Make the Most of Your Strength While Working
DO YOU often feel tired, worn out, before the end of your workday? If so, you can take comfort from the fact that you are by no means alone. Yet one cannot help but notice that some people tire out less quickly than do others; they seem to get more done with less expenditure of their strength. For them work is a pleasure, as it should be.
Work is a part of the Creator’s will for man. In the beginning he put the first man in the garden of Eden “to cultivate it and to take care of it.” That meant work. The principle that the Creator went by was later enunciated by the apostle Paul: “If anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat.”—Gen. 2:15; 2 Thess. 3:10.
Wisely and lovingly the Creator equipped man for working. He supplied man with strong bones and muscles so that he could do needed physical work, and an amazing brain with which man could do all manner of mental work. He also constituted us emotionally so as to get satisfaction and happiness from doing good and useful work. As wise King Solomon put it, “I have seen that there is nothing better than that the man should rejoice in his works, for that is his portion.”—Eccl. 3:22.
What will help you to make the most of your strength while working? One thing that will greatly help is taking an interest in your work. How so? Because of the power of the emotions over the body. When a young boy’s mother asks him to do some chores about the house, he may plead that he is tired. But the next minute he may be expending all manner of energy playing ball with his youthful neighbors. He finds the one activity emotionally satisfying, but not the other.
By taking a real interest in your work you can make it emotionally rewarding and so easier to do. And you can spark your interest in your work by analyzing why it is necessary, why it is work that needs to be done. Also you can increase your interest in it by reminding yourself of your own reason for doing it: because it supplies the necessities of life for yourself and your loved ones. And you can further increase your interest in your work by giving thought to improving the quality of it, or your efficiency in doing it. The resulting satisfaction will help you to dispel any feeling of boredom, which so often keeps a person from making the most of his strength while working.
If you would make the most of your strength while working, you also do well to learn to avoid unnecessary movements. A help in this regard is the arranging of your tools or materials in the most convenient way. Modern kitchens are designed so as to require a minimum of steps on the part of the housewife as she prepares her meals. She can use this principle in everything she does. So can the farmer, the mechanic, the carpenter and others. Employers often handsomely reward employees who come up with practical suggestions for improving the efficiency of an operation. For this very purpose efficiency experts are hired.
Helpful in this regard is using both hands whenever doing so makes a task easier or quicker to do. When lifting heavy objects, do not put the whole strain on your back by just bending over, but bend your knees so as to utilize the strength of your leg muscles. Failure to do this has caused many a man to rupture himself needlessly. On the other hand, do not involve more of your body than is needed to perform a certain task. Do not involve your whole arm when only your wrists or forearms are required to move.
Proper training should not be overlooked. Often haste to get going on a job causes one to neglect proper instruction or training and so one proceeds in a manner that is not efficient and wastes much time and strength. For example, one may acquire a typewriter and find much use for it. But if one does not take the time first to learn to use it correctly, by the “touch” system, one will use just a finger of each hand, the so-called “hunt and peck” system, which is no system at all. Not only is such typing slower and less likely to be accurate, but it is also far more wearying.
Being able to pace yourself is also helpful in conserving your strength while working. If you are both nervous and conscientious, you most likely are prone to go just as fast as you can go. As a result you are likely to make more mistakes as well as to be exhausted before your workday is ended. Learn to control your eagerness and to adopt a calm, steady pace. Then you will not be exhausted before quitting time and will even have some strength left for the evening hours.
Another factor to consider, if you would make the most of your strength while working, is not to burden yourself by overeating. Too rich and too heavy meals tend to slow you down and make application to tasks at hand more laborious. Such meals also tend to make you overweight, and the fat person often finds all manner of physical work much harder to do.
It is important to get sufficient rest and sleep. The amount of strength you have in the first place depends to a considerable extent on what you do each night. Do not pursue pleasures so avidly that doing your work becomes a hardship or boring. In particular is adequate sleep essential to restore your mental and nervous energy. It is even more vital than food and drink.
Especially do dedicated Christian ministers have good reason to make the most of their strength while working. Unlike others who often do not know what to do with their ‘spare’ time, their evenings and weekends, these invariably have “plenty to do in the work of the Lord.” In view of the times in which we are living, it is more important than ever that they be at their ministerial duties “urgently.”—1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Tim. 4:2.
But regardless of your vocation in life, it is the course of wisdom to give thought to making the most of your strength while working. It results not only in efficiency but also in satisfaction and enjoyment of your work.