The Washington herald., 1917-01-03
Spirit in Which You Work.
BY JOHN d. BARRY.

"He who loves work gains all the
favor of the gods" says DR.. Frank
Crane
There is no doubt that, instead OF
being curse, work is mans greatest
blessing. There is no one thing that
has ever done so much for humanity,
that has given so much happiness,
saved so many human beings from
despair, and kept so many from
suicide; no one thing that has called
forth more hidden resources, de-
veloped and strengthened more pow
ers of mind and body as has work.
DR.. Richard c. Cabot, of the Har-
ward Medical School says: "A hu-
man being is creature who cannot
be healthy or happy or useful unless
his balance is preserved by motion,
by change, by action, by progress"
In other words, no man or woman
can be healthy, happy or useful if not
engaged in useful, productive work,
work that will be of some service to
mankind.
Many people have a sort of vague
impression that happy, constructive
life is something apart from the days
work, that it is a mystical something,
determined largely by fate or destiny.
The truth is, as experience and OBJ
servation constantly show, it depends
entirely on how we manipulate our
personal assets. The material OF
which success and happiness are built
is in our own hands. The building
is the work of every day. 1t consists
in living life up to its maximum pos
sibility of good. There is no un-
natural straining and striving in this.
II is simple matter of honest, earn
est, persistent endeavor every day; of
always trying to better our best and
to make Our highest moment perma-
ncnt. There is no future in the spirit
which approaches the days work by
looking on it as drudgery, by dread
ing it, hating it. Spelling that which
you might make masterpiece, which
might be so we'll done that it would
not only yield you infinite satisfac-
tion, but would also mean a great
deal to the world, is to put the big
gest sort of stumbling block in the
way of your own happiness and ad-
vancement.
The man who does not find JOY in
his work has not found his place in
life. The work we were made to do
is normal self-expression in the ex-
ercising of our strongest faculties,
and this should be perpetual de-
light.
God did not mean labor to be a
pain, but pleasure. The work one
is born to do is never drudgery. 1t
is the doing the thing we hate, the
thing we are not fitted for, that is
drudgery to us. It was intended that
every man should find tonic or slim
ulus in his work which would rob it of
all sense of tediousncss or WEAKNESS.
Even if you are for the time being
doing something that is not con-
genial, make the best of it. Throw
your whole soul into it, Do it with
manly, or a womanly spirit, in the
spirit of an artist, and you will rob
it of its drudgery.
Resolve that you will like it so long
as you are obliged to do it, and that
very mental attitude will be a step
in leading you to that work which
you were really meant to do.
When you work in a grudging, un-
willing spirit, you discourage your
success qualities. If you have level
head, good sense, and are willing to
work, you can make sufficient success
even in the thing you do not like to
enable you to open the door to some
thing else. But if you fzzle in what
you attempt, if you peter out, no.
body will have enough confidence in
you to give you bigger job, a bet
ter position.
| know a man who has made a re-
markable success in a business which
was so disagreeable to him for years
that he could scarcely endure it. But
he made up his mind at the start that
he could not afford to throw away
all OF the experience of years of hard
work for nothing, that he would do
his best and not worry about the re-
suit
Good work never goes unrewarded
The Willingness to do right, the spirit
which never tires of trying to do its
best, which puts willing effort into the
humblest or most disagreeablc task
this is the spirit which accomplishes
the great things of life.
If you bring this spirit to your
work, however humble it may be, it
will make man or woman of you;
it will make you respect yourself be-
cause you have done your best, be-