We spend a lot of our lives at work and when we’re not there we’re thinking about it.
Work is an important part of the human condition. For most people on the planet, work defines who and what they are.
Right or wrong, you can make a lot of judgments about people by the type of job that they have. I have a friend who is a great artist. His talent with oils, 
acrylics, brushes and canvas is amazing to me. I am constantly trying to support his art with referrals, praise, projects and branding assistance. But by day he does something else… something he can rely on to supply the money he needs to survive.
For years I have been encouraging him to paint full-time but he recently added a wife and then a baby to his life. Leaving the security of the full time job is not in the reality cards.
My friend is a butcher. He cuts meat.
The butcher is not resentful that this is his job nor was he resentful prior to it becoming his life. He has always embraced the butchering lifestyle and, as far as I can tell from the periphery, has even crafted it into its own art form.
I admire my friend for the way that he approaches his work life and how it is intertwined with his real life. He doesn’t think about meat 24 hours a day like I do about my multiple client’s multiple issues. He’s at peace with the reality that work is a necessary part of life but he has also made his job and his life something to be admired!
Sometimes we all need to step back and realize that work is a part of who we are but it is not all that we are. We always have the power to change its definition whether that means modifying your existing reality or creating a new one.
We can define how we work but we don’t need to let our work define us.
We can approach every day like it is art.
