Working with the Highest Motive (Excellence in Your career)

Excellence is founded upon a person’s quality of motivation at work.

There are three types of work motivation. (This is from the book that I am currently reading “Called to Excel by Rex Resurreccion”)

First:  working FOR SELF

       This is concerned with “What will I get out of this?”  His or her dominant objective is to earn money.  This motive is quite a MOVER. 

       A person driven by self-interest motive may be in danger of thinking that there are only two kinds of people in the world:  (1) those who fool people and (2) those who are fooled.  

       He definitely not want to be included among those are fooled but rather be those who fool people.  Such person can be a dangerous kind of friend because he serves another person only to the extent that that person is useful to him.  In other words, one must be a profitable asset for him to remain a friend of the person driven by self-interest.

Second: working FOR OTHERS

      This person is a people-pleaser.  He likes to look impressive, become popular, and make others happy. 

     It is quite a bad motive but the problem here is that because the person is working only to please people, his services are rather unpredictable.  Why? This is because if the person whom he is serving is not present (like his/her boss), or if the boss gives him attention than he feels he deserves, he might become a completely different person. 

     He might perform differently from his normal show-off standard. This is for show only, not genuinely from the heart, only for impressing others.

Third:  working FOR GOD

I believe this is the highest motive.

     This means dedicating one’s work to the overall Supervisor of heaven and earth.  The motive starts with recognizing God as one’s Creator and serving Him out of gratitude for His goodness. 

      If God’s pleasure is viewed as the purpose for work, the working person cannot help but be consistently excellent.  Firstly, one can hardly offer mediocre work to His Creator if he truly believes in Him!  Secondly, one can hardly escape the presence of an omnipresent and omniscient God!

As the Bible says “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”  “Death and destruction lie open before the Lord- how much more the hearts of men”

As someone who is working, I believe God inspires us consistently perform with excellence at any time and under any circumstances.  Serving others is the excellent person’s avenue to serve God.  Thus, for him, work goes beyond mere financial considerations.