Office desk

Work. It’s such a terrible word. It’s got negative written all over it and should maybe be called ‘do something I really don’t enjoy doing’ to help change things. Imagine saying this to your partner every day: “Bye love, I’m off to do something I really don’t enjoy doing… again.” I’m sure many more people would stop what they were doing and go and find something better to do with their time if this is what ‘work’ was really called.

Picture this… You go to a bed shop and the salesman says: “You know what, you spend eight hours of each day in a bed, and you need to make sure it’s a good place to be, so why not buy this one right here?” That salesman is in a good position - he’s right! And, if you’re honest, it’s worth spending a bit more for years of good sleep. It’s the same with work. You sometimes spend way more than eight hours a day doing it, so why don’t you do something you love? If you’re at work now, take a quick look around. Look at your desk, look at the clothes you (might) have to wear, look at the people around you and quickly ask yourself: Is this it? It might be, in which case, good for you. If it’s not, things can change but it’s up to you to do it.

I write this piece on our first day in our new office space, where we can wear what we want and cook incredible meals in our giant Gozney wood and gas-fired pizza oven. We can even stay late after work to ride our skate ramp and have a wind-down beer with work mates. It’s the new way of working. We call work the ‘big to-do list’. To-do lists are exciting and challenging. It also means they get done and you can move on to the next challenge. It’s about getting up out of bed in the morning and being pumped about what’s going to happen next. If you’re one of those people who huff and puff on the Tube, it’s your own damn fault. Get a bike or get over it. Or keep doing it but keep your chin up instead.

Being happy about your ‘working’ life is incredibly important. If you’re in a positive frame of mind you’ll do better work. But it’s not just that: you’ll mix with better people, you’ll be happier in your personal life and the air will smell a great deal sweeter. I heard a great quote the other day: There’s a great deal of risk in not doing something you’ve wanted to do, so off you pop and go do it. Enjoy.