Wow, God is using quite a wise method for teaching me to have the good work ethic that I asked Him for!

First He set me up to work nights at Target for three months, working four ten-hour days in a row, which was then capped off by 6-8 hours reorganizing during the day on Fridays. Long days, hard and usually relatively boring or monotonous work, and generally not enough sleep. Then I had to flip my sleep schedule so I could work during the day on Friday, be up for family things on Saturdays, stay up for my friends Saturday night, and then sleep Sunday day if I could for working Sunday night! I got behind on a lot around the house. Then after that I started "full time" at this reorganizing job, where I get to choose my days, my hours per day, and my times.

At Target I had a lot of external motivation and structure which was imposed upon me. I worked hard, (my own hard, though, which looks different than other people's generally,) and sometimes very hard. Now at my current job I need internal motivation- to go to work, to not stop and take too many or too long of breaks while there, and to stay there long enough. For all of that I must create the necessary structure in my life. I also must learn to put a limit on the hindrances to working that I allow. This includes "important" phone calls while at work, good movies that come on if I leave TCM on in the background, or watch it while eating before or at work, social opportunities that arise, lack of sleep or lack of reflection-time away from work... you name it.

Now here's the wisdom: While at Target I got to learn structure, hard work and long hours- all guided and propelled by external motivation. At my current job I have to create the structure, do the hard work without pressure, hold to the hours without expectations, and all of the motivation is internal. This is an extremely difficult thing for me personally. In fact, I've been failing at it in general.

But I've just begun to learn solidly that I need to work certain hours in certain time frames so that I can spend the money that I want to. Not enough hours= not enough money for what I want, or when I want it. This was a very, very important lesson to learn, and I feel privileged that the God of the universe has been teaching it to me! lol And in such a unique and cool way. I've started to list what I want to spend money on, how many days I have to work for it, and how many hours each of those days I need to work. It hasn't been happening exactly the way I plan out, though! lol *shakes head* But I'm learning, and the inner motivation has started to kick in, even if it's in it's earliest stages of life! :D

God is sooo Good. He used "force", (external motivation,) to teach me what work ethic was like in practice, and then set me up to have it created within me. And all of this is merely one example of the many lessons He's been giving me, all of which are training for my future life-service for Him! It's my own "college". lol