The lesson to be learned? Just this: our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by
worry, frustration, and resentment.
While writing this chapter, I went to see a revival of Jerome Kern's delightful musical
comedy, Show Boat. Captain Andy, captain of the Cotton Blossom, says, in one of his
philosophical interludes: "The lucky folks are the ones that get to do the things they
enjoy doing." Such folks are lucky because they have more energy, more happiness,
less worry, and less fatigue. Where your interests are, there is your energy also.
Walking ten blocks with a nagging wife can be more fatiguing than walking ten miles
with an adoring sweetheart.
And so what? What can you do about it? Well, here is what one stenographer did about
it-a stenographer working for an oil company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For several days each
month, she had one of the dullest jobs imaginable: filling out printed forms for oil leases,
inserting figures and statistics. This task
was so boring that she resolved, in self-defence, to make it interesting. How? She had a
daily contest with herself She counted the number of forms she filled out each morning,
and then tried to excel that record in the afternoon. She counted each day's total and
tried to better it the next day. Result? She was soon able to fill out more of these dull
printed forms than any other stenographer in her division. And what did all this get her?
Praise? No. ... Thanks? No. ... Promotion? No. ... Increased pay? No. ... But it did help
to prevent the fatigue that is spawned by boredom. It did give her a mental stimulant.
Because she had done her best to make a dull job interesting, she had more energy,
more zest, and got far more happiness out of her leisure hours. I happen to know this
story is true, because I married that girl.
Here is the story of another stenographer who found it paid to act as if her work were
interesting. She used to fight her work. But no more. Her name is Miss Vallie G. Golden,
and she lives at 473 South Kenilworth Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois. Here is her story, as
she wrote it to me:
"There are four stenographers in my office and each of us is assigned to take letters
from several men. Once in a while we get jammed up in these assignments; and one
day, when an assistant department head insisted that I do a long letter over, I started to
rebel. I tried to point out to him that the letter could be corrected without being retyped-
and he retorted that if I didn't do it over, he would find someone else who would! I was
absolutely fuming! But as I started to retype this letter, it suddenly occurred to me that
there were a lot of other people who would jump at the chance to do the work I was
doing. Also, that I was being paid a salary to do just that work. I began to feel better. I
suddenly made up my mind to do my work as if I actually enjoyed it-even though I
despised it. Then I made this important discovery: if I do my work as if I really enjoy it,
then I do enjoy it to some extent I also found I can work faster when I enjoy my work. So
there is seldom any need now for me to work overtime. This new attitude of mine gained
me the reputation of being a good worker. And when one of the department
superintendents needed a private secretary, he asked for me for the job- because, he
said, I was willing to do extra work without being sulky! This matter of the power of a
changed mental attitude," wrote Miss Golden, "has been a tremendously important
discovery to me. It has worked wonders!"
Without perhaps being conscious of it. Miss Vallie Golden was using the famous "as if"
philosophy. William James counseled us to act "as if" we were brave, and we would be
brave; and to act "as if" we were happy, and we would be happy, and so on.