From  Chris Guillebeau’s blog, The Art of Non-Conformity, specifically his post on sufficiency:

One of the best feelings in the world comes from the awareness that everything will be okay. If you have that feeling, you know exactly what I mean.

Everything is going to be Ok, it really is. It’s hard to know this for sure because stuff feels crazy and out of control some times, while at other times feeling boring and restless. I think a lot of that is the human condition. We’re constantly looking back or looking forward, nervous, or excited, or anxious, or just anticipating with wonder and possibility. Really, though, and it’s conceptually abstract, all we have is now, and I tell myself this as much as I try to tell anybody who may be reading this.

I found Chris perspective timeless, and also timely for me, personally.

“People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

- Albert Einstein

Or, put another way, what’s the real cost of not caring about your work?

This is something that I’ve wondered numerous times after leaving a particularly human-less, or soul-less, interaction at a drive-thru window or after hanging up with an infuriating customer service person that makes me feel like a sucker for purchasing the company’s product.

If a company cares about what they’re doing, I mean if they really, really care, then that care trickles down to all levels of the organization. Similarly, if an organization doesn’t care, well, that trickles down to. Which company would you rather do business with?

You know when you’re not doing your best work. You can feel it in every pore in your body and you dread going to work because you know you’re going to have to face it, and not just face it, but immerse yourself in it for hours. What do you do about it? How do you find a way around it? Is there a way around it? Is the only way around it, out? These are questions I’ve discussed with friends and colleagues for all of my career.

Sometimes you’re in your ideal job, but don’t love your boss. Sometimes you love your boss, but you’re not in your ideal job. Sometimes your ideal job or your ideal boss are neither.

We spend a lot of our lives working and at work. Unlike previous generations, now more than ever, it makes sense for us to love our work, loving being at work and love doing the work we do. If you don’t, life is short, move on.

At other times, though, we’re in the place where we have the most to learn about our lives, what motivates us and who we are. My best stories have come from the most difficult experiences — that’s a bright side; so, too, there’s a bright side to situations where you’re not doing your best work:

How can *you* do your best work in your current situation?

I don’t have the answer. You do. If you spend a bit of time looking inside yourself, you’ll find that answer. It will sustain you, motivate you and remind you of what it was that moved you into this situation to begin with. You’re here for a reason; you’re always where you’re supposed to be. Now, you have to figure out what that is and get to work.

…failing at something is the beginning of a perspective you didn’t have before.

No matter what you’re trying to achieve, no matter how great the feat, you feel most alone just before others start to join you.

Keep going.

I’ve been fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to have had some really lousy jobs and worked for some pretty lousy companies. Fortunate, because I have some great stories. Unfortunate, because I’ve waded through some very deep existential muck to get to the other side.

Though, usually, for one reason or another I worried less about how much a given situation, job, boss, etc… sucked and more about how, for that moment, I was stuck and needed to make the best out of the situation for my mental well-being.

Some times I succeeded, other times I got lucky and got out. Either way, we’re there, in that moment, and we have a decision to make — sometimes we appeal to our higher selves and sometimes we don’t, either way, though, we make it through.

Inspiration, that is.

When inspiration strikes, be ready. It doesn’t hang around, or hang out while you do other stuff. Inspiration is fleeting and always has been.

People who purport to knowing stuff about the matter write books, and give lectures about how to keep it, sustain it and most importantly harness it, but that’s rubbish.

Inspiration strikes hard; so get your pencil, your paintbrushes, your guitar or whatever and get the most out of it.

The surest way to make sure inspiration visits again is to indulge it.

There, that’s it; that’s the secret to being continually inspired.

You’re on the right track. You’re doing exactly what’s necessary to bring this together and make it a success. How often do we hear this? Sadly, not often enough.

You know what I mean? Whether it’s a good conversation, a good meal, good service, or a good time. And by good, of course, that’s an understatement, hyperbole, that’s really closer to meaning great, exceptional, or maybe not at all what you anticipated.

This got me to thinking what is it that makes something good. It didn’t take me long to realize that what makes something great or exceptional is the intersecting of not having expectations and having a really satisfying experience.

For starters, not having expectations is very challenging. We go to a business expecting a certain quality of service, and we go to a restaurant expecting a certain quality of food. But, what if, as the business or the restaurant, we did something unexpected, something that just moved those expectations up a notch and really surprised us?

It’s happened to all of us, at one time or another, and you’re probably thinking of one of those times as you read this. When it’s good, it’s good, and by good I mean better than you ever could have expected.