Do you find yourself living for Friday? Finally, the day arrives where you can take a breather from the workweek and live it up. That is until Monday morning salutes you with its drudgery all over again. But you don’t have to yo-yo between the two extremes. All it takes is an adjustment on how you view your identity and purpose as they relate to work to live life to the fullest every day of the week.

Sourcing Identity

Sometimes we can form a habit of making achievements the source of our worth and define who we are. When we’re good at what we do or gained a lot in our career, we’re riding high. But there’s a dangerous line we can cross, because if something were to jeopardize our success – a bad report, a failed project, or a layoff – we end up feeling lost and disappointed, with a negative view of ourselves.Thankfully, our identity is not derived from what we do but from who God says we are. With more than just a task or career in mind, God created us, foremost, for relationship with him and people. Knowing our identity, as children of God, has been formed for community, our perspective can shift on how we relate to God and others. We can take greater care to have impactful relationships no matter the season, come accomplishments big or small.

Excellence in Action

With our identities intact, our Mondays, and every other day of the week, become our opportunity to be the salt of the earth, not by preaching necessarily but by our actions. It will take us tearing down the divide between the sacred and the secular in our lives. Then we can bring godly attributes, like love, grace, joy, justice, kindness, forgiveness, and creativity, to whatever sphere we’ve been called, not just to church on Sundays. And discouragements won’t be setbacks because our focus would be on driving forward the mission of bringing people far from God, closer to God.Knowing our identity and mission takes us a step further. In the Bible, it says, “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We must be committed to excellence in everything we do. It sounds challenging, but keep in mind it’s not about perfectionism. Rather it’s a call to approach our work with a high-quality standard, with integrity no matter who’s looking. As a result, our partners, co-workers, managers will be drawn to us, seeking out just what makes our work stand out. And the opportunity to share the gospel will present itself at that moment.Whether providing customer service or running a large company, the work we do has a higher purpose than just paying the bills. It puts us in touch with the people God wants us to impact the most for his kingdom. We can live our weekdays and weekends fully, putting the spotlight on Jesus.