Mentally practise this with different people in different situations

, does the experience of the work produce the orientation, or does the orientation shape the experience of the work? ). Because we have found all three work orientations among administrative assistants (Wrzesniewski et al, 1997) and evidence of both calling and job orientations among hospital cleaners (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), it is clear that there is some effect of the individual on shaping the work experience. The three work orientations reflect different types of connections to the domain of work--connections that vary in their intrinsic and instrumental focus and in their implications for other domains of life. Those with jobs are not likely to have a passionate connection with their work, because the work primarily represents a means to an end. Those with careers may be more deeply engaged with their work, because the work is a source of achievement in the rewards, positions, and power it yields. Only for those with callings is work a wholly enriching and meaningful activity that is a passion in its own right. Indeed, correlates of calling orientations support this point. But the need to understand and adapt to this metabolism is a problem that we all face. All this metabolic process is linked to our caloric intake, our vitamin and nutrition needs, our thyroid and endocrine production, and how all these processes come together. For years, people have been looking for ways to increase metabolic rate. If you can increase someone's metabolic rate, then you are better able to control calorie burn, especially for overweight or obese people. This would make the goal of better health or better health a reality much easier for these people. So far, efforts have yielded very few results. There are foods that we can consume that naturally increase our metabolic rate, but not to a large extent. What we need is a way to directly change the rate. We need to be able to elevate our metabolism to a point where we can actually see an advantage. This is where the effort to stay physically fit and active provides tremendous benefits. But, at any given time, a player can boost his score by selling out his opponent. The dilemma is, when one player yields to the sweet temptation of personal gain by betraying the adversary, the opponent is likely to retaliate with the same strategy: Tit for Tat.

Cooperation flies out the window, following the trust that has already left the building. The end result of this scenario is that players ends up getting a significantly lower score when they play for their self-interest (or selfish genes) than if they had cooperated throughout the game. Many of us live our lives playing Tit for Tat, always keeping score on favors and who owes whom. The underlying game plan? Give what we get, but no more. This strategy for stimulating reciprocity is far from the best. A superior strategy seems to be practiced by lions. Lionesses live in tight-knit prides, each pride defending its terri-tory against rival prides. Many people with callings put more time in at work (Wrzesniewski et al, 1997), whether or not this time is compensated. As well, those with callings report higher job and life satisfaction than those with jobs or careers (Wrzesniewski et al, 1997). They also derive more satisfaction from the domain of work than the domain of leisure. It is interesting to note that those with jobs and careers rank the satisfaction they get from their leisure time (i. e. , hobbies and friends) as higher than the satisfaction they get from work. The differences between those with callings and the other two groups are significant on each dimension. Clearly, for those with callings, work is one's passion, whereas for those with jobs and careers, the deeper satisfactions are found in leisure or in relationships outside of the workplace. It seems likely that people with callings may demonstrate good psychological health along any number of dimensions. Traits such as optimism (Gillham, Shatte, Reivich, & Seligman, 2001), mastery (Rawsthorne & Elliott, 1999), and conscientiousness (McCrae & Costa, 1999) may be associated with having a calling. During your life, if you stay active, exercise, and maintain optimal health for your muscles, you will see a huge difference in the rate that your body metabolizes food. As people get older, their metabolism naturally slows down.

The best way to prevent this from happening is through exercise and stay in shape. I believe that through careful analysis, exercise, and attention to each person's unique needs, we could bring a more natural balance of metabolic burn versus caloric intake. At a level where optimal health and weight control are in balance. Metabolism: Can we control it? The body's metabolism is a unique process for each person. No person metabolizes food at the same rate so no two people have metabolism. We use all our calories at different rates, with different results. Our metabolism, like our fingerprints is unique to each of us. Lionesses claim their territorial ownership by roaring. When a foreign roar is heard, the lionesses usually approach the sound to investigate, some boldly, others hesitantly. Do the lions play Tit for Tat? If they did, a courageous lioness that steps up to meet the uninvited guest should expect a reciprocal favor from the laggard who hangs back. Tit for Tat: The next time an intruder roars, the laggard should take the risk and lead. Yet, researchers would tell you this is not the case--there is no payback. The laggard might be resented, but there is no punishment. The behavior is simply accepted, and the same lioness continues to take the risk. This behavior, mixed with game theory findings, illuminates an important point. The best strategy for creating cooperative relation ships is to continue to act cooperatively, even when others don't. This raises the question of whether people with these traits tend to enter a line of work they view as a calling or if any line of work is likely to be viewed as such. Staw and his colleagues (1986) have found that job attitudes are highly stable over time and different kinds of jobs thus, it may be that a calling orientation is a portable benefit of those who tend to have a more positive outlook on life in general.

Unlike work, which for most people is a necessity, leisure activities have an optional quality. One would and should be surprised that people did not get pleasure out of their leisure activities. This pleasure usually means that leisure activities have intrinsic value it is usually the case that we engage in them for the enjoyment they inspire. 1 Nonetheless, there are important differences in leisure activities with respect to how fulfilling they are and hence the extent to which they enrich life. There would seem to be two aspects to fulfillment in leisure activities. One has to do with mastery, self-improvement, and the richer pleasures that come from accomplishment and expertise. There is a sense in which a highly educated musical listener or football fan may get more out of these leisure activities than one without expertise might. A second aspect is the sense of purpose or moral accomplishment that comes from feeling that one contributes to a better life for those close to one or those far away. But the need to understand and adapt to this metabolism is a problem that we all face. The dictionary defines metabolism as the sum of all the biochemical processes involved in life, or the maintenance of life. In terms of our health, metabolism is linked to the intake and use of food. In reference to the example, it is our ability to use our food to the full extent. Right now, the best results in increasing our metabolism come from exercising and building our muscle mass, while reducing our body fat. Adding more muscle to the body, in turn makes us burn more calories, and this helps raise our metabolic rate. Our metabolism functions also depend on how we have taken care of our nutritional needs. Some people have very high levels of metabolism. In other words, when they eat food, their bodies burn it almost as fast as then consume it. Then there are those using that use our food intake so slowly, that not even notice that we burn calories. In game theory, for example, prisoner dilemma games are set up in which different computer programs play each other. Each program is designed with a different strategy of playing Tit for Tat, with a player trying to exploit a relationship to rack up points, occasionally not cooperating to win extra points, always at the expense of the opponent.

When the games end, what is the winning play? It is not the strategy that sucks in an opponent to cooperative play, only to betray them at the very end to win. It is also not the play that is literally Tit for Tat. One betrayal often sets in motion a destructive competitive process that cannot be stopped. The winning play can best be described as Tit, Tit, Tit, for Tat. The winning play is one that is forgiving to those who have a cooperative lapse. In fact, they forgive several times. Unfailingly, the consistent cooperative and forgiving play scores the highest. Both mastery and contribution add to the meaning of life. Mastery seems more important than moral fulfillment in most of the passions we have identified, with the exception of volunteer work. There is a surprising absence of systematic investigation of passions, leisure activities, or hobbies in psychology (see Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, for a discussion of enjoyable activity). We have begun to collect descriptive data on what we call passions - a certain type of intense, focused leisure activity. For our respondents, we defined passions as follows: A passion is an overwhelming interest in some object or situation. This interest becomes one of the major foci of life, is one of the principal sources of engagement, and often costs a good percentage of one's income. On retirement, people often devote their lives to their passions. The passion can concern anything other than another human being. Examples of passions included hobbies, activities-sports (participant or spectator-fan), collecting, (eg, stamps, bottles), artistic-creative activities, puzzles-games (including video games), articles, exercise, participation in an organization, house, clothing, food-cuisine, travel. A passion is sufficiently intense that it is the principal way one spends one's leisure time. These people who burn quickly are often thin and trim, people who burn more slowly are people with a tendency to obesity. For years, people have been looking for ways to increase metabolic rate.