Firstly, we need to examine what we are told about work. We’re often told things like, “If it were fun, they wouldn’t call it work,” and “You work to make money during the week so that you can enjoy the weekend.” We’re told that work is strenuous effort performed under the watchful eyes of authority. We’re told we have to work to earn enough money to retire. Really? You’re going to endure decades of misery and then what? What happens if you don’t like retirement, or worse, if your health quickly deteriorates after you retire?
No. These beliefs about work are both common and incorrect. They are horribly misleading, and this book will attempt to dismantle them one by one.
Since we need to find a way of earning money, some people simply accept the first job they are offered. They don’t give it much thought. Others spend more time thinking about their careers. They look for a secure and prestigious job. They like to tell others that they’re an “Executive Director at National Bank” or that “I run my own business.”
You might feel proud that you’ve landed a high-profile job or that you own a successful business. You are comforted that others believe you are doing something respectable.
But here’s a quieter question that bubbles up beneath the surface: How does the work actually feel day in and day out, when no one’s watching? Specifically, does the work give you energy or drain your energy?
At first, it’s easy to gloss over this question. On the surface, social approval is comforting and hard to resist. Additionally, there’s nothing inherently wrong with seeking security, prestige, or material comfort.
But if these external achievements become your primary focus, a quiet restlessness emerges.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, you detect an uncomfortable feeling like a pebble in your emotional shoe. It’s that unnerving sensation that something just doesn’t feel quite right. It’s your heart speaking to you, refusing to be misled by any logical argument constructed by your mind. Your heart insists on fulfillment and will keep sending you signals until it feels satisfied. The purpose of the mind is to set the heart free.
When something seems amiss, you can feel it in your gut, which contains approximately 300 million neurons and is often referred to as the second brain. Pay attention to this feeling. These neurons operate independently of your conscious thinking, which means they can sense psychological difficulties in a way that the logical brain cannot comprehend.
This article is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Choose Your Work
Footnotes
It’s your heart speaking to you, refusing to be misled by any logical argument constructed by your mind: The psychological term for this is cognitive dissonance — the discomfort experienced when your actions contradict your beliefs, or when holding two or more conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. This theory was first presented by Leon Festinger in his book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. A common example he provided is that of a smoker who knows that smoking is harmful to their health. To reduce the discomfort of dissonance, the smoker might convince themselves that smoking does not have a detrimental effect on health. Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962), 6.
When something seems amiss, you can feel it in your gut, which contains approximately 300 million neurons and is often referred to as the second brain: The enteric nervous system (ENS) comprises about 100–500 million nerve cells in your gastrointestinal tract. Functioning independently of the central nervous system, it constantly communicates with your brain and significantly influences psychological states through its production of neurotransmitters. This connection forms the scientific basis for the gut feeling you experience in certain situations. See Sushruta Koppula et al., “The Gut-Brain Axis: Unveiling the Impact of Xenobiotics on Neurological Health and Disorders,” Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry136 (2025): 111237, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2024.111237.
Dan Dobos writes about decision making, personal growth, human potential, fulfillment and helping people choose the work that they are meant to do. He is the author of Choose Your Work.