matters and every job matters and the appreciation of ourselves is key to valuing our job and everything we do and simply are. Our relationship with ourselves first is essential to how we see everything and our communication with others from this. If everyone had this value for themselves we would have a beautiful equality in life with every job in a quality that would be deeply felt by all.
I agree, every job matters and the puzzle cannot be complete with a piece missing, and our jobs are exactly the same when you look at the bigger picture. Every job/role within a company is equally important. When we go to work with this level of appreciation we can bring equally to our work environment instead of the common bullying environment that is so wide spread.
Our number one job is to be who we are.. and I have recently learnt that there is nothing quite like being pregnant to bring this fact to the fore. Not being in the role of nurse, university student, mother, partner, saviour of patient or friend! or anything else is a great big lesson to feel and brings a healing and understanding to our lives that is in great need of discovery. The quality we choose to be, in our days and our moments is what we bring to any workplace long before any skills or techniques we hold that form our actions and compliment our quality but do not make us who we are.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do.” I love this line Mariette. I often considered yes every job even the seemingly smallest matter, yet with your last line I realise that it is because of the fact that we all matter and because we all matter every job matters not because we need people to clean up the dirt etc – it is us that make every job matter.
‘I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home’ – it feels so inspiring to understand ourselves and to honour who we are and to offer this as a reflection out into the world. It feels wonderful when we can appreciate ourselves and how we each have a unique contribution to make to our working place and that by being us we learn to appreciate others and their values, and in this way we bring a richness and a diversity that allows us to expand our own experience and to deepen our relationship with ourselves and others.
In writing your blog Mariette you have reflected so many of my feelings. In hindsight it feels as though I made a career of belittling the contribution I was making because what I was doing did not have a place or perception of what most people feel is a career. It is beautiful to now feel and realise that I was offering something that was allowing me to express who I was in small but significant ways. In my last job where I worked for a big company in the finance department I was becoming more appreciative that even though I was not a high flyer, I was none the less making an important contribution to the team as I offered flow and order in the way that I worked. I was conscientious and precise, and because of my age I brought a depth of understanding and wisdom that helped the office to act cohesively and work as a unified whole.
Learning to deeply appreciate oneself in your job is so incredibly important, no matter what the job is. I know for me I always felt that I wasn’t contributing enough, or doing enough if I wasn’t heading up a team, or climbing the corporate ladder. So much of what I have been focusing on recently has been appreciating my qualities, what I bring to the organisation I work in. Knowing that me being there and operating from those qualities ‘is’ enough, that there doesn’t need to be loads of recognition, or accolades attached to the job, but an appreciation for what I bring.
Like the stars that constellate in the sky, so too do we all constellate with eachother, fitting in to place amongst the activities of life, making sure that any one person is always exactly where they need to be to evolve not only themselves, but everyone around them as well. By this universal law, we shall all support eachother to return to the truth, and be the divine beings that we already naturally are.
Free of the burden of perception and belief that one job has more importance than another I come to realise that every step is valuable in the quality it is taken and there is a simplicity and accessibility to this responsibility that I cannot (and do not want to) escape.
Yes, every job matters hugely, as its the smaller cogs in a mechanism (e.g.: businesses, economy) that make the bigger wheels turn.
Well said Mariette. Every job does matter for every job supports other jobs.We need everyone. Embracing everything we do with the joy of who we are and what we bring enriches everyone everywhere.
It’s always about the people, I’ve had many jobs, and can say %100 that I remember the interactions with the people first and foremost above the actions, that’s not to say the actions are not important, when we bring our true selves the actions have a natural quality that is aligned with those around us, as solidly presented by the daily reflection of Serge, thank you Mariette for a beautiful blog from your heart…
There is so much power in bringing who we are to what we do. Knowing who we are first and foremost, allows this. Life is about people and as you say Mariette, work is about people, so if we are not bring our self to our work to be with people, then what are we bringing?
We have some cleaners at my place of work who come in twice a week and work their magic but in two years I have never met them, as a way of showing my appreciation I make sure they always have cleaning products such as bleach, bin bags and cleaning sprays. It may not be part of my job description to provide these items but it is my job so to speak, to appreciate what others do on my behalf.
When we approach our job, not as something that defines and shapes who we are, but as life’s school where we can learn, grow, develop and evolve and constantly deepen our expression and our knowing of who we are, it really changes how you feel about going to work.
‘Every job matters’… we don’t often come to work with this ethos. We often have the belief that some jobs are more important than others, have a greater status and have a grater value. But on closer examination it’s clear to see how every job keeps society rolling and moving…imagine if every cleaner decided this wasn’t for them, or rubbish collectors refused to pick up refuse, where would we be? To appreciate every job as equal to another is to appreciate everyone who does them.
I love the variety of jobs that you have done Mariette. It feels vibrant and healthy to try our hand at different things and gain life experience. I appreciate all the different jobs that I have done. I have learnt much from all of them. There is no ‘ideal’ job.
A beautiful sharing Mariette, simple, wise and inspirational;
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important”.
I so connect to what you share about there being a reason we are in certain jobs at certain times. It may not always be easy to see the reason, but looking back there are usually relationships formed, personal growth, growth in others or an opening to new opportunities.
Subscribing to the lie that our worth is in defined by what we do has caused much harm to humanity. I love the way you break the myth Mariette: “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.”
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.”- Yes, only when we appreciate and value the qualities we bring to our workplace, home etc can be truly feel the truth of what you share Mariette in your awesome blog.
This is a lovely blog blog Mariette. The question of what you want to be when you grow up is so vexed. A suitable reply may be that I want to be me in all that I do and not be defined by what it is that I do. The beauty of being me in all that I do is that every job is then important because it becomes about me being me in the job and not the actual job. Me bringing everything that I am to whatever it is that I am doing, this is both challenging and rewarding.
Everyone has something to offer the world in all they do, from a smile at someone in the street, to helping someone with their heavy bags, to being all that you are in the job that you do, interacting with other staff and customers. When we bring children up to see and feel their potential to touch the lives of others and make change, we support them to see that any job, when done with all of who they are is important.
If we don’t truly love and value what we bring to our work, it can be so easy to start to think that there is something wrong with the work or that it needs to change. This is one way to avoid accepting what is already there & waiting to be claimed.
I love what you are presenting here and it’s REALLY important. Especially for those who want to get out of ‘dead end’ job or one we do not like .. as anything we have not reflected upon, resolved and healed within us just moves on in our next job with us (the same patterns, momentums and choices just follow us only in slightly different packaging until healed). A very valuable teaching and lesson I received from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to the point that I now do a job that I love, am committed to and feels extremely purposeful. Every job, like every choice gives us an opportunity to truly evolve. Its so true,in that, each and every one of us matters.
I once was let go from a role due to cost cutting and left feeling unappreciated. When it came to my farewell, my colleagues showed so much appreciation to me, which was rarely expressed during my employment. In the card they signed there was repeated comments about the lovely energy I brought to the office. Although I was great at my role, there was no mention about me being a hard worker, but what was appreciated was my presence in the office. I had made it about the role and feeling less significant in it, but in truth we have the opportunity to bring something very significant to anything that we do.
I have also let comparison take over when it has come to work, in relation to income and seeing how others around me may be advancing. I have often based my worth on how much I am earning. or where I may sit in the pecking order. I can feel that these thoughts are a huge distraction to take me away from my purpose in my work, to really bring all of me to the people I work with whether they are colleagues or clients. The thoughts can be quite insidious and even seem like ‘wise’ words of caution, but I can feel when they have taken me away from my truth into complicated and brooding thoughts.
As soon as we bring appreciation to our doings, we begin to take the focus off what we do on a functional level as it defining who we are, and instead start to place more focus on the actual quality of how we are when we do it. Regardless of the job it can be exquisite doing it!
I was deeply inspired this week when we had a work’s night out and presentation to celebrate long service of our staff. At the dinner we had nurses, administration staff, receptionists, cleaners, physiotherapists, theatre staff and managers and I could feel just how equally important each role is in our patient care, which is central to the work we do.
When we make work be about the relationships we have with each other, then every job and each day matters greatly, because then there is always someone for you to be with, in all your glory.
‘We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.’ Very true Mariette, I love my job and enjoy taking myself to work and connecting with everyone around me – this wasn’t always the case as I used to find my job difficult and stressful because I was not living the fullness of me – therefore ending up exhausted and stressed from work.
I can find it hard to define myself to one ‘role’ , when asked what job I do – I do many…. they are all just as important as the next and it is how I carry myself, how I am in those roles that counts.
When I go into comparison and see my-self and my in the work place as less I reflect lovelessness to my co-workers and our clients but when I take all of me to my work place and reflect from my essence I am aware just how much I hold and support my colleagues to also reflect all of them to our clients and co-workers alike.
Essentially we are always working as if we have an off switch it means we need an out moment and therefore are saying we need an out moment from being love. As has been presented the way we are in one moment directly affects the way we are in the next. so if we choose love in one moment we then build up a momentum until choosing love becomes normal rather than the struggle that is initially felt.
I keep coming back to this article as a great support, inspiration and loving reminder that our true value is not in what we do, but the simplicity of being ourselves as openly and honestly as we can in every moment.
I think you’ve raised something that is an issue for a lot of people – having a picture of what their working life should look like, comparing with others and feeling lesser or falsely better than others. Recognising when we have these pictures and letting them go frees us up to truly be who we are at work and deliver a much greater service.
The only way someone else can look down on me doing a particular job is when I myself think it is less. And me thinking I am less brings down everyone else doing that same job. I was made aware of this by a wise friend and this piece of wisdom has has helped me really focus on how I do instead of what I do. Although we are all doing millions kinds of different jobs we can choose to do them with one and the same quality.
‘We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.’ Very true Mariette, I love my job and enjoy taking myself to work and connecting with everyone around me – this wasn’t always the case as I used to find my job difficult and stressful because I was not living the fullness of me.
It is so ingrained in society to judge a book by its cover. I work as a cleaning lady and love what I can bring to peoples homes. When people find out some of my previous jobs I see the big question and sometimes they dare to ask it… Why do you clean? For me it was my choice to clean, not my only option, people struggle to understand this.
Love it Toni, I also get surprised faces when I say I work behind reception. It just shows how ingrained our images are when it comes to work.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.” This how I am now, I am the same at work as I am at home or with family and friends. Every job I am doing matters, everything is everything.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” This is something I came to understand though Universal medicine, I had lack of self worth issues which I came to understand and work with through the the support of practitioners and Universal Medicine. I am so grateful that I am not longer caught in self with issues.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself” connecting and appreciating to that quality within us all allows us to understand that we are not what we do but the beingness that we share with all others.
Being identified by our roles also separates us from others and I have seen this in some workplaces I have worked, where the senior staff may not have time for the juniour staff members and what pearls of wisdom they have to offer. When we allow ourselves to be ruled by images or job status it takes the human connection away. Everyone has so much wisdom and love to share and it is of great value to the world at large.
‘I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.’ I love this line, I feel it embraces the love that we are. Usually we’re so identified by the job we do that we say I am a …whatever job you do. Rather than appreciating the job that you do is an opportunity to express the love that you are and bring love in expression to the world. There is equality in this. I remember a friend wanting to do care work because he wanted to help people more than his usual job although his usual job is equally supportive.
The joy that you bring to work feels wonderful Marietta – with great love and commitment to people and community no matter what form the job takes.
Our work is not who we are and neither do we need to change who we are in order to fit ourselves into our work. Work is activity, not an identity.
I can feel that for many of us it is now a case of we value all jobs we do, I like to think I would do anything and be satisfied but in truth I am still identified with my worth being tied to what I do
Every job in every part of our day matters, I have just started to accept that it is this simple.
I used to put so much emphasis on the jobs that I did, and really wanted to be identified by them. It is something that we generally grow up with as our peers are constantly asking us, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Then in my 50’s I got a job as a housekeeping assistant, and had to clean bathrooms and loos, make beds and clear up the mess that others left behind. It was in all honesty quite challenging at first, but as I learned that the quality I brought to my job had a direct impact on the next people who would stay in a room I had cleaned, I began to appreciate how important it was that it was not about what I was doing but how I was doing it because of who I am and a direct result of my day to day choices. This was a huge revelation to me, and something that I am able to deeply appreciate now.
The true appreciation and knowing that every job matters is such an important part of our lives and society and the responsibility and oneness of us all. It allows development of our self worth and appreciation and a sense of fulfilment and our evolution.
Once we accept the fact that we are not our jobs, we are free of all the investment and attachment of needing to be a something for some kind of recognition and status. This then paves the way for us to realise that we are all we need to be simply by being us and that all that we do is an expression and extension of this.
Every day is an amazing opportunity to connect with others particularly in our workplace as we spend so much of our days there. Making our work all about the quality we are doing it in and the care that we take seems to make a lot of sense for our bodies and for our own inner confidence. So if we are choosing to make it about quality first, it does not matter what we are doing, it only matters how much care and attention we place on what we do. When we do this, everybody benefits and work would be much more productive and rewarding.
Loving who we are and bringing that joy everywhere creates a quality that is second to none and it creates warmth and playfulness which is infectious to anyone we connect with in our day to day lives.
Comparison is a killer.
What I always love is when I ask someone if they enjoy their work / where they work and they genuinely and passionately say yes. Sometimes this comes as a shock to me, if so it shows I have already made a preconceived judgment or not open to the outcome, but in truth more often than not we hear people say they can’t wait to finish work or retire.
When we make life about people first, we soon come to realise every job we do is equally important. As everything we do has an affect and impact on everybody in this world.
‘Every job matters’ how true is this, whether we are taking out the dustbins, cooking dinner, writing an email, stacking shelves, cleaning toilets, working as a surgeon, a cook, a cleaner, presenting to a global group of CEO’s or feeding our young children – all are one and the same, and have an equal affect on everybody. No job or work in this life is more or less than another.
It is very energy giving to meet and look into the eyes of everyone you meet. It is helpful to already have a body that is vital, fit and well, so the energy we put into making our lives about connecting with people is easy on a basic physical level. Then, with that foundation we receive back all that we offer and just through our everyday activity, the workplace becomes an amazing place to be.
It is a beautiful reflection to look back at one’s life and see all the jobs and things one has done and been part of that have been a learning in one way or another and had a purpose. The quality and understanding we all bring and the responsibility of this is very powerful when we claim this truth for humanity and allow an honouring of every job we do.
I read of you being your job, not any of the things you are doing. Being Mariette and then going about your daily business. That is super cool.
The feeing that one is too much for a specific job, does not take into account the fact that the quality you may bring to it does make a tremendous difference because your quality impresses everyone you deal with.
Could it be that the career type people are investing in, which tend to put themselves second?
Every job matters as much as every person in charge of them.
Every part of us matters, and my number one job is making every part matter.
Beautiful!
I can’t think of a more perfect job for someone with a heart as open as yours, than being a receptionist. Every word of your blog speaks of the equality that you hold every one and every thing in life. Thus I can imagine that you greet the CEO in exactly the same way as you greet the Delivery Man; stunning and evolving for both of them.
The equality that exists in a workplace is because of what we bring to it. If we play less or small we are contributing to the inequality that is the demise of any well intentioned business.
I spent a lot of my career trying to live up to the various pictures I created of how a graduate, an engineer, a manager, a coach, a counsellor should be. The most relaxed I’ve been is when I dropped all that trying and took on a simple job as a cleaner – no-one knew anything about my previous life or what qualifications I had – all that mattered was that I got on well with my colleagues, any customers I met who were about early, and did my job. Now I’m in retail and catering, and I can see clearly that jobs are about people, connecting with colleagues and customers. It’s people who matter, not qualifications, status or titles.
I wish I could say the same, Mariette, that I have loved every job I have had. I usually start with the best of intentions and then the shine soon wears off. What I didn’t realise that by not claiming me in a job, and refusing to shine, I was taking my ‘issues’ from job to job so it was never going to work until I broke that old paradigm and became more of me so I could take ME to any job that I do, without having a preconceived picture of the ‘perfect’ job, because there is no such thing. More so now, it is the people that matter, not the job, and how I am in the job that counts, that way every day can be a pleasure and doesn’t feel like going to work, and certainly no desire to ever retire need be on the horizon!
I have had so many jobs in my life and I don’t think there is one that hasn’t helped me in another. I have learnt from every one of them and once I learnt to value my contribution the appreciation of where I was, who I was with and what I equally brought then went up a whole lot more.
I love how many jobs you have done and how you have found value in them all. It is a hard picture to break – what our career is. Thank you for highlighting it.
What an amazingly diverse list of jobs Mariette, this really does show that by taking the true you to work means that ‘work’ simply becomes the thing you do, the consistent element was you and your connection with yourself and others at work.
It is a great joy to appreciate each other and our every expression. There is no position greater than another …for we are equal in Love and expression.
It would be a different working environment if we were all able to express to one another how our uniqueness is needed. How we all matter in what we do. I witness that at work a lot where many people feel dis-satisfied with work because they don’t feel valued. It helps if we take that first step ourselves and value ourselves as we are, a bit of appreciation goes a long way. But we can all take that responsibility to encourage one another to appreciate the qualities that we have that matter at work.
What I am realising more than ever is the importance of appreciating myself, appreciating the qualities I bring no matter what my job title is. This is indeed work in progress as I let go of comparing myself to others and accept and claim the self worth within.
I was brought up on a farm and felt from a young age that I would always live on a farm. This came true and although there have been times when I thought it would be better for me to go out to work, I am still on the farm and committing more than I have ever done. What I am saying here is that in those times when I felt maybe it would be a good idea to get a job elsewhere I realised I was shirking responsibility in all areas and was looking for ways to escape this responsibility.
Every job is a true joy when we bring our fullness to it
Re-reading this blog this morning inspired me to reflect on a course I present on Equality and Diversity and the opportunity it gives me to share with others the true meaning of equality. It begins with the fundamental and energetic truth that we are all connected and that there can never be any ‘us and them’ only us. We can be equal and diverse at the same time. Each individual’s unique qualities allows them to express in their own way, no one way better than another. We can express who we truly are through the work we do, whatever that may be. Embrace the work we do, enlivens us as we work, and this quality is received by those we serve.
True equality is being able, regardless of the job we do, to see ourselves as equal to all others. Instead of feeling less because of the work we do, we hold ourselves in high regard, love, appreciate and value the opportunity we’ve been given to work in service of others.
When we truly embrace all others roles as of equal importance, and value each person for who they are, then what can happen in a work place is truly miraculous. Imagine a workplace where there is no putting down of others, no tyranny, no bullying, no dismissing, no resentment, no anger, no taking out one’s frustrations on another, no dumping – but rather support appreciation and true care.. well it sounds a bit like a fantastical notion, but what if this were not only possible, but only just the beginning, of a way we can work in the future.. where true equalness and brotherhood are the way.
Mariette, this is so true ‘I am not worth more because of the job title I have.’ I can feel how in society there is a belief that people are worth more if they have a more ‘important job’, for example a doctor or lawyer would probably gain more respect from people than someone who worked as a carer or cleaner and yet all of these jobs are equally important and the people working in them are all equal. Thank you for exposing these beliefs we have around work Mariette.
Cleaners do an amazing job. They go around our workplaces when we have gone home and clear up after us, re-imprinting and refreshing the whole building, ready for us to start work the next day. A really good team of cleaners, who value what they do – and who are valued by their employers bring a lot to the business and deserve a lot of appreciation.
People who realise that being who they are is enough in this world bring a very special reflection for us all. We have become so entrenched in the importance of what we do that who we are has been demoted and even forgotten. In my work place, it is very clear that those who understand that who they are is what matters, build more true and effective relationships with others and provide a very different level of service.
When we define who we are by what we do we are looking externally to give us validation. When we reconnect and know ourselves from the inside first of all and deeply appreciate who we are not by what we do but from connecting with our essence it doesn’t matter what job we do, we see everything has equal importance.
Well said Mariette,” Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life. ” When we appreciate everyones role in us all working together, without the separation of one feeling that their work is above another it is wonderful thing. Appreciating what we all bring and do, rather than making ugly comparisons and getting lost in the illusion that the grass is greener over there etc.
What is exposed here is that life is not about what we ‘do’, but who we are in what we do is what truly counts. No matter what job we are involved in, it is the quality we bring of who we truly are, in whatever it is we are doing, that is what truly matters in life.
The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes. Every job matters as we all matter. We do matter every second of the day, so it’s up to us to value that we matter. The higher the value, the higher the quality in the task at hand.
I have a lot of respect for receptionists. They are at the face of organisations and often set the initial tone for the services rendered.
Many jobs that are perhaps not paid so well are actually very important when we consider a persons quality. For example a cleaner who literally touched and orders the whole space of work environments – through working from their true quality can clear imposing energy and leave spaces clear for others to work in.
The moment we begin to compare our job with the jobs of others we join the human hierarchy developed over centuries that tries to put people “in their place” and control them, and how we think about them and treat them. In true Heirarchy, the connection between us all, we are all equal light and value, each of us a unique and vital contribution to the whole. I have often found that when a job arrives it holds a challenge for me that is needed for me to learn and grow, not only in the skills of what I do, but even more importantly so that I may learn to live in brotherhood with every other person, and clear any preconceived notions I may have had.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.”
Such an important point you make Mariette. I really felt that as I read your blog. No matter what job you did, it didn’t identify you. Bringing all of you to every place you go with whom ever you are with is how to create a positive change in the world, not expecting or needing acceptance or recognition from others to validate your worth.
What a learning, Mariette, in summary, we know we can do any job and many jobs, but when we understand that it’s not the job that matters, it’s our quality we bring to the job that counts, then we bring the light of ourselves to every job.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” How we take care, love and support ourselves is such important medicine to living a full, vital and joyful life that then is an inspiration for others. It is the medicine to break this present cycle of increasing illness, disease and general dis-harmony in society.
‘I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.’ This is very inspiring Mariette. I have to wear a uniform at work and feel it would be very easy to hide behind this and change how I am with patients compared to how I am outside work. This is definitely something I am going to watch closely.
I work in a small hospital and recently and have been feeling appreciation for everyone who works there. Each role is different, yet each is needed equally for the whole to flow harmoniously. I walk into reception to collect my keys and chat with the receptionist, catching up for a minute on how she is. I enter my room and love how the cleaner has neatly placed the fresh pillow cases on the bed, I walk into the secretaries office and am met with a collective cheery hello – I am amazed and deeply appreciate that they can find exactly what I am looking for when I would not have a clue where to start if I was to try to find it myself. My day is filled with lots of moments like this, not to forget the patients who come, bringing their own ‘flavour’ too. Thank you Mariette, your blog has allowed me a deeper sense of appreciation of what we all bring, not primarily because of our job roles but because of who we are.
To grow up knowing that who we are is fundamental to what we do turns the tables on the outward focus that’s generally put upon jobs/careers and their perceived worth. To understand this, and bring oneself first and foremost to the job, provides us all with a completely different interaction and service.
The title reminds me that not only every payed job matters but everything what we do during the day and in which quality we do it.
‘…we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something’ – I agree completely Mariette, that we are all needed in certain jobs where we can bring service and light to the environment, field, industry and organisation, and also where we can learn and evolve as a person too.
I take my car to a local hand car wash, owned and served by people from Eastern Europe. I’m always struck by how this community transformed car wash into worthy work and almost an art form and their dedication to delivering a great service to customers is inspiring. I never see anyone dragging their feet as if this is not something they want to do. No, instead I am welcomed, escorted through each stage and the men (mostly) carry out their work with dedication, speed, and care. They love what they do and I enjoy the relationships I’m forming with them. I return again and again to observe and be part of the experience of men working together in teams serving the very basic need of car owners and doing so with heart. The end result sparkling clean cars and satisfied customers.
Every job that is undertaken in this world contributes to the way it all works. When we begin to take pride in the quality that we bring to what ever it is we do, we provide the potential to upgrade our entire global work place. From cleaning the streets to presiding over multi-national companies, when we value quality first, what we do brings equality in quality. Thoroughness, attention to detail, appreciation of our fellow workers, integrity in word and action are all qualities we can, if we choose to, bring to the task in hand. It is a joy to see how when we do, many of the ideals that keep people in compassion and jealously just melt away and true team work naturally manifests.
I think everyone has to realise that work is what we do and not who we are as so many of us are our jobs or get so sucked in by it all we lose ourselves in it. My job is definitely what I do and it definitely isn’t who I am.
How great is the opportunity to work, and, through the structure of the role, to bring true love to our daily lives and that of others!
Every job matters. Mariette, you sharing here is very simple and profound at the same time. All jobs have a function and none more important that the next. What you confirmed for me is how the quality of that function becomes so much more when the person undertaking it brings the power of love to each aspect of it! Thank you!
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” This is so very beautiful to read and feel Mariette because by taking all of who we are into everything we do, we feel so much better in our bodies as we are not moulding ourselves or placing unneeded stress to be something we are not. We hold the quality of expression that we bring to everything equally so and this is so needed in the world today.
Finding work has always been relatively easy for me. My most recent experience was nearly 2 years ago and it was quite remarkable how it played out. I’d been working on a contract basis for years, but felt to commit to one organisation – the feeling to do this was strong. The process itself was very healing, getting my CV ready and working with a professional to do this. I hadn’t even sent it anywhere when I had 3 people approach me about a job. I just stepped forward and said yes. It was all there waiting for me, I just had to connect to what that was, and say yes.
Working life for so many people seems to be everything-but what you describe Mariette. The number of days off sick because we don’t enjoy our jobs must be huge…I’ve always been lucky that I have loved my chosen career but I 100% identified with what I did and as a consequence when I had to give up my job due to illness, I was devastated and felt extremely lost. That was many years ago and now I can say that to discover the joy in finding myself first means that I can work at 3 very different job roles and feel equal and fulfilled in all of them, thanks to the inspiration of Serge Benhayon and experiencing through Universal Medicine, that we are all equal in essence.
Whilst it is important to work to support ourselves and be committed to being in life, it seems that we have lost sight of the fact that it is the quality that we bring in life not the importance or the status of the job we have.
It made me chuckle Mariette to think how much we are attached to our job titles at times, as if it make us someone more than we already are. It is delightful to read how you take the fullness of Mariette to what ever job you to!
The saddest part of work is where we settle for the ‘job description as the sum of who we are. We turn up and see ‘this bit is me’, that is all I can be. What if instead we began each role, with a different outlook? What if every contract started with: “Your role here is to be Love, to bring tenderness and understanding, to build relationships in all you do and know the way we work as human beings is what will be truly measured not the delivery of any goal or project. You are employed to reflect God’s glory in every move and gesture you make, to confirm we are divine and know absolutely the truth. Also from time to time, you may be expected to tidy up the paperclips and sort them all by colour”. This is how it works when we see we actually all work for Humanity. Thank you Mariette for this blog.
In a colony of ants, each type of worker is equally needed in the grand scheme of things. They all have a part to play and get on with it without any of the comparing and judging we as humans partake in. We would do well to learn from them.
I recently started a new job and I can feel how much more I am myself at work. Every job matters, but what I also feel is that it’s very important to be honest and appreciative the innate qualities that we have. As this will give us the opportunity to find a (paid) job that suits us perfectly. A job so great where I share my Divine qualities in full. In my current job, there are lots of qualities that I can share with the people I support to find a job – paid or voluntary. What I notice is that most people are not used to share how great they are. And do a lot to hide their natural expressions. A lot of the times not even realising that they do so – yet deep within know it very well.
“We are all needed and we all bring something unique”. This comment makes me consider the word value. When we see ourselves is the same light as everyone else it levels the field, so to speak. There is a lot of ‘better than’ in society, but when we truly work and live with value and equality, it is incredibly beautiful to experience.
’Even though I could feel I was needed in these two companies, my mind was playing games with me.’ – Could it be that what you picked up on was the collective stigma that often comes with what type of job we have, and that these two jobs did not feel ’successful’ enough – eventhough in truth you felt your presence made a difference for these companies?
How amazing would it be if everyone approached choosing a career from the point of view of what expresses their qualities best – what bring them out to the world in the best way.
“I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.” Ok so this is huge – i do not know many people that could equate to this, for most would agree that the quality of their week tends to trail off towards friday and hence the great anticipation for the weekend break. What if your Mondays – Sundays were exactly the same with no real change in the quality of how you are with yourself.
I have found that the consistency of this allows a greater balance of space within our days.
When we work on our relationship with ourselves and build our self worth from within this in turn brings greater self appreciation and hence appreciation for those around us.
“I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette”.What i am really hearing from your blog Mariette is how common it is for us to compartmentalise our lives, worklife, homelife, familylife, sociallife and so on, yet the real true medicine is learning to see this all as onelife, this is the ultimate success spending each and everyday being yourself, not pulled and pushed by the world around us.
“We live in a world where having a career or having a certain job is seen as important, but also that some jobs are better than others.” Women’s self- expectations today are too often unrealistic – they see that the more that they can do and take on as the pinnacle of success and inevitably the emptiness of this multi-tasking, superwoman vision brings exhaustion, a hardness in the body and comparison. There is such grace and freedom in giving oneself permission for work to be something you do, and not who you are – the bracing we bring to our movements when we live with these these unrealistic expectations vanishes and a gentleness that feels innately natural returns.
So many of us are brought up to identify our worth with what we do, we are unable to appreciate who we are without considering our work. How different it would be if we could all have this attitude to life: ‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’
It’s crazy how we can have thoughts that a particular job is ‘not good enough’. If we don’t do it someone else will, and there are people doing it all the time. Do we think that those people are ‘not good enough’? What judgments we place on ourselves and others and certain types of jobs. Totally insane.
I have realised that currently I am in a pattern where I am different at work than I am at home. It’s like I make more effort to be ‘on it’ at work and when I get home there is a bit of a sense of relief and a belief that I can let go a bit and get a bit lazy or complacent. As a result it is not the same me living in both situations and this is proving an exhausting way to live.
This applies for the jobs of the day, too. Cutting nails, brushing hair, changing nappies, giving a presentation, walking across a floor, having a skype date – every job equally matters and sets up the quality for the next step.
Seeing everything as a job like this brings with it a sense of consistent responsibility, as opposed to the on/off button to responsibility we carry around in our heads and our movements.
I love this blog as it covers a topic that is so important for us all, that of not only equality but of appreciating ourselves more than the “job” we do. With that we can start to bring all of us to everything we do. The question then comes up why are some jobs considered more important than others? We often talk about a CEO having more responsibly than a cleaner, yet it is the cleaner who equally sets the quality of the energy that everyone in the company has to be in.
‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself.” Building inner self worth as our core foundation sustains us regardless of the job we do and is everlasting. Identifying with roles and things we do, is an illusion – external roles come and go.
When we all have had our first paying job, it becomes the cornerstone in our foundation of working life. A lot of times it can just be the beginning or end of a bigger plan; delivering newspapers door to door, washing dishes in a restaurant or working in a mail room. These early years are when our eyes are opened to how the world functions with our fresh view, even though it is from the bottom looking up.
Every job does matter and in this I would love to express heartfelt thanks to all cleaners everywhere! They are undervalued and shouldn’t be. There is nothing more gorgeous than walking into my place of work once the cleaner has been in, everything clean and sorted for the day ahead leaving me the opportunity to get on with my work in a beautiful environment.
I had a conversation yesterday with someone who regretted their educational choices (or lack of them) and said this was the cause they were now unhappy in life. It is often that we feel that our jobs are what needs to make us happy. Yet when we realise what will truly bring joy is to bring all of us to all we do then every job has the potential of being amazing.
Our pictures of how we think life should be, spoils the beauty of what is actually there and creates a barrier in our relationships with Nature, ourselves and others.
Every Job DOES matter! When I was young I wanted to try every job, and still have a vast appreciation for all of the jobs out there. Its really inspiring when I go out during my week and see people doing their job, like construction workers and businessman etc, great things come from work!
Someone once said to me that when I work take special care to appreciate the joy of what I am doing, whether that be a meeting with a client, or an email I am writing. This philosophy is a continual development for me, but one that seems to gather momentum and all of a sudden a difficult job is now a joyful experience.
Hear Hear Mariette, I love this, and your last paragraph says it all for me, that everything matters, no matter what and that we all have one job, to be us and bring that to our work, it’s just another part of life where we play. And you’ve shown me where I still get caught in being identified by what I do and wanting to do something more, but not always appreciating all I bring by just being me, so than you for shining a light here, it’s much needed for all of us.
Every time we ‘meet’ a person, which means offering them to connect with us, we are doing something that is quite unusual. Quite a few people then respond the same way and we can quickly have lots of strong, positive relationships. Mariette, what you are doing is great.
I remember as a child growing up not being able to wait to get a job and earn money. It was so much apart of my family life, it was just what everyone did. I remember the feeling of my first job, the satisfaction and the smile on my face, I was in the world. I had big plans at that early stage, it was like life had no boundaries again. This started to change and I realised that work didn’t need to change, life didn’t need to change but I needed to change. The ‘how’ I was doing things was nearly killing me, literally. To be honest at first I did go seeking a better life but now it’s about a quality I move and live it. Not perfectly but a solid dedication to always stop and feel and not just bounce around from one job to the next. Life is made up of a series of movements and not appointments. These movements become more and more refined. It’s not that you move slowly or in this perfect state but you move with more and more care and respect for simply the move itself. Moving is an art form, every part.
Love your comment Mary. You have highlighted how aware we need to be of every movement we make and how obvious this can be in the swimming pool. If only more pools were as warm at the one where Simone teaches, I would be more tempted to go and swim, with conscious presence!
It makes such a difference when we let go of the identification of what we do and embrace the acceptance of our own qualities and what we offer others just by our reflection 24/7, and that is true service to offer that quality to our brothers who need it and not the actual job that we do.
Thank you for this Mariette. It helps put into perspective the attachment that I have had to various jobs that I have done, some seeming more important than others. As you have shared, every job is important, and more importantly is how we are in the job and the quality that we bring to the job. There is an opportunity with every job to be connected to who we are and be in service for humanity.
Great to feel that it is who we are that matters not what we are doing or achieving. This is very supportive on the eve of an “assessment’ for study I have undertaken. Caring for and staying gently and very sportingly with myself and not getting caught up in the tension that can be taken on through study and exams. It is us that matter not the success or title that does with what we do in the world.
I just finished cooking and realised how grumpy I actually was. When I made the choice to connect to my fingertops and feel (!!) the Tenderness and exquisiteness of the cutting, my whole mood was changed. So indeed, every job matters! It is offering me the opportunity to confirm and enjoy the relationship I have with me. Or it might even evolve and expand the relationship I have with me. Isn’t that Magical?
What we going to do as a job is something we are expected to know and follow from an early age as I remember being constantly asked ‘what are you going to do or be when you grow up?’ it always felt like it mattered what the title of the job or career was going to be rather than how I was in myself and what I could bring to the world no matter what I did.
Great reading for everyone Mariette, whether we are in the workforce or not. We are all contributing something to life in our own way!
I have had lots of jobs too which have taught me so much about what equality, teamwork and our responsibility to contribute to society are. In fact I am always learning in my workplace, this has been tremendous to me personally but also to those I work with as it is much more enjoyable working with someone who makes the most of their job whatever that may be.
There have been qualities I have learnt from some of my amazing bosses that I wasn’t really exposed to growing up. I really enjoy rising to the challenge of not allowing personal issues to interfere with the job at hand. Sometimes this is more tough than others.
A great blog reminding us that there are no better or worse jobs, but that anything we do matters. There is a beautiful book from sunlight ink that reminds us of that our Nº 1 Job is to love ourselves… very well worth reading!!!! http://www.sunlightink.com
I love that you are rejoicing in what we bring to the workplace, not what is in it for us, which is often the way people approach jobs.
It is a great celebration to feel your discovery that what we do is an expression, but never does it define who we are. It is impossible to contain the Universe within a job title.
Knowing that each of us has an important part to play within every workplace, job and life is a responsibility to be reminded of. Our every expression matters all of the time.
I agree that every person matters, and every job matters because of the people who brings these jobs alive.
It is not just every job that matters, but every expression. work,home, family, garbage – all requires the same level of devotion…
Every job does matter whether it be a cleaner, lawyer, bus driver, doctor, dustman etc etc the list goes on. We can all bring a quality, committment and love to our work that has a ripple affect on others. I have done exactly what you did, I went to a job thinking it would be for a few months and I ended up being there for 5 years!!!! What I learnt was truly valuable though in that even though part of me really wanted to leave and move on to something that felt more purposeful and in line with my heart I gave it my all, committing to my work, committing and building relationships in the company and with clients and bringing a quality to the work I did. Only when I did this consistently for a while was space then freed up for me to move into something else. The lesson here was no matter where we are or what we are doing bring all of ourselves to it.
“My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” This has to be taught in schools…can you imagine how children and later on as adults we would approach life from an entirely different angle?
It is true every job matters and to take it further how I am in my job matters too. It is all linked together; if my job doesn’t matter then I will not take the true care and understanding of what it means to be in the job, the job then becomes functional and a place to earn money. Knowing that life is about people and not about success or money has changed my understanding of what it means to have a job, it is about people first and the job second. Having this understanding has renewed my love for work and for life.
Understanding that our purpose is to be in service brings a new light to job choices as the question becomes how to be this in any situation which is presented to us.
I feel it is healthy to try our hand at many jobs. To see the world from different perspectives and experience what people do gives us a rounded perspective on life that has a maturity and understanding.
We may not be able to see how our movements do affect the whole area just as we can in the water but you are very true – this is just what it is like, we live in a pool of energy and each one of us feels everything- our body registers it all.
A great sharing Mary and you are totally true – every thing matters in every activity we do.
This blog and comments has really made me reconsider the meaning of the word ‘work’. It has such a negative meaning of being hard work and some arduous tasks at some location that we don’t enjoy that we have to do for a while until we can go home and doing something else that we enjoy doing far more. But if we are living who we are in everything we do then there is no distinction between home and work so to speak and we can enjoy both equally for what they offer. We may change geographical location and be with different people doing different tasks, but it is still us the same everywhere. A very simple and fulfilling way to live.
This is true Andrew. If only we were taught this everywhere from an early age. We wouldn’t be focusing on the things outside to make us happy or pass the time away. Instead we would be deeply rooted and rested within ourselves knowing we had it all, everywhere.
How often do we pester children with questions about what they want to be when they grow up? We place so much importance on our job as defining who we are. The best response to this question would be ‘I’m going to be me in full when I grow up whatever I end up doing’.
“I bring my flavour, and my fellow receptionist colleagues bring their flavour to the job. Together we form an awesome team.” this sounds like an amazing team and one that are company would deeply welcome and appreciate. It also shows how we are at work is so important, the care we bring and the appreciation of whatever it is that we do.
I was talking to someone one the other day about the value cleaners have in office buildings… they reset the whole look and feel of an office each time they come through… some may not notice it as they are too busy, but we all feel the difference when surfaces are clear, bins empty, floors swept. It clears out the old, and gives a fresh start to the day or the week. That is a huge impact, and with it comes the same responsibility as with any other job… to be consistent, to be thorough, and to bring our own quality.
“Work is something I do, it is not who I am.” It has taken me a long time to understand and appreciate this. Until recently my self-worth was completely related to and by what I did. Dropping that identification by what I do has completely changed my approach to life, which is now one that is continually deepening in truth, love and joy.
I have always felt that a career was so limiting and still have not found out what I want to do when I grow up, and I have retired twice now and working on the third. I have done many jobs and have experienced life from all angles. As you have said Mariette most of my jobs found me also! I also agree with you that if can’t have fun doing what you do, why are you doing it?
It is so true Mariette, we are not our jobs. Yet I realize that often I also get identified with my job and do it from this energy which brings frustration, hardness and protection. Whereas when I am me firstly and understand that I am a student like evrybody else is then the job becomes vital and interesting, then it is fun to meet people, because there is equality.
Mariette, I used to think only some jobs were important and would consider other ones beneath me. But somebody has to do them otherwise they would not be done. I see so many highly successful people financially whose lives are a mess and who are not happy – sure they may have a great bank balance, house etc.. but are not satisfied and far from settled within their bodies – something no amount of money can ever buy, What it has shown me is that their is far more to life than just money – money cannot buy love either with yourself or with others. And no amount of money is worth more than feeling love and content within your own body.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” That is very inspiring Mariette. How many of us do not chose to stay the same and play a role – it is like most of us learned this from a very young age and our parents are our first role models. It is really time to break this belief that playing a role is needed – thank you for showing how to do it.
“Work is something I do it is not who I am. Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life”. This is so true, we all have a part to play and it’s the quality and integrity in which we do things that matter.
When you embrace and live in joy in your day it follows that every detail is imprinted with this energy.
‘my sense of worth does not depend on what job I do. I am not worth more because of the job title I have.’ this is something I have had to learn, that life is not about qualifications or titles, but about us simply being us, and the quality of our being.
Your sharing defines to me what work really is about – it simply is a way to bring ourselves out into a society. No matter what we do, we are a part of it, can’t escape that. And being able to be ourselves no matter what we do is the most valuable skill we can have.
I was considering how you are at work and home, how you stay yourself, I know it sounds simple but the more I consider it, the more I really appreciate it. There is a strong belief in wearing many hats in this life, a work hat, a mother hat, a loving wife hat, I think all of these hats might be part of us feeling disjointed, from what I hear you describe you are simply you all the time, makes it super simple.
It was great to have this blog with me today. Not physically obviously but just the awareness I had from reading it yesterday morning. It amazing how simply this works, thank you Mariette.
In the light of this article, we are to redifine the meaning of the word ‘job’. Because everything that we do, we could call a job. Brushing our teeth, putting on shoes, washing, cleaning, gardening, decorating, etc. And as this blog clearly spells out, every job is important. Which means that ALL that we do is important. Hugely so. Comparing any job to another is ridiculous. Yes, the world doesn’t recognise jobs as equal. But is it the payment that’s giving the worth of the job (something outside of us…) or are we ourselves the ones valueing the worth? Despite of the amount of money.
I agree Floris and to expand on your comment further we are never not at work for we are always in the business of being the love we are everywhere we go.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home”. Life is one and we are the same person living all of that life. It is very common to box life and segment parts of it. I am a mother here, I am a cleaner her, I am relaxed and socialising here, I am a corporate woman here, I am a wife here…But it is all the same – it is all life. We are no different in each role yet we can play a game and be a chameleon depending on which segment we are trying to blend in with.
Valuing ourselves for who we are is a beautiful thing. It does not matter what we do but how we do it. Even though this is what society and all of us deeply value and appreciate in another, we are led to believe what we do is the most important and the surface level of society encourages that. But we all know this is not the truth of the matter.
If we connect to our purpose – ie what is the potential I can bring at this moment in time – then the job we do – whatever that is – will be exactly what is needed. So therefore – every single job is important if it comes from what our purpose is.
For when we recognise our purpose – we naturally bring all of who we are to that job.
Moving from total identification with what we do to Mariette’s understanding, even with lapses of falling into that old pattern sometimes, has meant a huge saving of energy for living a whole quality of life and not feeling so invested in the outcome of what I do and how people respond. Bringing the upmost appreciation of all of me into work, is also often reflected and confirmed back from others, who recognise the truth that is being shared in this blog, that we are most certainly not defined by our roles.
I am learning it is much less about what i do but about how much of myself i can bring to what i do in every moment.
This is where the treasure lays. Every thing matters and everything deserves our full presence and attention. I have found this unfolding and learning to hold this as best I can to be a truly beautiful process.
Cool blog Mariette, work is work and we are we. And so : ”I leave my work as Mariette”.. I like it , it is huge! As we are so identified with roles, ideals and beliefs.. And so , this blog is amazing contribution to the world were we let go of identification to roles and become one – ourselves again. So that we can all say: I leave my work as me.
It is common that we can identify ourselves with what we do, we can show off about it, ( I’m a doctor so I help people) or we can hide it ( I’m a refuse collector and clear the rubbish). But in fact we can be public servants in whatever we do, when we are aware of the quality of the energy we bring to anything, that is the key. Everyone can feel whether someone enjoys their work or not; when we do, we bring our vibrant living selves to whatever we do.
When we stop looking outside of us for our sense of worth, we can but start to develop a more honest and responsible relationship with ourselves, appreciating our unique qualities and how they contribute in the bigger picture.
And it’s also really important to know that all of our glory is just waiting within for us to reconnect with it again. There is no trying needed just an acceptance and being present with ourselves to feel all there is to feel.
It’s very refreshing to have someone that does not identify with what they ‘do’ and get that confused with their own self worth, it speaks volumes for the confident woman you are. I have been in hospitality since I was a teenager, I never thought that it would be what I pursued but it turns out I absolutely love every second of it, I never ever get sick of it and I don’t think I ever will, I love people and food and I do not care that it pays low and is not the most glamorous, it is what I love and I am now very proud of the profession I have but equally happy to do anything that came my way if circumstances were to change.
I have work in hospitality for a long time but I have never thought of myself as a waitress or a coffee maker, only once when a guy I used to date came into a place I worked years ago – I was 21 and I worked at this pub, the uniform was super daggy and had this strange head scarf, I was so embarrassed when I saw my ex-boyfriend that I ducked down and hide behind the counter to avoid him. Afterwards I realised how silly it was to hide… I never hide now and nor am I ever ashamed.
The workforce has been set up to make us think that what we do is more important that who we are and the quality we bring. It doesn’t take long to realise that a job title means nothing if we get to the end of the day and are exhausted, anxious, stressed out, racy or wanting to get away from it all etc.
Great point VIcky and lets be honest: how many people do get home exhausted and stressed out and are actually happy when the weekend starts? We are too focussed on what we do at work and too little with how we are at work. Like you say, a job title does not say anything.
Very true Vicky. It is also very interesting to register how we feel when we go to work and also at the end of a day. This shows how we are in our job and the effect our job is having on us but it is not who we are at all.
So healing to read this Mariette, thank you. I can still recall how unsettled and pressured I felt in early high school when I was interviewed by a vocational guidance officer and asked what I wanted to be. I had no idea what I wanted to be so he proceeded to read out a few suggestions from his list. He said I would be suited to any of them but recommended that secretarial work would be a good option. Guess what my first job was? – a legal secretary!
“My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” This line is a stand out for me. Imagine if we all spent as much time investing in the relationship we have with ourselves as we do trying to move up the ladder/earn more in our jobs! You set a very beautiful example for us all Mariette.
It’s not the job title but the energy in which the job is carried out in, this is what matters.
Hear hear
Relearning how to work in an energy that is unifying for all of humanity is something that has taken me a long time. Eliminating all the ideals and beliefs I held around work is still a work in progress and is a pleasure to be in a place where I have an understanding it is no longer about me!
I love working different jobs and currently in the work I do I am using many different skills. I adore expressing myself in so many ways. When I appreciate this, I can see that not one job is better than another they are simply different ways of expressing.
Donna I agree. I recently supported a friend with their family business and was not trained in the area. The willingness to learn and the openness to others is what made the job so rewarding and showed me that each person plays an important part in each job no matter where you make your mark.
I have lived with this belief that some jobs are better than others. It can be a hard one to shake off, especially when you are surrounded by academics, professors, doctors, lawyers and senior management. I have realised, quite late in life, that it is not the job that matters, it is the person within the job, and I am beginning to claim that too, for myself. By seeing my job less than another is making myself less than another, and is a judgement I can do without. Everything in life comes down to how much we hold ourselves in regard and honour that, and when we do, every job becomes the best job in the world, because we are carrying out our duties in our fullness and not making ourselves less than anyone else.
When we make life about people and true service our own personal perspective and outlook on life changes. Self is removed and the things that used to worry us no longer do.
I have learnt it does not matter what I do work wise it is the quality I do it in that is important. Before knowing this I always thought certain professions were more important then others, this thinking is the arrogance of the spirit.
Top blog Mariette and what drew me to this blog was the title. My first thought was EVERY JOB includes the jobs I do where I am not paid. I do heaps of voluntary work but I was also thinking about the house jobs and the jobs we call mundane or boring like cleaning the kitchen sink and taking out the trash.
On the real job note, like you, I had pictures, images so to speak about what I should be doing and somehow my self worth was tied into that. This is so ugly and way off, but at one point it was how I lived. Defined by what I do and what I was making in terms of money. Then enter Serge Benhayon in 2005 and things started to change. Within a year I removed an e-book I had written, which cost me thousands to get out there and I stopped the marketing nonsense which is clearly not needed. Everything matters as you say Mariette and for me RESPONSIBILITY AND INTEGRITY are way up on my list.
I have a responsibility to be me in any job and know that is actually enough. Making that my start point, it does not leave me wanting or seeking anything. Job well done. Pun intended.
What ever job I have had I can feel there has been a reason for it, it has offered me a different perspective on life and a learning if I choose to take it, but I never really considered or appreciated what I brought to the work I was doing. Finding a true purpose in what we do, knowing that we can bring so much more than just accepting there is a job to be done brings an enjoyment and lightness that other people can feel too.
From the moment we are born we have one job – to be all of who we are. Growing up and becoming an adult shouldn’t change that, and a job should simply be an expressing of all we already are – our strengths, our love for people, our flare for organisation – whether you are stacking shelves or representing someone in court there are qualities we bring to each one that make it amazing, rather than the title bringing us something.
Gosh, I can appreciate so much more of what I do and bring into this world of trouble. I see that if I would appreciate more of who I am and let come it through there is no need to be somewhere else like on holiday, weekend or ‘end of work’. The idea of ‘someday or somewhere else it will/would be better’ is an illusion while I always take me and all my inner belongings with me. I will not free myself from dealing with my stuff by running away, avoiding or denying it. Appreciation gives me the solidness to enjoy what I am doing and build from here and on it to unfold even more of my awesomeness. – Gosh, life could have so much fun, love and integrity if we just choose it.
I love hearing about all the different jobs you have had, Mariette, and how you appreciate the qualities that you bring to each workplace. My sense is that you are a burst of sunshine wherever you work, as you go about your day connecting to people so they feel really met and celebrated. It feels lovely to make our work about people rather than climbing the ladder.
There’s a process of letting go of the beliefs around what we are otherwise told make us worthwhile human beings. And so, I have been re-discovering who I am if I am not what I do. The teachings and support of all that Serge Benhayon presents have been entirely crucial in reminding me of my true nature and worth.
‘I just have to bring me’ is a phrase that reminds me to connect back to my body and let go of any picture or judgment that has popped into my head. Your article brings the simplicity of this Mariette and shows the quality of being that enjoys working
Mariette, this really rings true for me, ‘When I was young, I did not have this clear picture of what I wanted to be, as for me this felt awkward. What is there to be?’ i have a 5 year old son and when people ask him what he wants to be he doesn’t understand, he simply brings himself to whatever he does so it feels like it doesn’t matter what job he does, it is whatever is needed, it feels like children are pigeon holed into choosing a specific job, rather than staying open to different possibilities and being encouraged to simply be themselves in whatever job they choose.
Having grown up with the ideal and beliefs that you are better than someone else if you have a higher paid job or a more important job feels awful now. The ironic thing was that I used to look down on say a cleaner but there has been several times in my life that I have worked as a cleaner and been grateful for the job, but whilst in that job I saw myself as less because of the job and did not enjoy it, but the best bit is I like cleaning and am more than happy to clean the toilets even though it is not my job. So it just goes to show how ideal and beliefs get in the way and cause us to live with separative views about each other and place our value according to our jobs.
I have had many different types of jobs that have all had the same theme of trying something different. There is a sense that I am searching for something I am good at or something I love to do. I am now a jack of all trades and master of none, but I have experienced life from many angles. Or, am I just re-trying all the things I have done before and enjoyed doing, now I’m just having another go.
We do get attached to roles in life whether that be a father or mother or son or daughter or occupation or social class etc. But none of these actually define who we are and in fact can take us further away from who we are.
For as long as I have had a job I have noticed that at parties and social gatherings one of the first questions people ask is ‘what job do you do?’ and the response or reaction to the person changes depending on what the answer is. But what someone does for a job really change who the person is standing in front of us in a conversation? We can start judging and making assumptions very quickly based on what they do for a living but is this really accurate or helpful to connection with each other?
I like this idea that jobs find us rather than we find them. Perhaps we get the job we need to bring what everyone else needs at that time?
Even the smallest of jobs can be the keystone of something larger. As an example what can the job of pushing a button result in?
I suppose when we get down to it, we really only have one job in life and that is bring the fullness of our being to any work or relationship.
It really is the height of arrogance when we consider one job more important than another and therefore do not appreciate or even renumerate equally. So inherently we say someone is more important than another because of what they do rather than we are equal in our inner hearts.
I have always stayed in jobs for a period of time even though I have changed industries several times. However, what always surprises me is that when I have become bored, dissatisfied or overwhelmed it is always about the quality of me that I bring to work not the work itself which changes my perception of the job or workplace.
Indeed by identifying our self and self worth by what we do is limiting or reducing our inherent nature or being. It is interesting because that how our minds inherently works to make sense of the world, categorize and reduce. But we are so much more than that.
Oh dammit! I spent years with my worth tied to my income, believing the more I got paid the ‘better off’ I was – what a misguided soul I was to think that made me ‘better’. Since coming to Universal Medicine I realise we are so much more than our vocations and connection with our ‘self & integrity’ is vital to evolving and this can deliver wisdom beyond all the riches any income has to offer. How we do our ‘jobs’ with this connection really makes the difference.
A great read Marietta, as not one job is more important than another, just like it takes many cogs in a wheel to make it turn, so too do we need all skills and job types in business.
“For me, most importantly, working had to be about people: being with people and working with and for people. Everything extra was extra. And it had to be fun!” I feel so joyous reading this line Mariette as I knew when I left high school that all I wanted to do was find a job where I could be of service to people and I told my mum I wanted to work in a dress shop and help women find clothing that works for them. Service jobs like retail, have always been considered to be low on the career scale, but any job as you say is needed and when we bring our own unique flavour and care to our roles at work as much as we love and care for ourselves then its a winning combo all round. I love my job and what it enables me to bring and I thoroughly enjoy your blog, thank you Mariette.
You are so right Mariette – ‘every job matters’. It was so beautiful to feel the waves of recognition and appreciation within myself as I was reading your blog. I have never really stopped and taken a moment to reflect on how I felt about my many and varied jobs throughout my life before and I was surprised at how similar my experience was to yours. Thank you for your gorgeous reflection!
I have recently lost my job tutoring HSC kids in English Literature at a tutoring College as the college is being purchased by a new owner. I am way past retirement age and it has been very tricky even getting a foot in the door with job hunting. I would be happy to do any job, no matter how simple, because I know that what is important is that I bring me to all I do. I love what you have said about your jobs ‘finding you’ Mariette.
‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’ This is beautiful Mariette, so true. I read a stunning article in The Guardian last year which consisted of testimonies from workers in the NHS. It was deeply moving to hear how much the man who organised the sheets for the beds loved his job. He gave a full description of the what did and how he liased with the laundry and folded the sheets and put them onto trolleys assigned to various wards. He knew how pivotal was his job to that hospital. What would happen if there were not always clean sheets ready for the hospital beds! The hospital would be in chaos. He knew how important his job was.
I just did not know what job I wanted after I left school – I just knew I wanted to study more and do philosophy at University and find out about our place in the Universe. Even after University I did not want a job, I wanted to do further degrees which I did and then was awarded Research Fellowships. Finally I was kicked out into teaching at University which I did until retirement. Then I came up north and could not get a job in the Universities up here because they didn’t teach my subject. I had to get a cleaning job – that was what was available and I was very grateful for that. I will never forget the shock on the faces of some friends and a family member when they found out I was cleaning! This was a job they considered below someone who had taught at University. But in my heart I knew that all jobs were important and brought a vital part of the whole, so I didn’t mind what anyone said.
I like you Mariette did not know what I wanted to do as a job. When asked by the Sewing Teacher in primary school what I wanted to be I said, ‘Trapeze artist’. This received such a disapproving response from the teacher, in amongst all the other offerings (nurse, mother, teacher), and a consequent shunning of me in class that it was quite painful at the time. Now I realise I just wanted to fly through the air, that is why I wanted to be a trapeze artist. But obviously there was scale of jobs in the mind of this teacher and my offering came at the bottom! All jobs are amazing if the person brings all of them.
Beautiful article Mariette. ‘Working as a receptionist gives me the space to meet a lot of people, to connect and to talk about life and everything that has to do with it. For me it is not so much about the tasks I have to do, but far more about the connection I have with the people around me’. What you say is the foundation of their relationship to themselves and to others around them. The receptionist sets the tone, as well as all the tasks that have to be done. It, and every other job is crucially important to the whole.
I just got a visual of trying to condense space into a certain frame or picture we have of ourselves and just how limiting and controlling this is.
I used to get so disheartened when I hear people complain about having to go to work every day. It was like they hated it. Now I understand and can observe it more; it is a reflection of the lack of commitment and connection to life and themselves.
This inspiring blog helps me understand what it is to be a ‘good employee.’ I also have had many varied jobs across a wide range of industries. In each role, the comments have always been along the lines of being an outstanding employee – it is my quality they are commenting on and the commitment and loyalty I bring.
I love the false consciousness you are cracking here Mariette, that it is what we do that identifies us and makes us worthwhile. It is an absolute joy to experience another expressing fully in their being…. children are great examples of this…. and they don’t have a job, other than to be.
When we are in any judgment about what another does, it says more about us than them. It shows we have based our worth on what we do and have not truly valued or appreciated who we are before we do anything.
If nothing ever happens by accident, we are exactly where we need to be to offer our reflections for others… as well as learn and grow from the reflections of others. It is a perfect constellation.
I love the dedication “to all the wonderful people I meet every day” – I feel the same about work, whatever it is. Work is an amazing opportunity to connect and commit to life.
I agree Gabriele in the end, work is not about what we do at work, it is about relationships with other people and for me this is what I really love the most about my job – being with other people, even if at times other people can be challenging!
“I am just as important as my manager, my HR colleague, the staff in the kitchen, the cleaner, the postman and the IT specialist. We are all needed and we all bring something unique.” Absolutely Mariette, we all bring our intrinsic abilities to the job that needs to be done. How important it is to bring our whole self to the job, not be playing a role, but bringing our abilities that fit into the team that we are a part of. We all need to play our part to get the jobs done. When we do this, all can flow smoothly and evenly. There is no need for anyone to feel less than another when we work together in this way.
Ive recently realised how much I’ve been identified in my work by seeing it as a struggle, and with that found that if I’m working in this quality how it affects my day and others I work with. I found that working in the energy of struggle my body feels more dense and heavy, and when I’m feeling connected and seeing work as an opportunity my body feels light and there is a flow to my day.
Like you, I have never had a set career goal, or a picture in my head that I need to be a so and so and do such and such job. I have loved to variety of all the different roles that I have worked in, some I never imagined that I could do and I can. I go to work each day, loving what I do and have applied this to no matter what job it is that I am doing. I have this way of looking at it that we spend most of our lives working, so I may as well make the best of whatever it is my job requires me to do.
Its a total turnaround for me to go to work now in the same quality as when I’m doing anything else. I was always one who couldn’t wait to get away from work on Friday afternoon and loathe Monday mornings. Im seeing work more now as an opportunity to express and evolve and value the reflection I receive from others.
Having had many different jobs in my working life I can see that I changed jobs often to either escape what I was feeling in one job or feeling a dis-satisfaction in the job I was in. More recently I’m feeling that in any job I do, if I do that job with all of me and the connections made with others are what is more important than the money or prestige that goes with a position.
We are needed everywhere and there is nothing more inspiring than observing someone truly enjoying their job.
I want to comment on this sentence “If I was asked the question by adults, I would answer with ‘a mother’, but this was more from a feeling that I needed to reply than that it was coming from truth.” as to me this is what a lot of us do everyday. Answering questions that don’t come from Truth, but rather from the idea of belief that we’re to answer and give certain responses. I can certainly share for myself that sharing what is True for me in every given moment is still challenging. There’s so much said that’s not True. This seems to be innocent, but has a huge influence on our well-being. Both short and long term.
I’d love to say that I have let go of the belief that one job is equal to another. I know it in my heart to be the absolute truth, but my head is playing catch-up. Not all the time, and I have definitely cleared a whole bunch of consciousnesses around work role = value/worth. Love it that when it’s put in an equation like that it’s instantly possible to see and feel how utterly ridiculous it is to allow our feeling of self-worth to be dependent on something external. It’s like waking up to rain and then having a bad day because of it!
We have been condition since an early age to identify with what we do this is more so for men and this robs them of the opportunity to express from their essence of tenderness and delicateness in everything that they do and not make it about just self but be of service to what’s actually needed.
“The beauty is, most of the jobs I have done found me, instead of me finding them.” I am learning this too – the going out there and ‘get that job’ mentality never worked for me. Yes I have to make myself known, letting people know I am looking for a job but not to go get that job at all costs. I found the times I forced it the job eventually was not suiting me at all and caused a lot of disturbance in me and the employer. So I learned to let people know that I am looking for a job but when the process it is not flowing or I have to change myself for a job it is not the job for me And that it then is very honouring to say ‘no’.
It is a joy to watch someone work and doing their job with dedication, love and being themselves – there is a completeness, congruence, a fullness of expression. No matter what the job is there is always something to learn, a science behind everything implied, even the simplest things have an art to it, cleaning toilets as much as performing surgery. Without this artistic expression the very essence, the magic is missing and hence the work done is not of true service to one’s fellow brothers. This magic requires first and foremost being who I am in what I do.
When a person brings everything he or she is to their job there is nothing left to criticise as they are all that they can be. That gives a very different perspective on what job suits whom and allows for appreciation of everyone´s uniqueness instead of having one measure for all only defined by outcomes to judge a person by.
Even when we might look down on somebody for the job they do the moment they don´t do their job we realize how much we are affected by it and hence are interdependent in everything that we do. Everyone counts, every task counts – equally. To appreciate what another brings and contributes to the ‘puzzle of life’ is a great joy.
The identification with what we do is deeply ingrained and not an easy one to unroot unless we truly know and honour who we are as well seeing everyone else for who they are independent of what they do. Re-awakening our natural sense of equality and connection with each other no different to how we met every other child when we were little. The judgement and rating of people due to their social status, culture, job etc is imposed upon us; time to set ourselves free again.
How easily society convinces us to believe these ideas and thoughts, and compare ourselves to those who have jobs that we might think were more important, more busy, received more recognition and earned a lot more money! and yet in truth how can one person be more important than another when we are all born equal in essence? When we are brought up having our divine essence confirmed to us by those around us, those pictures can be seen for the lies they are.
Thank you for this wonderful article Mariette. Recently we had a vote in the UK whether to stay in or leave the UK, more alarming than the fact that as a nation we chose to abandon the possibility of working as a team for the well-being of the whole, was the fact that the conversation on both sides almost exclusively focused on what was best for the UK, one set of preferences and fears pitted against the other. There was barely any talk about caring for the whole of the people within the EU, let alone seeing the people of the whole world in the equation. We have made so much of life about ‘me’ ‘me’ ‘me’ and this has become the accepted normal, to an extent that anything other than that sticks out! Yet when we do allow ourselves as you have to get a sense of what is below the surface we find that our relationships and our choices are more significant and more far reaching than we have allowed ourselves admit. As you say every single job matters, because every single person matters.
It is possible that with rising self-worth in our lives our salaries will be more even in the future.
I have had so many situations where I have made really great connections with men and women without having any idea of what job they do. And then, sometimes, when I do find out what their jobs are I am really surprised – not what i expected at all. Concrete proof that we absolutely are not what we do. But, but this is very rare – so very many men (and women) use their jobs to hide behind, protect themselves, gain recognition, feel more, give them purpose…or to feel less, not worthy, inferior or competitive. It’s a great blessing to not ask someone what they do when you first meet them – try it – it will totally change your connection.
So true Otto, there is so much more to us than what we do do for work. When we meet someone and discuss first what we do for work it reduces both of us and allows us to put up protection or find some identification. Its beautiful when we meet someone to connect to the essence of who they are rather than what they do.
“Work is something I do, it is not who I am” – wow, wow, wow – how far we have strayed from this beautiful truth. The joy of meeting a man and having a conversation with him and it NOT going to that question (“so, what do you do?”) is so huge – which proves unequivocally to me the whole of this blog – with both me and whoever I am speaking to being allowed to connect as who we truly are, rather than whatever stereotypes and masks come with the package of our jobs….
‘ I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home…. I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.’ This is so important Mariette, for how can we truly appreciate ourselves and others if we only make it about what we ‘do’.
Our culture’s judgment of the greater value of certain jobs above others is so ingrained it is great to hear you calling the change so clearly Mariette, and bringing the true value back to the worth of every single person whatever job they do. I am looking at my feelings about being “in retirement”. I find there is also a stigma about being retired and not working “properly” anymore. I know many retired people who work more hours in voluntary work than ever they did in their working lives, yet this is still not the point. Retirement can be lived by remaining in the home and living life in a respectful and honouring way with oneself and others in preparation for passing over. Life lived in a conscious awareness and in love with every moment brings true value of ourselves as we continue live it.
Every job that we do requires us to bring our energy to it therefore every job matters because We matter.
Redefining the way so much of what is true or real in life and what that life looks likes is nothing to do with special days or any one person is more special than another, but simply because there is a Livingness or way of living that is true, thus what is true for all equally, is the way we all evolve equally. Nothing or no one can be more important than another. As a Student of The Livingness the shared joy every day is forever expanding.
‘I could feel I was needed in these two companies’, this inspires a totally different attitude towards applying, looking for and accepting jobs Mariette. Instead of looking for a job to earn the most amount of money or look the most impressive or glamorous through the job title, we can connect to which company, business, brand or field would benefit the greatest from our service and choose to work there. This brings a whole new level of responsibility to job searching and choosing our careers.
Thank you Mariette for your revealing blog. I was feeling a little tired and down but after reading your sharing I have a new appreciation for myself and the jobs I do (unpaid babysitter and volunteer) These jobs fill my week and I haven’t always valued my contribution to the work force, but having re assessed after reading your sharing again, I can see things in a different light!
I love the inspiration you take from everyone around you Mariette, the joy and humility in your sharing here is gorgeous to read.
Beautifully expressed Mariete, this is true equality and a delicious slice of self-worth too, “I am just as important as my manager, my HR colleague, the staff in the kitchen, the cleaner, the postman and the IT specialist. We are all needed and we all bring something unique. Thirdly, my sense of worth does not depend on what job I do. I am not worth more because of the job title I have.”
Love that “Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do.” Reflects the worth we all are and the responsibility we all carry. The joy of ‘I count’.
We have the thinking of taking responsibility is a burden but the opposite is in fact the case: it is an appreciation.
A key for daily living simply stated here Mariette – this says it all:
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important”.
When adults ask children what they want to be when they grow up it invites an ideal to be created. Often the answer is from the imagination rather than from a sense of reality. This creates a really big gap between the child’s reality and something that is more like a wish. How then does this make the child feel when their life starts unfolding in a different way? Could this be one of the seeds of lack of self-worth?
Mariette, this article is wonderful, I love how you write that every job matters and that they are all equally important. I grew up with the belief that everyone had to decide what they wanted to do work wise and at school there was pressure to choose a career and the idea is that you stick with this your whole life and ‘move up the ladder’ so to speak in this career. I can feel how this creates a lot of pressure on young people to choose a career and to choose the right career. I can also feel that changing careers is not generally encouraged and so often people work not enjoying their jobs with the fear of security and not knowing which other career to choose. I love the lightness with which you share Mariette about your experiences and how you did not put this pressure on yourself of ‘climbing the career ladder’ and having one set career and you made work about people first.
Every job does matter when we stop to think about it…where would society be without cleaners, doctors, administration etc. Every job contributes to the whole of society and to make one job filled with more status and prestigious than another doesn’t make sense. One part of the body is not more important that the other even down to the little finger the body would be less without it.
If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. This proverb is still relevant today but is there a new antonym from today’s youth, ‘I can’t be bothered to do it’? Our first and primary job will always be, to be self-loving and this is a job we should all be bothered to do!
What an incredible member of any team you would be and are, appreciating yourself first and foremost. All you bring to any job, the care for you and the support for all others. It’s so very powerful and exactly what we all need, as far too often we either think work is below us or feel we should be doing “better” things rather than giving our all to the all.
I can so relate Mariette to your experience with working. A lot of my working life has been caught in the thinking that something better is out there and I don’t know what it is but without it I’m not enough. I thought because I never went to university my contribution to life and work was not as important. I know its crazy now but it can slip in at times. I totally agree that all our different qualities are needed in all areas of life. Focusing on connection and the bigger picture has really helped let go of a yearning that there is something better.
When I was young, I always wanted to be a teacher….and I did become a teacher, and have since realized that life teaches me, others teach me, and also the children in my care also teach me…. it is never about the job we do, but about the quality we bring with an openness to learn all there is to learn on that particular job or constellation, because there is never a co-incidence where we find ourselves working.
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.” I agree Mariette and I would say that this identification is a bit like a disease as it lets you not live your natural flavor hence you play a role and get lost it this.
It is very humbling and powerful to read this article; to acknowledge and accept the importance of any job we do, not because of the job but because of the quality we can bring to it and the impact it has on others. This is developing my relationship with myself and my willingness to relinquish judgment of others.
Rob a man of his career and you rob him of his identity, rob him of his identity and you have broken him.
…explains why so many are reluctant to go there and not use some form of identification. We each have a responsibility to show that beneath the broken image is a beautiful diamond waiting to shine.
…. and there we stand naked in the truth of our being, something to celebrate.
Mariette – a fabulous blog and a true debunking of the false way society thinks we are what we do – no, we are who we are and it is with who we are that we bring our quality to what we do – so how important then is it for us to look after ourselves and our body.
Mariette, I can relate to what you have shared here – and I can share from my experience that I have enjoyed most jobs I have been in, in fact there are none that I can think of that I did not enjoy (some jobs I was not suited for, but whilst I was there, I still enjoyed being there and giving it my all). I guess we could say that it seems there are 2 kinds of people – those that enjoy whatever job they do and bring this with them wherever they go, and those that are more selective about it. However, having said that my feeling is that it is not really about the person, rather it is about their perspective and how they are with themselves which they then bring to all that they do. So really we are all the same, and we have the choice to bring our ‘enjoyment’ to any job we go to. Of course it is not always that simple, as each job can offer some major challenges and learnings, but overall, it is really about how we respond or react to these learnings that determines how much we can ‘enjoy’ the job and the circumstances.
Absolutely Mariette, …”We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work…” Every single job is important to the whole, and more so, it is the way any job is carried out, the quality of how we do what we do, that makes all the difference
Every job creates unseen matter therefore yes absolutely ‘every job matters’.
We have become completely bamboozled by the bright lights and false promise of ‘doing’. ‘Doing’ a so called important job, ‘doing’ well, ‘doing’ a lot, ‘doing’ more than another and we shall continue to be ensnared by the age old trap of ‘doing’ until we realise that the only way out of it’s enslaving cycle is to shift from doing to being. It is not possible to ‘do’ our way out of ‘doing’.
“Every job matters” – Mariette just imagine if we all accepted this fact and how our working world, business and education system would be. Mostly ‘every job matters’ is not the case because of the ingrained identification we carry as you share…everyone wants to ‘be someone’ – through what they do/their job, instead of “being them”. The more I am “being me” [not a ‘somebody’ to big note through what i’ve done or have achieved in my job] – the more possible it is to feel the truth of your words – because of feeling how much i do matter, and make a difference by being me, my truer self. And in this find the job i do, and everyone else does equally matter too. When we get rid of the heavy bags of identification, we’re left with nothing but the naked humbleness of our equalness.
Absolutely Mariette – every job does matter! Not only does every job matter, but the quality that we bring to each job that we do matters.
I work in the public system and one thing that really struck me when I joined is how everyone has a specific job description which they like to stick to, religiously! A lot of time and energy seems to go into lengthy discussions about who’s responsibility it is to ‘do’ things, rather than people accepting that they are part of a group who’s purpose it is to provide a specific service or function and all work together, supporting each other to provide this. It feels like there is a ceiling keeping everyone down, just doing what is necessary and no more, like a form of control, keeping things steady …..
Like you, Mariette, I didn’t have a specific job or career path that I aspired to when I finished my studies. I knew that I wanted to travel, meet lots of different people and experience life, I had confidence that I would be ok as I had the skills to find work and I was prepared to work hard. This has been the case, however, everything significantly changed when I chose to remove my ‘armour’ and expose my self, metaphorically speaking. What I’ve realised is that my inner power is being who I am as a woman, choosing to claim myself and share who I truly am and this is by far my greatest protection and my greatest joy.
The job we do is really quite irrelevant, a job is a job to be done. But it is the quality of the person doing the job that counts, that’s what truly matters and can be felt throughout the task and afterwards.
It doesn’t matter what we do, but it is the value we bring to the job that makes it fulfilling. I have been working in a community Mental Health Service for the past week, and at first thought that we didn’t do much, but I have begun to understand that this job requires a different role and that is something to be valued.
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work. ” this is absolutely true we get identified with what we do.
Mariette I can really relate to your blog. What you are sharing is something I have constantly been working on in my life. I have been a cleaner for many years and of course this job has been placed at the bottom of the job chain. In claiming myself more I was able to feel how important my job as a cleaner is, and in this feel how important we all are in our jobs. We have all loved a story that allows us to be less or more, but the truth is we are all equal, and every jobs needs to be filled to support another job that is filled. When we feel the support that every job offers to the next, we can’t help but feel how important we all are, there is no job less or more just one whole working together.
Since I start to be much more with me while doing any task, I notice that I’m much more able to let people in and naturally appreciate the qualities that they share. There’s so much to appreciate. And indeed, every job matters. How can it not… In regards to the fact that we all matter! Not because of what we do, but first and foremost because of who we are.
Is it possible what something means can change from day to day or even moment by moment. I was reading this blog again today and “Every Job Matters” struck me differently. Everything is a ‘job’ and while I had an understanding of this, today it’s changed. It’s like I could see something yesterday and yet today I can see more of it. There is no difference between anything, it’s just the setting that is altered. Whether at home, at work, in the car or in the park it all matters and deserves our full attention or presence.
So well said Ray. And it is these words that I wrote to myself this morning after being inspired by this blog ‘ everything matters and everything deserves my full presence’
Being defined by work makes us so much lesser than we truly are, the role becomes the mask to live behind and causes contraction in our body and the way we view and commit to life.
And it’s a reductionism of ourselves and a way of avoiding the responsibility of what we are truly here to bring.
This time of the year everybody only talks about their holiday, about going away, finally having time for themselves and not having to work. Some work from holiday to holiday as an escape and it shows how they don’t like their work and don’t bring themselves to work. When you make work about people and bring yourself it can hardly be anything but fun.
It is so beautiful to no longer go on holiday to escape life as I used to. Now I enjoy me in all I do and holidays are a celebration and time away with my family to explore a new place – while staying in my loving caring way of living and knowing who I am.
There is so much emphasis placed on what it is that we ‘do’ for work opposed to the quality of our being in which we work. If this emphasis shifted then there wouldn’t be the high rates of burn out, exhaustion and stress that is so common in the workplace today.
Absolutely! If we knew innately the value of ourselves, cared deeply for ourselves in honour of that and brought that to all we did then a push to achieve and be labelled or identified through a job title would not be there. As Mariette has beautifully shared she feels the same on Mondays as she does on Fridays and knows what she brings to her work.
Any time I find myself making work about a doing of tasks instead of a being of myself I find I get tired and run down or even overwhelmed and I don’t enjoy my work. I spent many years expecting work to bring something to me, whether it be enjoyment, security, money or contentment. One day I realised it was about me bringing to my work and the world all of the joy I am and the trusting and loving person that I am, for everyone else to share and enjoy. Work became a totally different experience of giving back to society instead of trying to take.
As a licensed counselor and psychotherapist I did work in this profession but also as receptionist, shoe-seller and now working as a manager of a natural cosmetic shop…life goes its own way and I follow where I am needed. But at the beginning of my ‘selling’-jobs I was always saying: normally I am a practitioner, just do that now for a while…. The identification with what I do seemed totally ‘normal’. Later I realized that it is much more important ‘how’ I do my job than ‘what’ I do. That brought a lot of love and simplicity into my life.
Mariette what a joy, delight and lightness you share about our appreciation of what we truly offer when we are at ‘work’. Thanks for the beautiful reflection that there is no other way I’d prefer to spend my day than bringing all of me to all the people I meet and care for in the day. Everyday is equal and about a true quality of service no matter how or where I spend it.
I have had many different job titles too and I would say the same that in every job I have learnt something more than just the job itself. I have learnt about life, about the people, etc. The most valuable point though has been that whatever team I work with every one does have their own strengths to bring and it is important to value these equally and help each other develop our weaknesses.
A refreshing and harmonious way to enjoy being at work – simply an extension of your lived way in daily life. Thank you Mariette, a lovely blog to read.
We put so much emphasis on what we do instead of the being in the doing. It is never about the job but how we are when we are doing the job. No job is meaningless but we create this illusion.
I love that you’ve worked in so many different fields Mariette – it’s incredible! A lot of people stay in the same or similar careers throughout their lives, but it’s so great that you’ve experienced such a diversity of roles and have contributed to so many facets of society.
Being a part of team that understands that every role is important and contributes to the whole, and when this is really lived and understood rather than given lip service, amazing things seem possible.
We look to change jobs, because something it not bringing us what we had hoped, when it is possible that it is US that are not bring US to the job.
i love the point you make about i start my working day as Marietta, and I finish it as Marietta, and not going into identification of the role of a particular job. this is key to feeling great before, during and after a days work, because being ‘me’ matters more than anything i could ever do, yet also brings all of me to all i do…
perfect!
Yes ,it is more important how we do something rather then what we do. I have felt shame around many of the jobs i have had because I and other people felt they were not important. I felt this was wrong. Thank you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for supporting me in trusting my feelings.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” – but so many people are not themselves at work and they carry an anxiety about doing a good job rather than just being themselves and doing their job in that.
Every job and everything we do is significant. This is very grounding to read.
Mariette – what you have shared confirms to me how much each part of our lives holds equal importance. No different to which ever job we choose to do, each job is equally important – but so too we can say that each part of our lives (be it work, family, self care, food, house etc) also is equally important. It is when we forget this and give more important to one area rather than another, then this is when we run into trouble – there is a lack of balance and things shift in a way that does not allow for harmony. But as you have said, every job matters, and equally so!
Every job matters because each one of us matters…it is not what we do, but how much of us that we bring to what we do – and to each moment of the day, that truly matters.
Every job matters and everybody matters.
I remember having my first ever job at 13. I was a waitress every Saturday lunch time at one of my father’s restaurants. I was shy at first and didn’t think I was great at it, but I was willing to learn, but boy oh boy did I love to work! I felt like I had joined the human race through being given responsibility and whilst it took me a while to come out of my shell the opportunity I was given to grow up and contribute kept me going! It didn’t matter to me (in fact I never considered it) that the status of waitressing in this country was quite low – all that mattered was that here was an opportunity to grow and evolve. In fact ever since, every job I have ever had has been appreciated as an opportunity to learn and to be of service to others!
Everything we do matters because it’s us doing it, it’s so true, there is no such thing as a job too small or too insignificant. The ripple effects of that little job can ripple around the whole world.
Thank you, Mariette, you are very beautifully de-bunking so much of the nonsense we believe about jobs/careers/status etc. This is a super powerful piece of writing.
I love your comment that all your jobs found you – you brought your heart to others and allowed yourself to be open to all that presented. What a beautiful gift to Humanity.
Thank you Mariette for the wake-up. My ‘career path’, or so I thought, lack of career path, has been somewhat similar to yours. I have done a great deal of job hopping in my life and carry a regret at not finding a ‘proper’ job or committing to a profession of some kind, but you have reminded me that it is not the job, it is how we are within a job that counts. We can take our awesome self anywhere, it is all about people and how we are within a job that matters, thank-you. As it happens I am looking for a new job now, and I am trusting that something will come along where I can shine my light wherever I go and whatever I do, without letting myself get in the way 🙂
‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life’ …. this is something that I feel is deeply understood in Vietnam. It feels like people have a sense of pride in whatever it is they do, knowing that they are an equal and valued part of the chain that is life. Observing the men and women sweep the streets in the early mornings, there was a grace in their movements, like a knowing that they were offering a lot more than just sweeping away the rubbish.
It’s a very strange question to get asked when we are children – “what do we want to be when we grow up?” As children we just are who we are, and this question creates pressure that is unnecessary. I remember staring wide eyed at people who asked me that and then saying something just to please them, possibly creating a reality that wasn’t even true for me. Does it really matter what we do for a living? Every job is extremely important so why do we judge and compare?
I used to compartmentalise work from home, I had my work friends and my other friends and there were aspects of myself that I reserved for each group exclusively ….. now I just have lots of friends and I am allowing myself to just be ‘me’ with everyone, everyone is a potential ‘friend’. It’s been amazing and very beautiful to feel these friendships go to a whole new level.
‘we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something’ …… indeed we are, hearing these words is a great reminder for me to appreciate all that I already am and to share all of me with everyone, unreservedly.
One of my favourite quotes is by American-Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran who wrote something along the lines of ‘Work is love made visible’. This article by Mariette illustrates this proposition perfectly.
What I have found too is that any work I am doing feels boring, no matter what it is, if I am not feeling connected with something bigger than me in the first place. If life stays just about me and my little world of family and friends, then I find myself disengaged before long. Being part of something so much more, knowing I bring something valuable just by being myself, as does everyone else… is a far greater motivator in my experience.
Thanks, Mariette. I love the sense of you meeting all sorts of people in your job, and that they get the blessing of being met by someone who is not defined by a picture but simply able to bring all of her gorgeous self to the service being provided. When they walk in the door, they have no idea of the loveliness they are going to be greeted by!
What your article demonstrates also is the fluidity of the soul. It is possible to move in and out of different sectors and roles easily and readily. Perhaps it is simply a matter of surrendering to whatever is needed.
You are spot on Mariette, there is a great deal to re-imprint when it comes to our approach and attitudes to work. As Christoph has alluded to, work takes on a whole other dimension when we start to value our very presence, and not just the temporal skills we may or may not have.
Work approached as a means of identification and ego reward is ultimately unsatisfying. Work as an expression of who we are and as an opportunity to connect and serve is where it’s at!
I love your approach Mariette! Unfortunately I did pretty much the opposite throughout my working life – all driven by a need for recognition. And how exhausting -and pointless – that proved to be. Well done you for knowing what was true, with very little deviation.
Not only is it between job titles and professions that there is no difference, but also between tasks within the job. We are taught from such an early age to rank, prioritise – but truly everything deserves our equal attention.
‘I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.’ Beautiful, yet this is going against the trend – most people start their working week longing for Friday.
It is very freeing when we realise that it is our quality that matters not what we do. Couple this with the knowing that regardless of our position in a company, every single person contributes to the whole and we are all equally important establishes a whole new regard for the work we do and our colleagues.
Society’s current understanding of jobs is very much related to salary, level of education and training required and subsequently status when we consider importance it neglects to see the energetic work done. For example the road sweeper who lays a foundation on which everyone will travel or walk that day has true responsibility.
When we let go our identification with what we do we can see the equalness in all.
When we become defined by our job we loose our sense of worth, the job becomes who we are and we forget the gorgeous person that is doing the work. I work in a super market and when I accepted the job I thought it was a stop gap to something better, a step on the ladder to success, 6 years later I am still there and I love it. I have no attachment to the work, yet it has been, and still is one of the best jobs I have had for learning about myself and about life that I have ever had. Each day I get to feel what humanity is waking up to how they are feeling, I meet hundreds of people in the day that are all part of the intricate network of life and I feel blessed to be part of this.
Mariette we have built a society that has invisible ladders woven throughout it’s workplaces, it’s schools, it’s universities, it’s sporting arenas (these ones are not so invisible), our friendship circles, even in fleeting conversations with strangers we often place ourselves either ‘above or below’ them. What is so awesome about what you have shared about your attitude to work is that if the truth be known there really are no such thing as ladders, we all contribute equally to everything. I do believe that we will, in time return to all share your way of thinking and what a radically different world we will live in then.
Well said Mariette, ‘We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.’ We get caught in what looks good, what ‘should’ we be doing, how much should we be earning etc.. and lose track and focus of why we are here. Sure we need to pay bills but at what expense? I would far rather have a loving body then a worn out exhausted one with more money in the bank.
Our work becomes great fun when we notice just how much change occurs due to our presence.
After all the struggles I have had about going to work and getting on with it, I now find myself enjoying the fact that you can learn so much about yourself and others – everyday has something new to offer with regards to how we want to present ourselves to the world and to take more responsibility to how we are with others.
Mariette, I love reading this article, this stood out for me, ‘I am just as important as my manager, my HR colleague, the staff in the kitchen, the cleaner, the postman and the IT specialist’, this feels so simple and so true, I can feel in society how there are rankings, jobs that are seen as more important than others – more respected and paid more money, but as you say every job is important, how can the job of someone running a company or working as a manager be more important than someone who cares for the sick and elderly, or someone who works recycling waste, there is no comparison, they are all needed and all important.
When we release beliefs and ideals about the jobs we do, we free ourselves to step into roles we may never have previously considered as worthy. And when we do we discover that it is not the job we do but how we are with ourselves as we work that matters.
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work.” – this is so important, that we recognise our potential to bring all of us to what we do and by virtue of that what we do is amazingly important because of the ripple effect it has on the world
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” From the outside this can be a hard comment to agree with, whilst I know it to be true it has not been the way I’ve always looked at different jobs/situations. Yet it was the first way I would view things as young, I remember in the early years of growing up it was the people that I felt connections with that counted, not what they did. Then somewhere in my early teens when the education system made life about “bettering” yourself to get a good job did the notion of lesser than come in, the jobs that you should avoid, the jobs that were for “dumb” people. It’s horrible to look back on how I viewed jobs and people as today I know the very opposite is true.
Every job matters as does every person we meet.
What I also feel is that every part of every job is equally important. And that it doesn’t matter if that job is something we’re being paid for. I’ve noticed recently how I’ll prioritise work tasks over absolutely everything else, making work more important than the whole. Inevitably this takes its toll on my body and the quality of me, and the work, suffers when I make it all about one area at the expense of everything else.
I have delivered newspapers, transported nuclear weapons, washed dishes and cars, mowed lawns, photographed weddings, wired houses, been a chef, been a noise monitor, always love driving forklifts, been the boss and the new guy that starts at the bottom. There are many other things I have done and been paid to do, but none has ever been who I am. I have always been open to new experiences and challenges. I see retirement as a wooden box and a long nap, till I come back and start the adventure again.
I can relate to what you’ve shared about every role being important and no one being higher than another, only that our roles vary and that is all. What I felt while reading this was that how we are with ourselves is reflected in our jobs – currently job hunting at the moment when I believed that my job wasn’t good enough I tried in desperation to get a ‘better job’ – this led to a very refined and restricted (suffocatingly so!) job search that led nowhere but into interviews and trails that fit the picture in my head but there would of been no quality to my work and in some cases very isolated, dull or abusive and this felt horrible. Over time and continuing I have started to drop my expectations more and more and open up to the possibility that it’s not what I am doing that is what brings a richness to work but it’s about being me and being with people and at the same time feeling when to move on and when to stay to best support me being me in order to just be with other people. The more I am me the less I feel to hide in my job by staying where I am, in the job and even in certain tasks because being with others feels so much grander than hiding.
It is all about the quality we do something in not the quantity we can deliver.
The pressure I felt from those around me to know what I was going to do when I left school was intense when growing up. How could I have known that I would be an Esoteric Breast Massage Practitioner as the modality had not even been earthed yet. We need to let our youth unfold and encourage them to connect with themselves and their own knowing as to how to best express to serve humanity in this life time.
So true Mary Louise, I have also felt a lot of pressure that I had to know what I was going to do, and with that, what I was going to be. I had absolutely no idea. Life is an unfoldment, just like a present we get. We don’t know what is inside, until the moment we start unwrapping the paper.
The fact that we compartmentalize work and other life is a problem in the first place. I do not see what I do as work I see my life as one life where I am simply serving humanity in what ever I am doing.
What a great blog and it really is blowing away the cob webs on identification in what we do. This is such a deeply ingrained belief that totally takes over us. But when we stop and really feel what is being presented in this blog that we don’t have to ‘do’ anything but BE ourselves in all that we do, including our jobs is massive. To let go of all the recognition and acceptance that is feeding the identification and be free of such imposing needs is fantastic. I have definitely let go of these but I can sense they try and creep in and this is a strong indicator how deeply ingrained they really are. Coming back to the quality of who I am and how I go about my day is what breaks down such beliefs and I am truly thankful to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for supporting me to see the ugly lies that I had been caught up.
To bring a reflection of lightness to the world of working society is a timeless service for all around the globe. Thank you Mariette.
It is so important to recognize that every job is important and that everyone has some specific skills that asks to be appreciated for the beauty and grace that it brings to the world.
Society cant work if we don’t. It is the quality of us in the way we work that determines how supportive for all, that society is.
What is truly beautiful to appreciate is how being exactly who we are in our workplaces is essentially the magic of life for all. We each have a unique quality and way in the world and it is a great responsibility and joy to bring that quality to not only our workplaces but everywhere. It is like a trail of little diamonds we leave wherever we have been. That is pretty awesome.
So awesome to hear Mariette that you are working bringing all of you, and that you are not defined by the role you are working in. There is so much judgement and comparison around the career and job one is in, and often a drive to get a job which pays well, for acceptance and recognition. There is often so much pressure to succeed that we constantly feel burdened and exhausted in life.
This is so inspiring to read as I learn to be me in all I do and to appreciate each job as having the potential to bring something extra-ordinary to humanity.
Thankyou Mariette for all you have shared. I have also worked many times as a receptionist and your blog supported me to see just how important my role was. I was the first point of contact for callers by phone and visitors to the company, in every case the way I was and the choice I made to just be me in full had a positive impact. One caller loved speaking to me so much she made extra time for a company appointment to meet and spend time with me. It is so easy to get caught up with what the job requires and forget it’s truly about our contact with people.
I have found that the more I connect with those at work, that there is a great deal more support offered when there are deadlines to meet, not because of the deadline, but because we are all working together from the connection we have with each other.
Mariette your words ‘I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.’ Whatever job we do they are all equally as important because when we all do our job we get a complete product, and each one of us supports another in order for them to do theirs, no one job is done without a team of people supporting in many ways.
Such an important point to raise and a point that discards the medieval class conflicts. Everyone has an equal role. For how can the King rule a kingdom without a farmer to feed the people.
Awesome, that’s a quote!
It’s amazing how strong the pictures are about where we should be with our careers and in life by a certain age. This feels like such a setup to put pressure on ourselves and not fully appreciate whatever it is we are doing. It is the same as the pressures to get a partner, have kids, buy a house etc. They are all external ways to value ourselves, which are so ephemeral compared to simply valuing the essence of who we are.
Every job matters because there is place for everyone. Everyone has something to contribute.
Everyone matters.
I have also been the type of person who has jobs and finds them (maybe we are all this type of person and we just don’t realise it!) I have always loved the synchronicity of this and it has made me appreciate there is a reason why each job found me. It has helped me to look deeper at my purpose for being there and to keep asking what more there is that I can bring.
Treating Monday and Friday as the same is not that common. I often hear people when I ask how they are, things like ‘I am not bad considering it’s a Monday’. I have found this attitude has broken down a lot in me now that I am treating all days as time to work and be purposeful in life. It has also changed with me enjoying my work more and appreciating not what I do but just me being there.
There is something we know is deeply wrong about the way we value some jobs over others and ascribe a certain status to them. If you consider it, the ranking we create is a bit random and I am sure it varies with culture. Why is a goat herder more or less important than the tax collector? Anything we create in society that stops us from being equal is not true and serves to create walls between people. How awesome that you have broken those walls within yourself, to inspire others to do the same.
There is such an ingrained belief that working means it should be a chore, an annoying but necessary exercise. I’ve bought into this several times, but with each new job I take a new layer of me to it and greater appreciation for the fact that, simply being with people is all that it is about. We get so caught up in deadlines and silly details about getting the job done and we completely forget about our purpose in life. If the work is not to serve people, then why do we do it? Every single job is based on serving people…so we have a choice to enjoy it and have fun.
Awesome Mariette. What a refreshing take on working life! It changes everything, the moment we choose to just be ourselves and all that we can be. The pressure of trying to be something we’re not just melts away.
“I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.” How many people can say this and truly mean it in todays world? When our focus is all about the outside world it is very challenging to view life this way, but when we live from our connection to our essence within then life becomes about bringing that to whatever we are doing. There is a love and appreciation of self that flows into all that we do and completely changes the way we view life.
Having struggled through work in the past, with strictness, perfection, working hard, playing hard, i realised i was living my whole life exactly like this too and not just at work. Changing the way I are held and related to myself, and in life, increasingly more gently and self-aware – has changed work entirely and the quality of it to make work/life more balanced, fun and joyful.
Me too Zofia. I realised the other day that I’m still working like a machine sometimes, and how horrible that now feels. This working myself to the bone, pushing to get everything done, used to be my everyday but now it stands out as hard and cold and completely devoid of fun and connection. When I make it all about getting the job done and not the people, I cut myself off from myself and the world and it feels so numb and empty. I’m learning and feeling that anything I do, any interaction I have, has to be about the quality I’m in and about connecting with myself and others first.
When we take responsibility for the quality we bring, others feel this and are inspired to also bring their quality, which supports not only the team, the company/business we work for, but also all the people we meet on a daily basis.
What matters in the end is how we are with ourselves in whatever it is we are doing… the quality of care we give ourselves will be the quality of care we bring to our work and to everything we do.
Yesterday it was Monday, and someone at work was commenting how they felt about TGIF (thank god its friday).. and the looking forward to the end of the week before it’s started. I remember being similar to this with Wednesdays as “hump day” and the drawing to the close of the busy hectic week. What you share Mariette: “I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same” – is not something i encounter from people looking for a new job in my own job of recruiting. It was interesting to feel the person who had commented on TGIF ponder on their own question – could be TGI-Everyday?, and shows that people are becoming more and more aware that work for most is not a joy but struggle, and perhaps there is a different way — as your post opens up the conversation Mariette.
Love this line Mariette…”Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do.” Each one of us brings our own unique flavour to every job and therefore we are all equally important in our roles.
Awsome work Mariette, so good to know that we actually are not our jobs – and that it actually makes more sense than anything else – be before you do. It is who we are that matters – the rest matters too because we are in it! Now, that is worth talking about:)
If we truly appreciate what we bring to whatever job we are in then we have a source for true commitment to life – it gives us a purpose that is beneficial for all.
Mariette like you say every job counts, no job is superior than the other. Everyone has an important part to play in a company. In our hotel every staff matters, from kitchen porters, house keeps, gardener, maintenance person and the waiters, waitress, supervisors and managers. Everyone has a different part to play to make the hotel function. The key thing is everyone brings themselves to the job.
A job is given us so much. It’s the innate expression of us to put our care and love into action in order to serve others. If we’re doing it with us, we cannot but love what we’re doing. In the knowing that whatever we do has an impact on others. Every single job, every minute of the day.
When we work in connection to ourselves we bring our light and this is what service is about – the job is not the focus.
In my earlier days of working I was totally lost in it. I thought I never liked work, it was just a thing to get money and do until retirement. Because I didn’t like it so much I couldn’t wait to get to retirement. I saw work as a sentence and always kept holidays up my sleeve just in case. I remember coming back from some holidays and being unconsolable and thinking my life was ending it became that bad. Something change though and the catalyst was Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. With the focus of things coming back to how I was I realised that if I wanted that feeling to change then I would need to make some changes. I have always excelled at working it was just that I was either excelling or dreading, there was no middle ground. With the support of Universal Medicine I found that work and how it felt was directly linked to how I was, the choices, the thoughts, the movements I made. So there was no need to change jobs etc just change me, everything to sleep, training, eating, relationship all need to be looked at. Steadily I look at all corners of my life and how I was in them, with the quality I live in everything has change. Maybe on the face somethings look the same it’s just how I am with them has changed. With developing the true care I have for myself it simply changed how I viewed the world, work included. It sounds pretty simple because it is.
“I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette.” this is such a simple yet so powerful statement. We forget this that we are ourselves first and foremost. And then we do what we need to do. If we focus on our selves and the quality we bring, then the doing flows much easier. It is when we get caught up on the doing, and not who is doing it, that we become a bit unstuck!
I love how you speak of every job being just as important as another. That we simply have different jobs to do and really we could not do our job if is wasn’t for everyone else that we work with or for and that behind the scenes there are those who make sure that our workplaces a clean and tidy. Even though we may get paid varying amounts this gives no indication of the true value or worth of what one person, no matter their role, offers a workplace.
I have been totally identified by the work I do, as if that it what makes me worthwhile.Like you Mariette I have realised that the work I do is but part of my expression. There is still an element of this for me as I have seen that if I make a mistake that I can still judge myself harshly. This judging takes a heavy toll. So I am learning that if I do make a mistake at work that I am still the same person regardless.
I know this ingrained pattern/behaviour very well – to think that I need to have a certain career, a certain position or job and earn a certain amount of money. There are these ideas and ideals about work that drive us through life, ideas that make us behave in a linear way. We have this aim to have a certain job due to security reasons, in order to have a certain status and/or we think we are powerful when we have a certain position. But when we are so much focused on „having a certain career“ we might not be open to and see opportunities that come our way, and we might not really see and connect to people we meet.
‘But when we are so much focused on “having a certain career“ we might not be open to and see opportunities that come our way, and we might not really see and connect to people we meet.’ Great point piajung, when we are focused on what we think is going to make things better for us, we can miss out on the opportunity that is right in front of us.
I can very much relate Mariette to what you have shared. I have had lots of jobs over the years that span all sorts of work. I can also relate to the feeling of a job not being good enough, that I could be doing something more worthwhile. Yet when we are truly ourselves and bring this to what it is that we do, we make a huge impact on our workplace regardless of what our job role actually is. I see my job now regardless of what it is that I do to bring love to the workplace and to every person I interact with whether that be in person, on the phone or via email. This has turned the meaning of what I do upside down, as it doesn’t really matter what I do, as long as it is done with love.
Lovely Donna – your last sentence ‘This has turned the meaning of what I do upside down, as it doesn’t really matter what I do, as long as it is done with love’ resonates deeply. I find this apply to everything I do, phone calls, meeting people when I go out to shop, etc., it’s a daily opportunity to connect. I don’t have a job but volunteer when opportunities present themselves, so life it always open to the next way to be of service.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” I wonder how many of us can actually do this? It can be so easy to pigeonhole our lives into different compartments from work, home, family to friends. I know that I have and I can feel the freedom in your sharing of simply being yourself at home and work.
.. And being the one true version of ourselves all of the time instead of multiple versions for people or situations is the way to live that keeps us truly connected and vital. When we don’t do this we end up exhausted and flat and completely lost in the many fragmented versions of ourselves that we’ve created, completely unnecessarily and usually because we chose to believe that who we are is not enough.
“…working had to be about people.” I feel that this rings true for all jobs Mariette, even with jobs that have little direct interaction with others. If we are not there to support and be with humanity, people, then where is the purpose in our work?
Identifying ourselves with what we do is a drain on our vitality and a distraction from truly appreciating our own innate qualities and those of others around us and how we are all key players in the whole.
Every job does matter to keep our communities working. I work in a corporate environment and know that the cleaner is of upmost importance. They do so much behind the scenes that nobody really appreciates and yet without them, we wouldn’t be able to do our jobs because the place would become a mess within days.
A great reminder of not to get caught up in outcomes and results and giving priority to a job only because it has a deadline and earns you good money. The best job is not truly good if the quality it was done in was not holding the connection of the people involved.
Absolutely agree Mariette, well said every job matters and so does anything that has to be done during the day. I am learning to apply the same quality to everything I do, being it writing a report, implementing a project, cleaning the floor, cooking or bringing the garbage down it is not because some tasks earn the money that they are worth more than others. Life is about quality and absolute integrity.
Coaching people that lost their job learned me how many people are identified by what they do. The job has to bring them their worth, purpose, joy, connection with others and rhythm. I know (inside) we all love to work and our bodies are made for it, but we bring something to our work, that is ourselves, and not the other way around.
Money and salary is an interesting aspect of work. Where does the notion come from that when you get paid more you are worth and valued more? This leads to disparity. I fell for it, but could feel how it made me feel uneasy inside. And nowadays it still doesn’t make any sense to my why a bank’s CEO should get paid so much more than for example our teachers. If we would make life about people instead of about money and profit it would rather be the other way around. And that is not it either. We all matter, every job matters and this could be reflected in our salary.
Holding one job as more important than another is passing a judgement upon ourselves and others. We need presidents and farmers in equal measure.
A puzzle isn’t complete without 1 missing piece and it doesn’t matter whether that is a corner, a side or a central piece or whether is has the sky or a person on it. One piece missing means no completion.
‘What will you be when you grow up?’ Joyful! How different indeed it would be Mariette if we made the quality of what we do the chief focus. We are so impressed by job titles and awards, but the way we are in every moment is what should truly lead to promotion. And in a sense it does work this way, for choosing Love promotes choosing more and supports us all to be CEO’s of divine action.
I have done a lot of ‘I am more than you .. or I am less than you ..’ all because I couldn’t fathom we are really all equal. It is like I avoided that option and it was a perfect setup to not appreciate myself and to not step into simple being myself without any pressure and with everything I bring.
I like to view my job as just a part of my life and not something that is separate to anything else that I might do. I like to live the weekends the same as my work week , bringing myself equally to both. This can be a challenge at times as the demands of my work can be excessive but i am realising that this happens when I allow it to be and usually when I am trying to do a “good” job, which is really just an illusion. What a very affirming sharing for me this is , Marietta, thank you.
Totally my experience also Mariette that it doesn’t matter what you do but how you do it. And should it then be that your services are elsewhere needed because of the quality you bring then so be it. Walking on floors cleaned by someone in joy makes a lot of difference from walking on floors by someone feeling like their job doesn’t matter.
I love the equality in your blog Mariette, we all have something to bring to every job and that is ourselves, our uniqueness.
Without a doubt each job is of equal worth. The inequality that is often held in a workplace is a total sham. Recognising our own worth in our day to day work, no matter is the path to unravelling this falsehood.
It can be all too easy to compare our jobs – to see someone else as somehow more important or contributing more than us and yet in life everyone has a purpose, a role that they chose that makes the whole system work and through that is an expression that is totally individual
I came to see this for myself lately, it is all about being ourself everywhere we go, the job shouldn’t affect this. Appreciating all that we bring to where ever we work, knowing that being ourself is all that’s needed, feeling our essence in that what we do is the most important.
I love the totally diverse array of jobs you have experienced Mariette and with all those different roles I am sitting here imagining how many people have been blessed to have a little of what you bring. It feels like no surprise to me that your life has been filled with so many different working opportunities as there is a spark in you that the world needs to see.
I love this article and have had very similar experiences. I love being around people, and have had many and varied jobs. I have noticed that often a random skill would be the reason I would be given a job. For example I received a catering job because i could chop wood, and because we were working remotely it meant I could keep the wood fire water heaters going for hot water. I have learnt that it all counts, we just might not understand the role it will play in future. This catering job then propelled me into the world of food, completely unexpected, which propelled me into the world of sales, There have been a few other paths in there as well but one has always created a momentum for the next.
Mariette, I have been through those moments of feeling the job I was doing was good enough for me, that I was worth so much more than the job I was doing, rather than fully embracing the fact that I was needed in that role for a particular purpose which may not become apparent until later in life or at all. Its important to recognise that our value comes from within and not remotely from the outside world or the roles we perseve to be important.
This is a big one – particularly for a man – I have observed over time my little legs running faster and faster around that hamster wheel – thinking that if I run faster and better than everyone else then I will land the prize job, the promotion, more $. It doesn’t truly pan out like that because the bit of me running is just that – a bit of me and not all of me in full. Over the years I have been supported by Universal Medicine practitioners to grasp and hold the fact that a job is something I do and not who I am. This discovery and fact now being lived more and more each day is confirmation that we are all truly amazing and it is the world in its present state that has us running around trying to make our bits or parts of us IT. This is so far from the truth it is not funny.
Being complete within ourselves is crucial. I am aware that I need so much from the world when I am not meeting my own needs.
Totally agree, what we do is far less important than how we are when we do it. Excellent observations.
I have thought how bizarre it is that certain jobs pay more than others.. it would make more sense for our pay to be based on the quality of service and experience we provide opposed to the job title we have.
There can be a lot of pressure and snobbery around the type of job we do but it is so right that it is the quality we do the job in. It is I feel about finding the jobs that fit most perfectly with our qualities and what role we can most bring our personal traits through in.
Thank you Mariette, I could really relate to what you share. A few years ago I went from working as a Manager to working in a basic administration/reception role and I found this very difficult to come to terms with both financially and in terms of the way I felt about myself. Amazingly I learned more about myself in that role than I learned in all my other jobs put together and it has completely changed the way I work. When we allow ourselves to feel how valuable we are and where our gifts are needed we are absolutely blessed and so are our workplaces.
I like what you shared “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.”. Life is all about constellation and when we let self-worth come in deciding our jobs we often miss out on evolution. Be open and you’ll be taken where your next X is.
The perfect job is one we are fully ourselves in and have the space to allow the unique quality of who we are through.
” I love going to work, and Mondays and Fridays are exactly the same.”
That is extraordinary in todays world Mariette and I can confirm that I feel exactly the same. When we stop this mind game that ‘time off’ is more fun and valued more than time at work it starts to become all the same. I enjoy work as much as spending time at home or anywhere else, after all it is ME enjoying and I am with me where ever I go.
“We are all needed and we all bring something unique.”
It is so worth pondering that and really appreciate what it is I bring as nobody can replace me in this particular flavor!
“We get identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are, and bring that to work, regardless of what kind of work. ”
I love that sentence! We are so used to identifying our worth on an outer appearance, a position or achievements, but we are amazing just the way we are already long before we do or achieve anything! It is so valuable to really let that sink in and embrace it in full.
“We live in a world where having a career or having a certain job is seen as important, but also that some jobs are better than others.”
I work as a beauty advisor in a small department store and can very much relate to what you share in your blog, Mariette. I also had feedback from people commenting whether this job is ‘good enough’ for me.
Fact is, I never enjoyed as much going to work, I have very close connections with my team as well as customers, which brings a lot of joy into my day and I wouldn’t want to miss that.
“My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” – Very true Mariette, our value is not determined by factors outside of us – we need not do anything to prove our worth.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.” – beautifully said Mariette!
If I want to be recognised for doing an amazing job it is me who is bringing what I think should be done. It can very easily become complex instead of allowing the natural flow of what is truly required.
Entering a job in retail after many years of being a healing practitioner what I noticed the most was the way that the general public treated me. As a healing practitioner I was used to being treated as an equal, if not looked up to. When I stepped into retail I experienced people looking down at me, speaking to me in a derogatory way, and generally treating me like dirt. This showed me how as humans we do tend to judge people by the job that they do.
I learned this lesson 4 years ago when I dropped my role as a healing practitioner that I had been identified by for 13 years. I knew I needed to find a regular full time job and in order to do this ,with nothing but massage and healing on my CV, I needed to be willing to do anything. It was the most humbling time. I ended up in retail which has been the most perfect place for me to be. I’m learning heaps, connecting with people in a way I never have before, and bringing so much to the job. Yes, every job matters, and no job is more important than another.
Absolutely Mariette, my life is full of issues around old work ethics that are holding me back from evolving.
Slow over the last twelve years I have become more aware my issues around work and who I truly am so they can be observed for not being me, then resolved so that my body can heal.
‘There is a reason why we are where we are and from all of my jobs I have learned a lot, mostly about myself, but also about people and how to be and interact with one another.’ – I agree Mariette, I have had several very different jobs in my life and they have all taught me something new, something valuable to move on in life with.
If you are a people person and life for you is all about people, then you are in the absolute perfect job!
Loved readying your blog, Mariette, and I couldn’t agree more ….. I’ve also had many different jobs in my life from making sandwiches to working as a sales rep for IBM. I am now in an Admin position for NSW Health, in the past I would have considered this role a few steps back, in terms of what I’m capable of doing, however, I now, thanks to Universal Medicine and the connection I have developed with myself, see things very differently. I know that it doesn’t matter what I do, it’s how I do it and the connection with myself and others that I share throughout my day, that’s what really matters and what brings so much joy and purpose for me.
We suck on the energy of comparison to not deliver all of us in that moment. There is no story in truth, no excuse, no victim, neither better nor worse, just a simple choice not to be us. It’s a waste of time.
What you have said here about getting “…identified with what we do, instead of just being who we are …” is so true Mariette. Thanks for the great reminder.
Mariette, I loved to read that you love going to work – so many don’t – and that one day is no more important than other, when most can’t wait for Friday. I also love how you do not see your role as lesser than anyone else’s, everyone’s job being integral to the smooth running of the company. And from what you have written I can feel the joy that everyone coming to reception feels from you; what a beautiful greeting they must receive.
Beautiful observation and reflection of what truly matters – not the job title or the salary but how we are in what we do.
Every job matters and every person doing every job matters but the crucial thing is for them to claim it. I have done jobs where I have felt less than other fellow employees and have been resentful of this but feel that in my current role as a practical support worker working alongside therapists I work collaboratively with them for the client’s benefit and the more I claim this the smoother the working relationships are.
When I was younger I felt that my working life would have been somehow easier if I had had a clear vocation but like you I have done many jobs and mostly loved them because for me the value was always in the connections I made with other people. However I was also invested in being seen to do a good job and getting recognition for that, thus appreciating that just bringing me to whatever job I am doing and trusting that I have all the skills that are required has released me to focus on what is needed at any particular time and not get caught up in my ‘performance’ but just being open to whatever situation presents itself.
There is so much to appreciate about your blog Mariette. I go in and out of wanting to “better” myself by having a “better” job and I notice that this only comes up when I am not deeply appreciating who I am and the contribution that I do make to the whole. It comes back to learning to appreciate and value our essence, then it does not matter how we express that essence.
This is a great way to look at working Marietta – that we shouldn’t compare or grade ourselves based on the title but rather how we are in each job. A receptionist is actually an amazing way to connect and be with people all the time and really form relationships – what a great thing to bring into a job. It seems all the jobs you had involved working with people and to me that is what business is about – simply developing relationships.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” Absolute gold this statement. This is what we should be teaching kids in school, that our worth comes from within, from our relationship with ourselves. Not from anywhere else. Loved your blog.
Great blog Mariette and it is so spot on that we all Matter. I Love this also how each team member is crucial for making the whole work. When we feel less this is when we short change not just ourselves, the team but everyone. Equally if you go into thinking you are more important than others because of your role – as you say Mariette this feeds an identification of who you think you are, which in truth is only what you do not who you are.
Mariette the first point is I completely agree with what you share, and the second point is something I had not fully considered. There are many people who think of the fact you can do more, that a job is beneath them, that they are wasting their talents. This is not uncommon, in fact it is the case for the vast majority of people. Now if we consider energy and quality of energy, what energy do customers of the companies we work in get when the people working in them think their job is beneath them? We complain the world is loveless yet are we not the ones perpetuating that lovelessness throughout our entire working time? It’s great you bring all of you to your job, seeing the purpose in it is equal to all others.
Beautiful Mariette, when we have joy in the work we do we bring the same quality to those we serve and meet each day.
This is very beautiful Mariette I love your sharing that every one and every job is important as is our quality being all we are. The understanding that ” My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” and this so important for our lives our jobs and how we see ourselves and others.
Yes, it is about how we do what we do, rather than what we do in our work. We cannot underestimate the power of moving and speaking with absolute love for ourselves and others, of living in a way where we are reflecting the grace of heaven, reminding everyone where we come from. This is the real purpose of being here together, rather than achievement and status.
Just how it should be Mariette. It matters not what we do but how we do it.
Having had my share of jobs from cleaner, florist, civil servant, receptionist, physio assistant, catering and a few others, one thing I realised lately is how much I would hold back from taking the next step with any of the jobs I was involved with, any time promotion was offered I would refuse and be too scared to give it ago in case I failed and would convince myself that they had got it wrong.
Quite often others can feel the potential in us but we choose to not feel it for ourselves but this to me now just seems like a way of not taking responsibility and accepting that we actually do have more to offer than we want to believe. Needless to say I finally put myself up for the promotion and the next step and it’s all working out just fine, so now onto the next one.
Loving this, as it is a very timely reminder for me to bring all of who I am to everything I do. My work, is being me, and the job I do is just another expression of that. It has taken me years to drop the facade of trying to be the best employee or most revenue generating salesguy, but no surprises the more I connect with myself and value the importance of all those around me then we realise those roles are not important and connection in all its facets is the only thing that matters.
So true Mariette thank you. We have become so accustomed to seeing the job and career as more important than the person. What is very significant here is the way you have distinguished yourself from your job, you are not what you do for a living, you are a woman worth caring about first and foremost. When we claim our self worth and nurture our honesty, integrity and care, we take these qualities where ever we go and naturally apply them to what ever we are doing. The job role is not important, its what we bring to the job that truly matters, whether its cleaning toilets, working on Reception or being a CO of an international company, its the quality of service that counts and makes our jobs enjoyable and worthwhile, not the amount of figures on the pay cheque.
Great article, Mariette. For most of my life I have been someone striving to be something or someone and identified my value and importance by what I did. Not so deep down I was not happy with myself and had very little self-confidence. However, in recent years, through my involvement with Universal Medicine, I have come to realise that it is not what one does that matters but how one is with oneself, “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself”. Since coming to live this understanding I now love and appreciate myself in whatever I do.
Mariette, this article is absolutely beautiful to read.There is a very strong belief in society that we have to have a career and stick with that career and progress up the career ladder and that some jobs are better than others,I can feel how this pure illusion, all jobs matter and as you say it is how we are in the job that is the most important thing.
People often talk to me about finding the right job, getting back into work, dissatisfaction with the current job and what should they do? What I like about this blog is the encouragement to simply get out there… that if you are open to work, and knocking on doors then all sorts of opportunities come along and none of them are wasted.
I love how you don’t identify yourself with your job Marietta, you are you and this is the work you do. And also, you do value what you bring to where you work. We can understand this more deeply, we bring ALL of us to work including any previous argument unresolved or issue unsolved. There comes a responsibility to feel here, we wouldn’t dream of coming to work half dressed or make up on half of our faces because people would notice. People also notice when we bring ourselves in full to whatever we do.
As a child I can remember the discomfort of being asked ‘What are you going to do when you grow up?’ and thinking it was an unnecessary and rather impertinent question. It made me feel that who I was at that moment wasn’t enough and I had to aim at being something more and different. Today, thanks to the presentations of Serge Benhayon, I would reply ‘I will be me in whatever I do.’
From the age of about 12 or younger, I knew that what I wanted to be was a teacher. Interestingly, after 4 years of study, I taught for 2 years, resigned and didn’t return to a teaching career. Over the next 25-30 years I did roles I thought I should be doing or felt obliged to do out of circumstances but never really appreciated or enjoyed what I was doing. It’s taken me a long time to begin unravelling my skills and what I do in relation to being a measure of my self-worth but in the past few years I’ve been discovering that any job I do is great because it’s me doing it, and for the first time in my life that I can remember, I can say I really enjoy coming to work every day because I love ‘me’ regardless of what I am doing.
Great blog Mariette, there are so many people that think some jobs are better than others, but as you have delivered, every job counts and every person in the company has an important part to play.
There are so many beliefs around work and how we should be, do and perform in it. I was very much identified with work, specifically with the doing and performing part. You are, because of how you perform through targets. Since I work for myself, slowly this engrained behaviour is dismantling itself like taking off a tight jacket. It feels liberating, just to be me and meet others who happen to be my clients, but I just see them as great people to connect to.
I have done many jobs, but as you stated Mariette none of these jobs have been who I am. Going back 50 years to my first job as a paperboy delivering the morning paper. I would have to get up a 4 am to get my papers and do my round before breakfast and school. Summers were great, and winter, even with the snow and cold was a great place to start your day. There was stillness everywhere.
Yes we do all matter regardless of what job we do, I work as a gardener and I have often been looked down on by others or spoken to as though I was less which used to somewhat infuriate me, but now I realise that’s not my problem and that I provide a great service no matter what some people may think.
It is us that makes our job all that it is; and never our job that makes the real and true us.
Just what I needed to read today. All too often I find myself wanting something bigger, better, different. I worry at work that I am missing out on another opportunity somewhere else, and all of it is a complete distraction to stop myself from appreciating in full what I already have before me. It just goes to show, when we are not complete within ourself, there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that can permanently satiate our thirst.
Well said Adam, the pastures will always look greener on the other side unless we embrace the fullness of who we are and access everything that is on offer for us.
The less we try wanting to be or become something and with that, needing a certain job for recognition, the less thirsty we will be. Then we realize that the glass of water is just always there, as it is inside us. Most people swim in a big pool of water, but are stlll thirsty, because their focus is only on the horizon. They don’t even realize there is water all around them.
I can feel the truth in what you say Mariette- “I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.’
I love what you shared about our self-worth not being dependent on what job we do or title we have but rather based on the relationship we choose to have with ourselves and therefore always in our control.
This strength of knowing who we are and valuing that as the foundation of all we do, has to come from within and solidly so because if we start looking for validation for how important our job is from the outside we will crash and burn. The way the world is set up is with a scale of the importance of jobs. This is intended to separate us and so many times we have fallen for it. Every job is indeed important because each job supports another. We bring the awesome foundation of ourselves to each job, our unique quality.
I see how unhappy identifying with what we do rather than who we are can make us. It is a worldwide scourge.
I love how reading your words here Mariette it is clear that not only does every job matter, from the cleaner to the CEO, but every task and action we do in our day, matters this way too. There is no item or meeting that is more important than another – no moment more significant that the way you choose to move right now. Talk about changing the workplace agenda!
No job is any less important than another as we all need each other to exist and function. We all need to value ourselves for who we are rather than identify ourselves by what we do. . . this is very important to remember as we live in a society that promotes competition and comparison. Thank you Mariette
So beautifully expressed Mariette. Every job is equally important because when we bring our innate quality to everything we do. We are in service to all and it does not matter if you are a cleaner, CEO of a company or a electrician we all have our own ‘flavour,’ to bring to the all.
“…Work is something I do, it is not who I am…” A terrific statement Marietta, that would be worth its weight in gold to be threaded into all apprenticeships, courses and job-training programs.
Thank you Mariette, identification can only ever separate us, a facade that veils the equal essence we are.
Every single job matters so our world can work with order and efficiently. We all are an equal part that makes up the whole.
Very beautiful Mariette. It is true that wherever we are needed, whoever needs our reflection, we will be called to such situations and offered the opportunities to reflect. When our job is done, we are called to other situations, and these job or people relationships will end, but the connection is made and is on-going. There is nothing self-serving or can be attached to in such relationships, ah, and that is how relationships are truly true!
To support children to follow what they truly feel when young and not impose any ideal about what is a successful path to follow as far as study or work choices go allows them to connect to themselves and build a relationship with what is true for them. When we know our true self worth we know our value in the quality we bring and who we are, and nothing outside of us will change this.
Thank you Marietta, for a great blog, so many of us are attached to the idea that what we do defines who we are. This of course brings in comparison and judgment. When we are able to just bring us to the job and be all that we are in it, then every job has its own importance, not one more that the other as all are part of the whole picture.
Thank you Mariette, I particularly felt this was true ” My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.”
As a man we often identify with work as who we are and ‘throw ourselves’ into a role and become it – crazy, as the same person, no matter what job is being ‘done’, is the same person. Some person said that we all have 7 careers in us – so would that mean we have 7 different people – I don’t think that is at all reasonable!
The shift is in bringing who we are to what we do…rather than bringing what we do to who we are
Love this Mariette – ‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life’
Thank you Mariette, so beautifully exposed. Our identification with what we do is what this world is built on. And the ‘importance’ or ‘value’ we place on job titles is evidence of this. I very much relate to all you have said as I have a similar experience and have been in the trap of feeling less than because my chosen working path doesn’t look like the traditional well-carved career plan. It’s taken some adjustment and some dedication to building a loving relationship with myself where I know my worth from within rather than from what I do…and now I can fully appreciate how every job I have done has contributed to the confidence, presence and authority that I bring to what I do now… As you say so beautifully Mariette, we all have something to bring, with no one any more or less than another simply because of a title.
On a daily basis when we choose to ‘ engage as part of the puzzle in life’ allowing each piece to come together we see our place and purpose. It is then not about a fixed view of how we see work, but a gorgeous interplay that keeps presenting evolutionary moments that keep building and deepening, that’s not contained between 9-5 and the richness this brings isn’t about our pay packet at the end of the week.
Awesome blog Mariette, reading it made me realise how similar images and expectations we have around job titles. I am also learning what you’ve so beautifully shared here is that we are all equally important and vital no matter what part of the job we are in, without one the others roles will not function efficiently or effectively. Our work place is like a model of our body, every role is like a different part of our body, we need all parts of it which makes up the whole to function to its optimum potential. I now understand that every job matters and are of equal importance and your blog confirms this.
I completely agree with you Mariette, that each job I do is about people and not so focused on what I do. Either it is for my office team member or a customer out in the field and what I do and how I perform comes from the quality how this will support what they do. As Marietta states its about the quality of connection to people – that is my job.
Such a great confirmation Mariette, ‘every job’ for me is every aspect of what I do. I may not work in a 9-5 job anymore but every interaction I have matters. I had also to get over the image of being semi retired and the assumed life of leisure that would be to follow, I didn’t choose that path and have many involvements that keep me in contact with many people and my commitment is to keep working, in fact never been more involved and appreciating of the opportunities that keep presenting.
I have always avoided leadership and have often said I would hate to be a manager, but in the last couple of years I have done just that but haven’t seen it as that but rather me taking the lead and supporting others to get a purpose activated. In fact I lead a group of 10 through an entire 2 year pilot and didn’t even really think about it, rather just stayed focussed on how I lived my life and trusted that we would get to where we were going. It was beautiful and simple. no rah rah leadership books needed just simple connection and self love.
I love how Serge often shares that our bodies are made for work and that in fact is what our bodies want to do, yet because we live life in so much force rather than flow and connection we start to dread our work and try to get out of it or do the least amount possible rather than joyfully working.
I know that I could work anywhere. Like you I have had jobs doing lots of different things and I have enjoyed almost all of them, kiwi fruit picking was hard and so was grading them – probably the most unpleasant job as you couldn’t talk to anyone due to the noise of the machinery and the intensity of the job. But even in that I love working with others on one thing, loved the way we were like ants all doing different jobs to get the end product. So much more joy is there to be had if we go about these tasks with the knowing of the value of us being ourselves and aligned naturally to divinity. Then it becomes really fun – i have yet to live this but have seen it done so know that life can be very joyous.
The world is set up in a way that from very young we are encouraged to define ourselves by what we do not who we are in essence. This is a set up to keep us from surrendering into our stillness and connecting with the fact that we are all Sons of God and are only on this planet to learn what we need to so as get out of here.
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do” – a wise statement that i certainly did not grow up with or receive as career counsel when choosing a career/job, which, without the aspect of true self-worth being the primary anchoring focus, can be the most stressful time ever as i experienced myself during university. The more the relationship with oneself is established, the less important the actual role/career/profession/job choice becomes, and the more clarity there is about what a job and its purpose truly is: our service to humanity by being all that we truly are, and inspiring those along the way with maximum possible exposure of this quality.
This is such a great blog to read and to break that crazy idea that we only have value by what we do in life, not how we are and the quality of what we do.
I have always enjoyed working, and started my first business when I was eight and went on trying all different jobs throughout my life, but for a long time I only wanted to work part time and had this picture in my head that I was smart if I didn’t have to work all the long hours that other people did. These days, my perception has changed and I work full time in addition to running my own business and I often work on the weekends. I do this because I love every day that I work so work to me is no longer a drag but something that I enjoy. It is great when you can change how you see things and how you do them, after all we spend a lot of our lives working, so we may as well make the most of that time and enjoy it.
‘The beauty is, most of the jobs I have done found me, instead of me finding them. I always believed, and still do, that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something’ – reading these words I can instantly feel that we all have a place and purpose in the world and to bring all of ourselves to each moment of each day and to meet what presents is all that is needed. Humanity has forgotten, or more honestly disconnected to, who they truly are – Divine Son’s of God. It is time to re-connect and know that in love everything is equal. Thank you Mariette.
“I come to work as Mariette, and I leave my work as Mariette” – love the simplicity of this Mariette, how many of us can even say we come to work as ourselves, let alone leave feeling the same?! Such is the curse of identification that stops the joy at work, and us in our jobs…something that’s very entrenched in those i meet in my Recruiting post who are looking to change jobs, and for the job to provide the answer to current malaise. Changing jobs to fix, or to keep ejecting from them often shows signs of commitment that runs within the person to flow into their job making it difficult to stay in one. When we make it about us, and not the actual job, the job becomes a reflection of ourselves and our self-holding in life: a joy within ourselves = joy within the job.
On reading your blog, I thought back on all the different jobs I have done and laugh as I have done so many different ones, from managing stables, working on super yachts, cleaning, massaging, supervising, waitressing, cooking, managing a printing business, business advisor, travel agent, owning businesses and many more and I did at times get caught up with the title; but remember once being told as the receptionist of a fancy hotel that I was not permitted to be friends with the cleaners because they were under me. I was so shocked as to me, we are all the same, we are all equal we just have a different job role and title and that should not change a thing.
Thank you Mariette, your blog raises some great points such as this ‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’ Very true and living this way is a game changer and deepens the love and respect we hold for ourselves and others.
I have had so many jobs in my life – at least around fifty, and I was identified with all of these jobs to varying degrees.
After ten plus years of listening to the presentation by Serge Benhayon, I have lovingly worked on leaving the identification behind and completely understand I am not my job. I now take ‘me’ to work and no longer look for recognition and an acceptance – now I am just part of a team. If I in any way think I am more than or less than another, it becomes a judgment of self and others and this is love-less. Slowly over many years I am under no illusion and I still have issues to work on, but my life is steadily changing.
This is a really important topic, thank you for sharing Mariette. It is very much needed for us to bring all of who we are to any and all jobs that we do and not just identify our self-worth on a picture of how we think our work life should look.
I love your blog, and I love my job. I will share this blog too with the young people I work with for sure as it is inspiring. It really doesn’t matter what your job is, what matters is you and who you are.
“We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.”
Well said Mariette. A puzzle is only a puzzle when there are pieces missing. Together we get the job done – we all bring our All to life.
You raise a valuable point here Mariette, that our true identity/worth is based on our being and not doing. For too long we have let a vast array of imposed ideals and beliefs about who we ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ be, shape and define us into who we are not, instead of connecting to our essence (the all that we are) and making the choice to bring this in full into all that we do.
I love how you point out that it is how we are with ourselves and how we are then relating with other people that really matters and that it is the quality we choose to live in, energetically so, that really makes the difference.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.” Beautiful, Mariette. I agree wholeheartedly, every job matters and is equally important, but in the past I would not have understood that. I used to think it was so great to have a university degree and have a successful career, and pushed my then children to that same aim. They are very grown up now, and have grown children of their own, but I have suggested to them over the past few years that the most important thing in a future job is that they are loving what they are doing and to do it caringly, To me now, even the previously lowly regarded cleaner is such an important person in any home or any place of employment, and maybe the most important. That person sets the whole tone and feeling of the day with the way that he/she cleans the area. If, say the office, is cleaned in a very loving, caring way, then the whole energy of that area will sparkle with the love with which it was done. What a beautiful space then for those who work in there that day. Absolutely agree with you again, every job is equally important, it is the way that we do it that matters.
Just yesterday I was in a public toilet, it was the end of a day at a large shopping centre. When I first walked in I was struck by how messy and dishevelled they were. As I sat, I found myself pondering the cleaners who had to meet that at the end of every day, and how they might feel being the ones who had to ‘clean up’ after those of us who had used the facility. Given that cleaning jobs are commonly considered some of the lowest paid (and hence lowest ranking) jobs, I could easily and understandably imagine resentment creeping in. To understand our purpose and true value in life, goes a very long way towards supporting what you’ve shared Mariette, for to know we are equal, we must also know who we are and hence our value, inherent in being ourselves and not in anything we actually do.
Very inspiring Mariette. It is so true that when we embrace and appreciate who we are in essence first we realise that it matters not what job we do, as all that we do will hold a quality of our presence that brings lightness, connection, power and Love to wherever we are and with whoever we meet.
Society does indeed impose a strong consciousness of what jobs are considered to be seen as succeeding in life and which jobs are considered less acceptable through which we are then identified socially as to what ‘demographic’ or social standing we belong to. We have given our power away to such constructs to believe only those in particular jobs are powerful and those in those particular job have a false sense of feeling powerful because they are in those jobs. When in fact there is no difference to the power that we can all work with when we are in connection to who we are in essence, be it a CEO of a company or a waitress, none whatsoever. As both come to work, meet people, make decisions that impact others, imprint the space they work in with the quality of presence they bring with them. All that they do is felt by all they meet and the footsteps that were walked during that day what is left for all to meet the next day. With this there can be no comparison as to which job is more important as in truth we are all powerful when we are in connection to who we are within and this can be appreciated and lived through whatever work we do.
“Working as a receptionist gives me the space to meet a lot of people, to connect and to talk about life and everything that has to do with it. For me it is not so much about the tasks I have to do, but far more about the connection I have with the people around me.” What a beautiful sharing, Mariette, I love what you have expressed here, and what a great opportunity you have in your job as a receptionist, to share the beautiful woman that you are. You obviously enjoy being your true self, and that is so key to the great connection you have with all the people around you.
I agree with so many things that you have said here Mariette. It is definitely true that we are ALL EQUAL and VALUABLE. I love that you describe that you bring your flavour and your colleagues bring theirs. I love this about working in a team as everyone does have their own flavour even if we are doing the same roles. My working days are just the same too in that I love Mondays and on Fridays I’m not longing to get out of the office at all!
It is one thing to say we are all equal and everyone matters equally, and another to live it out in a world that is measuring us constantly by the sort of checks and balances you’ve described. There is a lot we have bought into that needs breaking down so thank you Mariette for this very insightful start to this process.
Your blog Mariette highlights the importance of being ourselves regardless of what we do. I know I have so often changed who I am for the job that I am doing and how much this has exhausted me. One of the biggest roles I have played was being a yoga teacher. When I first started teaching yoga, I decided that yoga teachers were ‘nice’ people therefore I started being ‘nice’ regardless of what I was feeling. I was not being authentic with what I was feeling on any given day. This led to putting on a mask so to speak and playing a role of what I thought I should be based on ideals. Since coming to the work of Universal Medicine, that has completely changed. I bring me the authentic me to whatever it is that I do. I now love work and no longer get exhausted by it.
In the early part of your blog I could feel a freedom and not being identified by a role. I have worked in the same career my whole adult life and can feel there is an attachment and identification with the role I play and that can at times lose the freshness and spark of how I would naturally be within that without the attachment.
We tend to judge each other by the title of what we do and say that a person is more important because they are a CEO or a doctor than say a cleaner. However, a cleaner who brings his or her true quality to the job is very important because they can clear the whole building and set the foundation for everyone else who comes to work. Alternatively, a cleaner who is in low self-worth or resentment can be spreading that energy all over the building. EVERY person and job has an equally important and valuable part to play.
I completely agree Mariette, it is not about the job or the title but about the quality we bring to what we do.
Not having a career (in a country that produces jobs) is very freeing compared to the sets of restrictions linked to the need to invest in order to keep and increase our market value.
The idea of a career holds the image that in life we can and should get somewhere and that those that make it farther are those who hold a higher level of wellbeing.
What a Joy to read this blog Mariette. It is so simple, yet so so True. We need each other. I’ve just been in a period of applying for a new job – february until recently – and I’ve noticed how much control I actually wanted… Where as the job that got offered wasn’t even a job that I directly applied for. We don’t control life, we’re offered life. And the more I surrender to it, the more beauty unfolds. The job found me and I Joyfully have said yes to it. Thank you life for teaching the Magnificence of you.
We don’t control life we are offered life, wise words Floris, for when we let go of the fight, all we have left to do is surrender, and in the surrender, grace can flow, and life unfolds.
Not choosing a clear career path usually carries a social stigma. There is no box where you can place and be placed. This tends to make people nervous.
A small note on the title, “Every job matters”. This isn’t limited to ‘work’ as your blog is also showing. Our definition of a ‘job’ can be narrow at times but typing on a keyboard, having a shower, making a tea etc all can be jobs. In that way it’s expanded on the care we have because truly ‘every job matters’.
“…my sense of worth does not depend on what job I do. I am not worth more because of the job title I have.” This is lovely Mariette and a timely reminder for me about being me first. I have always judged myself by what I do, not so much in job title, but by the amount of work I do or the importance placed on that work, rather than just being me first and the work I do being an outcome of being myself. My best work is always when I have a deep sense of who I am and that I am part of a bigger picture.
Choosing your path regarding what you plan on doing in the future is pretty much normal on those social circles where there is the possibility of choice. We tend to identified others and to be identified based on such choice. The question though is how much that choice truly reveals about you and your choices?
Hello Mariette and I remember getting towards the end of leaving school and the pressure I felt to have a job. I’d worked for a number of years after school in different places and really enjoyed it but it was time for me to decide what to do with my life, or that was what I thought at the time anyway. Security was important to my family, a government job with super was on the list. A couple of my mates were applying to go into the Police and so I jumped on that too. It seemed to tick the box as an answer to people and so I went with it. In the end I was the only one that applied and was accepted. It took a little while and to be honest I didn’t think it would ever happen. Thirteen years later I left the Police vowing to never work again. Only 12 months later I was back in work. What I found and as you say is that it is the connection with people and community that makes me tick. I don’t really mind what job is in front of me I apply the same dedication and that is to connect with people. Everything grows from truly connecting with whatever and whoever is in front of you, seems simple now but it wasn’t always the case. I was always looking for a missing part of something no matter what job I did and how much it paid and the missing part was how I am with myself, a quality.
I am just discovering the same thing as I am working at my student job. I felt all along that it was a little less but the more I am being all of me, connecting with others and make it about that, this job feels as equally as important as my future job I am studying for. Like you say it is about the expression we bring that is unique and a part in the whole that no one else can bring that makes us matter, what ever we do.
Beautiful Mariette – it shows us that love comes with no titles and that when we identify ourselves with jobs/tasks we are leaving less space to actually feel who we are first. We are so beautiful – and whatever we can do or are “good” at is an extra , but never it! I love how this blog is about being over doing, and how this allows us to connect instead of neglecting what is so precious within everyone – an essence that is a forever connection, which we all carry in each one of us in an unique way. So it is important to stick with what we feel first and then look at tasks,projects, jobs, certainties, improvements, etc.
I have had similar experiences as you Mariette. I still find that one of the first questions asked of me when making a new connection with someone is “what do you DO?”. I find a lot of people are already in the judgement before I answer. I did a lot of cleaning work over the past 5 years. I also have a list of the many other jobs I have had. After I had listened to and attended some presentations by Serge Benhayon of Universal Medicine, I started to learn about energy. I learnt that it’s the quality of energy I do things in and not what I am doing that brings me the joy from the ‘job’. So from the moment I could connect with myself in that way with that understanding, life is mostly a joy no matter what the task.
As I read this article Mariette, it reminded me of when I worked at a receptionist in a therapy clinic, and also for a hair testing clinic, both lowly paid jobs but ones that I enjoyed enormously as I found I could connect to the person on the other end of the phone who was seeking help and help him or her to make choices and take responsibility for their health. Feeling into the person came naturally to me and down-the-line when I did the first courses with Serge Benhayon, I realised this was a natural training for the work I do now as a practitioner with Universal Medicine.
Just appreciating as I read this Mariette, just how much EVERY SINGLE job really does matter, no matter what it is. Be it doing the dishes to taking out the washing to picking up the dog poo or working in a big company. It is all the same. We can bring our all to all we do and it all benefits! When we start placing value and ranking jobs based on what we do, it is a sign we are starting to place our worth based on what we do instead of who we are.
‘My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.’ – Beautifully said Mariette, true self-worth is learning to truly value ourselves for who we are, regardless of what kind of work we do, how much money we bring home or what kind of social environment we find ourselves in etc.
I feel we have gotten the importance of jobs upside down entirely in todays society. How did we get to a point where stockbrokers and bankers have become more influentual then teachers and health workers? How come most of the best earning jobs in this world are in no way contributing to a better world for all? We have sacrificed education, care and brotherhood to the world of finance and profit.
It is easy to get tricked into thinking one job is more important then another but if we look at it from an energetic point of view it becomes very clear that it is not about what we do at all, but about the quality we do it in. It is this quality that will add to this entire world by way of the rippels it creates and the imprint we thus leave, no matter what we do.
I love your blog Mariette as it debunks quite a few strongly held idea’s and beliefd about who we are and our jobs. It is so ver common to identify ourselves with what we do and with that measuring our value. As you say we all matter and all have a Unique SER if qualities, values and skills to bring to what we do.
‘…I just have to bring me.’ To be ourselves where ever we are or what we do is a process, at least I feel I am learning to be me regardless where or with who I am. Learning to make mistakes and to be open to all. Then there is joy and connection and that’s what life is about. And to be at work is an equal important part of life just like anything else is.
“I bring my flavour, and my fellow receptionist colleagues bring their flavour to the job. Together we form an awesome team. Every single one of my colleagues is great at certain aspects of the job, and so am I (and with certain things I am not so great and that is fine too).” This is beautifully said and when we realise that we will see that we are all a part of the whole that without the whole cannot work, equally so.
Thank you Mariette, work is a huge topic when it comes to self-worth and the position we hold in society. But as you say we make it that way as in truth it is not. I can relate to it, it has also taken me a while to realise and truly live the fact that no matter what I do I am not more or less than anybody else regardless of their position, money status, skills etc. It is the quality we choose that either reaches all or only some. And by putting jobs into better or lesser categories we put a distance between each other which creates a gap that simply does not have to be there.
In many cases, there will be particular jobs and occupations where our skills can be better utilised than in others. However, In order to feel that we are ‘above’ a particular type of job, we first need to subscribe to a belief about what ‘type’ of person does particular ‘types’ of jobs. If we have ‘types’ of people then we are seeing everyone from all walks of life as being our genuine equal.
Our only real ‘job’ is to bring our true selves to everything we do. The work we choose to do is just another aspect of life to bring our all to.
Beautiful to read this absolute truth about what every job is really about. I particularly love this … “My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do.” Before coming to Universal Medicine I was living my life with this the other way round and made what I did who I was. This never full filled me as I was always looking for more to make me more. Knowing I already am everything just being the awesome me, making my life about who I am and what I bring is so much more rewarding.
Mariette this is beautifully expressed and so true. Every job in the world is equally important, e.g. we need cleaners as we need manager. And it´s so important that we don´t identify ourselves by what we do but by who we are because only then can we bring all of us and all that´s needed to the work instead of working to get recognition and make it about ourselves.
‘My self-worth comes from within’ — golden words Mariette, that make all the difference to whether we can truly enjoy our job, or not.
It’s a game changer to really bring ourselves to what we do… whatever the job may be it becomes enjoyable when we bring us to it, as opposed to wanting and expecting the job to fill us up with distraction and entertainment because of not being with ourselves in the first place.
“Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life” – this is so important. All our life, we learn we have to be good at something, look a certain way, we have to become something to somehow earn a rightful place in the world (i.e. feel ‘loved’) and our true value is so displaced. We get pummeled into thinking that we are nothing otherwise. Someone like you, Mariette, is so needed to show the world the truth of our value.
I totally agree Mariette, every job matters, respecting this fact forms the basis of real team work.
I love that you love everything you bring to anything and everything you do. Life is so much more fun when we say yes to bringing us to it, rather than dragging our feet and living from pictures of what life ‘should’ be like.
We have a pecking order of jobs. Ones we value and have a certain prestige, and others that are considered less worthy. I still hear parents claiming they want their children to be a doctor or a lawyer. That is what I heard form my parents growing up. I became neither, but we then judge ourselves and others based on what type of job we have. Its crazy but still a very ingrained part of they way our society functions.
Making work about connecting with people brings in a whole new way of being at work. If we are not identified with the job or dependent on it to make us feel worthy we are free to enjoy whatever we do and we bring our quality to it. As you say Mariette, “We are all needed and we all bring something unique.” A business could not run without the cleaner so why would he not be just as important as the manager.
I remember working in a company where I put leaflets into envelopes. That’s all I did for 7 hours a day for 6 weeks and I loved it. What made it fun was the way me and my work colleagues were with each other. I have blamed jobs as being the reason for my unhappiness in the past, but I can see it was more about my attitude and how I was in the job that had the most effect. A perfect example is my current job, that I almost resigned from last year, but that I now love.
“I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home.” How lovely that you can be you at work Mariette, and not have to play a role or live up to expectations and how lovely it is for those you speak to throughout the day. People often judge a business by the way the receptionist greets them and by bringing love to work you are making an important contribution to the business.
My working experience has been exactly the same! I’ve loved every one of them and realised that its not what i do but how i do it that really counts. All jobs are needed and we each bring something so special to each of them. yet, a lot of emphasis is put on status and pay scale… Missing out on the glory that each of us hold.
“that we are all needed somewhere to bring something and to receive something” So true, everywhere we go we have the opportunity to learn and grow, and bring this to another. What awesome opportunities – everywhere.
Thank you Mariette – this is very healing to read, to learn to trust that I don’t need to know what it is I’m going to be doing and that it really doesn’t matter what that is and that all I need to do is bring all of me to whatever it is. And to simply just be me. It would seem that it is far less about what it is that we are doing that it is about our connection with people and how we are in that.
We get identified with what we do, but indeed it is not who we are. There is so much richness we can bring to work when we realise it is about people, and value the purpose our job serves.
What a lovely read! I love how you shared it is so common to think of jobs as having a career and that its okay to do it a different way as you have done. I love how you have had many jobs and with different varieties. A lot of jobs these days say they want people with prior experience, which is understandable but I like how the jobs have found you.
Mariette, how gorgeous and there are so many beautiful gems in this blog. The absolute gift in what you have written comes in the many jobs you have done with the one element that was and is constant – and that is ‘You’. You have brought all of who you truly are to everything you are doing and love emanates from you to all others. You are right – all jobs matter and it is not what we do but what we bring. Appreciate, appreciate, appreciate.
What a tremendous blog. Thank you for taking the time to bring light to this important topic. To climb the corporate ladder, or to build a career, or to have pictures in our head as to how much we should be earning and what role we should be doing can be so so so limiting. It can stop us from working with companies and in roles that we could bring so much to and learn so much from. I love what you are bringing to this conversation.
Mariette what was also interesting to read was how you feel the same on Mondays as you do on Fridays, that in itself is unusual. Certainly in the past I can remember a slight sinking feeling on Sunday night at the prospect of work, Monday and Tuesday dragged by, Wednesday I was over the hump and then Thursday and Friday were positively on the up. Looking back it was because my connection to myself was very tenuous and so I was buffeted and buoyed around a lot dependent on my surrounds. Now however my relationship with myself is solid and so what is going on around me has far less effect on how I feel.
Mariette you bring such freshness to the discussion around work. The way that you describe how you feel about the jobs that you have had is not the way that most people commonly describe the roles that they have had. So many things stood out as being different but perhaps the main one is how you are not identified by your role at work but by your relationship with yourself. Your attitude is like a welcome breath of very fresh air.
This is gorgeous Mariette, and you are so right in saying that every job matters regardless of the industry or specific tasks involved because we can ALL support the community and humanity in what we do. The driver of a delivery van and a doctor can equally make a difference to the world through the quality of their activity during the working day, and by looking after themselves, their families and their bodies which supports them to serve in their field.
Mariette thank you for a superbly written article which exposes so much of the conditioning and mis truths that we have been constructed around jobs, work and identity.
Hi Mariette, it is so lovely to hear someone truly love what they do and that it is not about a job title but about people. I feel this is often forgotton and see it especially more now where people are not being valued for who they are and what they do, bring or for their loyalty within a company. In many cases it is get rid of people that have worked there a long time so another person can be brought in where they are cheaper. I have done so many different jobs over the years I have lost count but I also know that while it doesn’t matter what we do we can also use jobs to hide, numb ourselves and stay in a form of comfort instead living our full potential and purpose; as even though I have connected with the people I have worked with over the years I have used jobs, subconsciously in this way. However, I can joyfully say this is no longer the case as Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have helped me to clear old patterns, ill ideals and beliefs and the work I do now is from my heart and with purpose although I can still feel a few areas where I am holding back … forever work in progress 😀💕
Absolutely Vicky, we can for sure use jobs to hide or to stay in comfort. The beauty is, for me I really had to commit to work again, no matter what kind of work so I was truly out there, Now that I have fully embraced this job, I can feel that I am needed in other areas of work. But when this happens, this is not coming from self or for recognition, but because this is what I have to bring and do, even if it might feel a bit uncomfortable.
Every job in the world is important, every role we work in effect the rest of the world in some way, from those who do the photo copying and clean the toilets, to those who perform open heart surgery and makes the laws – we cannot work without one, for if there is no one to clean the hospital, the doctors can’t work there. If there is no one to do the filing, then the company wont function properly. The role may seem small but like in our bodies, if even one small seemingly insignificant things doesn’t do its job, the whole system can stop working.
Having once been a ‘lone ranger’ I have been learning that working in a team is actually really beautiful when we work in accord and with respect and appreciation of each other. Each person brings their unique ‘flavour to the job, each one has a skill or two that another may not have and if ever we need to ask for help or information there is someone who willingly shares it knowing that we all learn and prosper from doing so. I agree Mariette, we are all of value. Lovely blog.
Mariette thank you for writing about your work perceptions. I too can relate to your story. The way you have found your appreciation in all that you are and not what you do. This is gold. The fullness of us is what makes how we are at work all the difference to everyone, especially with ourselves.
A joy reading your article, I can feel the joy and openness that you share with everyone who comes through work and life…. It is gorgeous to feel the equality that you meet all with, thank you.
Every job, involves people, in some way, jobs, business, the rest of life is all part of the same whole. Making relationships where we can start from, every day and the connections that can develop from this deeply support us all.
Absolutely ‘equally important’ “I don’t change into a role or a function, I am just me, the same as I am at home. Secondly, I know deep down that every job matters and is equally important.” We are who we are regardless of the ‘role’ we take, Our true worth comes from connecting with our true essence and that is something that can not be altered through what we do. We can attempt to hide it with the costumes of ‘roles’ and ‘doings’ but they are false ornaments, we are all equally beautiful within regardless of what we attempt to show and dictate on the outside.
My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do. This is exactly what I needed to hear at this time Mariette as I could feel these thoughts trying to come in during the week also, making me question my job and what I do. But I am realising, as you so beautifully say Mariette, it is never about what we do but our own unique quality that we bring in all that we do, because we are doing it with our gorgeous selves.
I have cleaned hotels, worked in pubs, ran sheltered housing scheme, managed volunteer programs with different roles in management and all of them have felt the same, it has been about relationships and people. I never felt I was less or more important in the role I have worked in. I now run a business with my husband, we have a staff team with us. Making myself more superior to them is not the answer to a supportive working environment, we all have our roles and they are all essential to support the whole.
I have felt like this about work “I have never been the career type either, planning my future and needing a specific function within a company. For me, most importantly, working had to be about people: being with people and working with and for people.” I did not always have the skills to work with people the way I wanted to, I used to be emotional and be involved in the drama of work even though I regretted. I am much more self aware and responsible now and this has made a big difference in how I respond to situations and the relationships I have are blossoming because of this change.
It is so ingrained to identify ourselves by what we do…something we measure our sense of self worth by. It’s beautiful that you share all jobs matter because we all matter. Every job has a purpose of service in it that will support someone else in every way. Developing our sense of self -worth from the “being” part not the “doing” part of ourselves is super important.
What this blog exposes is the judgment, pictures, ideals and beliefs we hold as a society about so called perceived good job/ careers and what we think are not. Instead of honouring and valuing the person and the qualities they bring to their chosen field of work and how this supports us as a whole society / group/ company.
Often these ideals and beliefs get fed to us from a young age because many people think money will buy them happiness, so it’s good to have a career based on income and not love and true service. That is not to say well paid jobs are not great, but it is to honour and hold equal value in everything we chose to do, and honour a persons choice no matter what they choose, rather than try to convince them of another way based on our own unloving choices, so called wrong decisions, or hurts, as often parents or teachers do this with kids, instead of allowing the child / teenager to share and make choices for themselves. They may say they want to be a hairdresser, run a shop, be a joiner etc but this may be looked down upon and suggested they go to University. The answers do not lie here, I have seen many people who have gone into University miserable and unhappy, and others who have followed their heart living truly joyful. But, I am not saying University etc is wrong, far from it, for some this is great, it’s about honouring and respecting everyones choices and decisions, and seeing that what we all hold and work at is of equal importance.
I use to get caught up in looking for recognition through my job and always craving for more when one day I realised that I am already everything that I need to be and nothing else could make me feel any better. However, I love my job and the people I am working with and love equally the people I am serving.
It is a strong paradigm to face, isn’t it… that the worth and value of who we are is based upon how we are defined by our work and ‘what we do’. We seek to prove ourselves through what we do, and forget that without truly valuing ourselves in the first place, we are lost in a game in which we will never actually ‘be’ enough (though we may do well to fool ourselves that this is so).
Mariette, you have just hit the nail on the head of why so many may be discontent with their jobs and livelihoods. If we make it about what we do instead of who we are, not matter what job we are in, images and ideals dominate the way we tend to look at ourselves and our work.
It’s true, no matter what you choose to work, every role and every person is as equal to the next. For a school would not function without the cleaners, janitors, support staff, secretaries, dinner ladies, teachers and head teachers who all have an equal and just as important role to play, the same can be said for any company.
You’ve raised important points here Mariette – that of value and equality. No job is actually more or less than another, it is only ‘us’ who may make and allow this to be so.
I feel that my lack of committing to a job in full, and moving from one job to the next, was a lack of commitment to life and responsibility.
I can very much relate to that and understand that. Now that I am more committed to life than ever before, committing to full time work is a breeze. It is easy as.
Thank you Mariette, seeing that everyone has their place and their purpose with what they bring is very supportive to read. It feels like you are saying that there is no cause to feel burdened by the pressure to succeed, because we are all more than enough as who we are.
Teamwork at its best – everyone working together, bringing their own skills to their job (or anywhere) and nobody falling into the old trap of having to do it all in order to appear successful or competent. It is the most amazing experience to discover that we have no need to go into the stress and contraction of perfectionism and we are in fact, supported in full when so choosing, and do not have to ‘go it alone’.
“I bring my flavour, and my fellow receptionist colleagues bring their flavour to the job. Together we form an awesome team”.
I totally agree with you Mariette we are not what we do, but the energy we do our job in effects everyone and the energy we live in,effects the jobs we do.
How deeply ingrained is the identification with what we do, being the only thing that makes us feel we have value and it is who we are. Since attending presentations by Serge Benhayon I have found how totally ridiculous this is. Work is not, and never can be who we are – simply where we can bring the quality and expression of the truth of who we are .
“My self-worth comes from within and how I feel about myself. My worth has to do with the relationship I have with myself, how I treat myself and has to do with who I am, not with what I do”.
‘Every job matters. Not because of the job, but because we ALL matter, regardless of what we do. We are ALL of value and an equal part in the puzzle called life.’ A great sharing here. We do indeed all matter and when we can’t see this we are setting ourselves up to put systems and recognition before the individual. We have a way to go yet before we all have equal appreciation and consideration for one another but conversations like these are really needed to get us started!
Beautiful Mariette. “We live in a world where having a career or having a certain job is seen as important, but also that some jobs are better than others.” I used to feel too that what I did was important because of the status it would afford me. Where is the service in this? Work becomes all about self and not about connection to others. What you articulate is super important because when we approach life and work in the way you have described we can appreciate ourselves and others for what they bring. Life is much richer when shared this way and we no longer feel pressure to ‘perform’.
It is gorgeous to feel the quality coming through every word you write, of you being so deeply connected within your body Mariette.