What is work? According to Pieper and Thoreau, it is when we do servile work without sacrificing one's virtue and doing it whole-heartedly because we simply love what we do and takes a great pleasure full with enthusiasm and optimism in performing and not doing it because it is necessary or just for money or because someone require us to do it, it is also by finding a balance that after work we set aside time for leisure.
Thoreau believes that work is not an end to itself but rather virtues that would pave a person’s way to the road of success. When a person works, he should fully understand the values and wisdom of what he's doing because what he's doing reflect of what kind of person he is. In other words, he should fully know what is his version of success, what truly makes him happy, what provide him misery so he is aware of not doing it, what supports his moral integrity and what violates it, what inspires his growth and creativity, and what his vision is, because these all are essential to reflect his own character of what he truly is inside as a person.
Work as described by these two philosophers only defines as simplicity of doing what truly makes anyone happy. Living a life of simplicity and contentment because the work that we do is essential of defining what we are. It is what we view as personal success and not what other people view of what success is but our own. It is finding what constitutes our personal success so we can begin to achieve it is defining clearly what our personal goal is because it’s the first step in realizing whatever goal we set that is what our belief is. Viewing life and work with productivity without sacrificing our principles and not allowing others to influence us and being sidetracked to what we do not believe or what is not right for us. That we do work because it provide us happiness and it symbolize our freedom of doing that work because we value it so much, whatever it is and no matter how great or small...