Eat and Drink and Enjoy what you have worked for

Ecc 3:13 All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift

Enjoy that which you have earned. Herein lies a good habit which will go a long way to helping you maintain motivation. Motivation has to do with expectation. When we expect a desired result, chances are that we will be more motivated to do something. If we never gain any pleasure from our work, then the desirability of the result of our work becomes less and less – until it fades and we are merely driven from day to day, by whatever drives us – mostly fear, stress, worry, anxiety, and similarly destructive emotions.

If we regularly take a bit of time to enjoy what we have worked for, then there is a continuous resetting of the balance. We regularly step away from the things that drive us, enjoying the things that give us pleasure and enjoyment.

The subtle warning: Don’t enjoy what you have not worked for

There is also a subtle warning here, and that is in the “what we have worked for.” It is a subtle way of saying: “Don’t make debt, don’t do that impulsive buying.” You see, the moment you make debt to buy something you want, you are giving yourself the enjoyment of something for which you have not worked. You pull the gratification closer, and so you de-link the gratification from the effort of working for it.

Now you have debt, and you know the debt has to be paid. So, you are driven by fear, and you work because you MUST make the money to pay the debt. Your efforts are now linked to debt – a negative element in your life. Instead of having created a pattern of motivation because of the reward that lies at the end of the effort, you have created a pattern of motivation because of the fear of what would lie at the end of not making the effort. The gratification has already been received and consumed.

A Pattern of Destruction

When this becomes a pattern, it becomes incredibly destructive. Now you know you have debt, so you work as hard as you can to meet your required payment. For a few months you succeed in keeping this up, filling your life with self-discipline and ambition, driving yourself from day to day, with the only gratification that remains, the sense of knowing that eventually that debt will be settled. But then, one day, all the media and advertising gets to you again, you realize that you have now settled half the debt, and the bank has just invited you to increase that credit limit again. And you so desperately need that holiday, that one dinner out, that new holiday home, or that new shirt. Whether it’s a million dollar, or a hundred dollar temptation, makes no difference to the pattern. The pattern is that eventually you succumb, you take the gratification again – because after all, you’ve been working so hard! And now you have more debt, and you work hard again. But once again, the work comes after the gratification. The positive motivator has been had; it is no longer a motivator. What remains is just the fear of what will happen if you don’t pay back that debt. You have debt again, even more this time, you’re going to have to work even harder. You’ve just been had again! You’ve been set up for the next fall.

Pleasure is stolen from your work

Sub-consciously, you are now linking work with debt and fear. Over time, this association will become stronger and stronger. You will enjoy your work less and less, and eventually begin to hate it as much as you hate the emotions that are driving you to keep working. You have become a slave of the bank, a slave of your employer, a slave of society.

I don’t think many of us realize just how much of the joy of life has been stolen from us, through easy credit. There are few things as enjoyable as having worked for something, saved hard for it, finally getting it and then being totally free to enjoy it, without the burden of debt to weigh you down.

How do you get out of this cycle?

Breaking the Cycle

There are volumes written on this topic, so to try and offer a solution in one article, seems impossible. But one principle seems to have worked well for me:

With immediate effect, separate your debt from your other finances and make it inaccessible. If you have an overdraft, a credit card or a revolving credit plan, or a bond that you can access as soon as there are excess funds – freeze those. Give the access to someone else if you must. Figure out how much of that you can pay off – realistically – every month – and do that. Pay it, and forget about it. Don’t watch it, don’t set all sorts of “get out of debt” goals – because if you always think about your debt, you will just keep feeding debt.

Now you open a savings account, and you begin to save for whatever you want. Start with something small. Save for three months, and then reward yourself with that something small. Experience that gratification. Now you have broken the circle. Now you are ready to learn to live in a new lifestyle.