Heigh-Ho and Other Core Beliefs

Like all core beliefs, our definition of work is born out of our childhood memories, experiences and perceptions. We develop knee jerk reactions, sometimes irrational thoughts, and inexplicable emotional responses to often unconscious stimuli. I’ve often told the story of how, growing up in the Catholic faith, we were repeatedly told that if we even stepped foot inside a protestant church, we would be struck down by lightening. To this day, I get a momentary pit in my stomach if I so much as walk into a Presbyterian vestibule. Irrational, yes but tell that to the inner acolyte lingering in my amygdala. My idea of work, as the word connotes, is drudgery, a means to an end. Something that has to be done, a chore — for money. Brings to mind our childhood parody of the Disney ditty, “heigh-ho heigh-ho, it’s off to work I go, from 9 to 3 its misery…” I think that’s why still when I get up and get ready to go to work, I am dragging my feet, pushing myself up and out the door, even though I generally love what I do. I feel fine once I’m there, engaged, content, fulfilled even. But there’s that daily temporary amnesia when the alarm sounds. So, what happened to me as a kid? Disney notwithstanding, my father had three jobs at one point (one of which was in an ice cream store which I thought he did for fun) and my mother sewed and altered clothes in our house for neighborhood monied folks. There were five of us children. Work meant money to pay…