Making My Job My Passion

I am reading the book “The Martha Rules” by Martha Stewart. I have not finished the book, so I can not give a full review of it, but so far I am enjoying it.

In just reading the first chapter Martha got my attention. She discusses finding your passion. She is talking mainly about the business world, but I realized this also applies to me and my job as a homemaker

Here is what she says:

I am not alone in my passion for my work, for my life. Other entrepreneurs that I know have the same passion, and their excitement for their work and for their lives is electric and palpable. Whether they work for a large company, run their own business, are raising a family, or are organizing a fund raising event for a charity, they are tuned into anything and anyone that can make their plans and dreams come true. They are positive and optimistic. They always find a way to get the job done better, faster, and more energetically than those around them.

She goes on to say:

Passion is the first and most essential ingredient for planning and beginning a business or for starting and satisfactorily completing any worthwhile project. Without passion, work is just a chore. Without passion, quality the cornerstone of all businesses is simply about minimum standards. Without passion, the people who will benefit directly from your efforts-the customers-seem incidental.

And in the next paragraph she says:

When work is based in passion, it does not feel like work- it feels fulfilling and empowering, far more about creating, building, devising, initiating, leading, and serving than about simply moving through one task and on to another……….I never have housework to do. I have furniture to polish, I have vacuuming to do, and I have ironing to finish.

This really got me thinking. Not as is applies to our business, but as it applies to me and my life right now. The Lord has blessed me with the ability and the desire to be a stay at home mom. I would not want it any other way at this time in my life. Right now my family is my business, and my husband and kids are my focus. They are my employer, employees, and customer, all in one. But do I treat being a wife, mother, and home maker as simply a job that I have to do each and everyday? Has it become a chore or is it my passion?

The more I thought about this; the more I realized it has become mainly a chore. I love to cook; I have a passion for cooking. I find it relaxing, and rarely do I see cooking as a chore. But how do I treat cleaning up spilled milk, doing the dishes, mopping the floor, and cleaning the bathrooms? I treat them as a chore: something I sometimes dread and put off. I do not usually have a passion for doing these things, but I should. They are part of my job, part of what the Lord has given me to do. I need to give them my all, each and every day.

I need to evaluate my focus. I need to be sure my job as a wife and mother has not become a chore, but is my passion. I don’t want to get by with the minimum standard. I want to excel at it. I want to give it my all, my best. I want my business to matter. I want to focus on what the Lord has given me, and serve Him to the best of my ability in the job he has placed me in.

Martha says we need to be tuned into anything and anyone that can make our plans and dreams come true. She says we need to be positive and look for ways to get the job done better. Am I always tuned in to what my husband and kids need? No, I lack in this area. Am I always positive? No, I can be pretty pessimistic. Am I always looking for a ways to run my house more efficiently? No, I need to work on that. I need to see what I can do to make sure things are cleaner, neater, more organized, etc. I have dreams and plans for my family. I need to keep that in focus. They are what matters. What am I doing to make these dreams a reality? Am I doing what it takes to make them come true? Am I giving even the unpleasant tasks, my best, my all? I need to turn my chores into my passion.

I am looking forward to reading more of this book. I thought it would help me understand business better, but I had no idea it would help me refocus my efforts in my job as a wife and mother.

Sarah thought this would make a good post for My Favorite Things Monday. I agree. Visit Everyday Elegance to see more favorite things.