Para kanino ka bumabangon?
Above is the famous tagline from Nescafe and there are other similar ads from Jollibee, Knorr, and Coca-Cola that has the same theme on their ads: family as motivation. Family as their motivation when they were stressed out at work. I mean, on that angle they were right, however, there’s another angle too that you need to look into.
This motivational ads really touched the feelings of most adults especially those who are working and supporting their family. This ad is really for us modern slaves! At first thought, it sounds really a good idea to make your family as your motivation to keep going, to battle that stress that you’re feeling, to swallow everything. But for me, that should not be your motivation to work.
For me your work motivation should just be MONEY!
and that should only be the only one; do not involve your family or your dreams or anything that really matters to you because they are your weakness too. If you use money to motivates you, you are more conscious and more strategic in your decisions. In short, you can consciously separate emotions from your job.
Maybe you will say “I work because of my dreams or for my family, I make money for them“… well I agree on that! However, you need to dissect and put layers to that ultimate motivation. Think like this: your family is the king in the game of chess and your goal is to protect your king as you conquer the opponent. In chess there are other pieces like pawns and other officials at your disposal. The pawns and officials are the layers that I’m talking about and money is one of the officials that are protecting your king.
Not all of us were lucky to fit to a job that we really want or we really love. Despite of that we still give more than just our 100% a.k.a extra milestone. No wonder there were reports about work stress or burnout and depression.
If you put your family as the first layer, emotions will drown you and that is where depression, sleepless nights, deep sighs and other bad habits will appear. But if you put money as the first layer, (assuming you don’t love money or you are not that greedy) you can be conscious, you become strategic, you know your limits, and you know that your job or your work is not the only way to generate income. You can set boundaries and limits at work to keep things balance, especially in your mental health.
Though this is only applicable to non-passion jobs or jobs that we do for survival as a modern human being. Not all of us are lucky to work on a job that we love. If you are tired, unhappy then take a rest; prioritize yourself, your mental health and your overall health. If you are not really happy, strategically quit!
For me it’s really wrong that you put your family as motivation to the job that you are in where you know that you took it just to survive. That motivation that you are using is like the carrot while you are the donkey, however, if you are aware that you can actually don’t just eat carrot then you have the freedom to decide, and FREEDOM IS POWER, freedom frees some spaces in your mind.