personal//professional = good enough is good enough ?
I used to think that I need to separate my personal from professional life, but I recently started to doubt that.
If I just want to make money so I can pay my bills, then separating the two lives works very well, but that means I won't try to excel in my work.
To have the spirit of excellence, I need to be passionate about what I do. That means good enough is not good enough. To produce something excellent, I need to take that extra step even when I know that it has exceeded everyone's expectation (including my boss' and client's).
If I don't take work personally, I won't be able to do excellent thing because it hurts me economically. The more I work (for the set amount of salary), the less I actually make. The dilemma is, if I keep that kind of thinking, it'll hurt me in the long run because I won't advance to the next level due to lack of self-growth.
Whether I see work as a mean to gain wealth so I can have a comfortable life or if I want to make a difference (or both), I'd argue that I need to cultivate the spirit of excellence in whatever job function that I do because to advance on either/both paths, I need to grow and that growth won't happen if I don't push myself to go beyond the "good enough".
I need to take my professional life personally.