Fundamentally, how happy we are is a function of how effective we are in our work no matter whether our duty is to earn money, to care for children, to look after the home or to undertake charity work. Regular mindfulness training and practice is critical to ensuring that we we remain clear in our objectives, that we understand why our work is important and thereby remain motivated to work diligently.
If we find that we are not working hard enough or conversely we are spinning our wheels, mindfulness can help us to achieve a more appropriate balance. Ideally, we would work consistently, and evenly on our highest priority tasks first and then methodically move on to tasks of lower priority. By working mindfully in this way we can avoid burning out from expending excess effort or from applying too heavy concentration.
If we find that we are becoming discouraged or that we are overly desirous of an exceptional result, mindfulness will bring us back into the present moment. When the mind is settled in the present, the impact of these kinds of stresses on our ability to work will be significantly lessened.
When we have trained ourselves in present moment awareness, we can see that our faculties will come into balance and we will work at our optimum efficiency. This efficiency combined with the clarity of purpose that comes from mindfulness will lead us to experience new found happiness and satisfaction.