The Idea Of Work

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Where’s your head when you’re doing work?

Are you focused on the work itself - on exploring the nuances, the difficulties, navigating the actions needed to ensure it’s done the right way? 

Or are you focused on just getting through it - simply finishing and moving on to the next item on your (never ending) To-Do list?

There’s a real difference between the two and it comes from our intent when we begin the work. 

In the former, the work itself has meaning and significance. It’s a conduit to value creation, in some form. It’s an opportunity to exercise our skills, test our limits. To take it to its logical extreme, in this state, we’re engaged in a form of art and expression. 

In the latter case, we’re just doing. Our one and only goal is to get it ‘over the line’ and done. No exploration, no personal expression, no true emphasis on quality. We’re a cog.

On the things that matter, we should relish the idea of the work, of getting engaged and performing. 

Why do sports stars get excited on game day? They’re eager to get in and play - to do the work. They don’t just look at it as a way to get through it and past it. They don’t want it to be tomorrow, when all of this will be over. They want to be in the game, doing, delivering. That’s why they got in the game.

But in our commercial worlds, we often forget this simple truth. We forget it in our educational spheres as well. 

And then, in those worlds, work becomes something else - not a form of personal expression and creation, but a chore. 

There’s no point in that.