Ragnarokian Motivation

There are religions (many) teaching post-death boundless joy,
an end to motivate us much like Santa Claus’s toy.
There are religions (few but big) where grave loops back to womb
and doing right’s reward is rest, to vanish at the tomb.

But one (now dead) that I know of says after death we fight
a losing battle with a foe that has unbounded might.
It teaches that e’en gods will lose; that none will stand the day
when monsters from the dawn of time will wipe us all away.
And that’s the faith that conquered most of Europe’s northern coast,
that bested Rome and sailed far and still great wealth can boast.

We call that faith a myth now, for it’s lost all its believers,
but once it motivated Scandinavian o’erachievers
with the promise that, when dead, they’d fight, then meet their doom;
but fight with friends beside them, and with feasts to oft consume.

I think there is a lesson there, a motivation hack:
rewards are great, but there is something that they tend to lack.
When we’re working just for pay then working gains no luster.
When working leads to better work, it’s easier to muster
a sense that work itself is worth the time and tears it takes,
and not just something to endure to get to drinks and cakes.

To work for a living
suggests that our living
    begins after work.
To live while we’re working
suggests that a shirking’s
    a life-draining quirk.