By Michael Masterson
Jack and Jill live in the same apartment building and work in the same office. They both wake up at 7:00 a.m., shower, have breakfast, and get to work by 8:00 a.m. It is at this point that their habits diverge.
From 8:00 until 9:00 (when the rest of the workers come into the office), Jill plans her day and gets to work on a job that is important to her long-term goals. Jack likes to get into work an hour earlier too, but he prefers to spend the time “relaxing into his day” with a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper.
Jack sees Jill working away and feels sorry for her. “We both get credit for getting into work early,” he thinks, “but she has exchanged happiness for money.” In his opinion, that makes Jill greedy, foolish, and, ultimately, self-centered.
David Niven, a college professor and author of the book The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People would half agree. “Yes, Jill is acting out of self-interest,” he’d say, “but so is Jack.” Both of them choose to do what they do with their spare time because they believe they benefit from it.
Jack doesn’t like work. Thus, he doesn’t want to work any more than he has to. But since he has to work from 9 to 5, he figures he might as well do a good job during that time. And he does.
Jill does like to work. And although she doesn’t enjoy every single aspect of it, she especially enjoys the hour between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. That’s when she plans her day, figures out what she can accomplish, and gets some work done on a project that she knows will change her life for the better.
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