Howdy 🤠
Hope you’re enjoying your Sunday afternoon. If you’re starting to think about the start of the work week tomorrow, then you’re already in the right frame of mind for today’s newsletter. We’re jumping into the different roles work can play in our lives and how we approach our jobs.
I hope this provides a new perspective and helps you think about work in a new way.
And as always, thanks for reading!
Kevin
What is Work?
I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
Jimmy Dean
If we work from age 22 to 65 with an average of one month of vacation per year, we work for ~82,500 hours in our careers. That amounts to 22% of our lives or 33% of our waking hours for 43 years.
Depending on how we think about work, we interpret these numbers very differently. We all say, “I have a job,” but that phrase means something entirely different to each of us, even for two people with the same job at the same company.
Eskimos have 52 different words to describe unique types of snow, and it would make sense if we had a similar number of words to describe how we think about our jobs. There are widely differing answers to the question “What is work?”, but what matters is understanding our personal view of our jobs and leveraging that in an effort to create a better life.
For all of us, a job is a way to make money. For some folks, it’s nothing more than an economic trade; time for money. For others, it’s far from transactional and actually quite meaningful. They’d still be doing the same thing in for free, but they just happen to have a job that pays them for it.
While the latter option sounds more appealing, neither option is better than the other. There are people who view their job transactionally that are happy, fulfilled, and proud of their lives, and there are people who do what they love every day but are depressed, frustrated, and embarrassed by their lives.
The same way hitting a certain number in our bank accounts won’t make us magically stop worrying about money, a certain job won’t automatically change our lives.
As much as we’re told to follow our passion and do what we love, that isn’t the only option for building a fulfilling career and a life to be proud of.
Each of us has several Worthwhile Pursuits across the different areas of our lives like Family, Health, Finances, Relationships, Career, Hobbies, etc. Inevitably one of these pursuits becomes our Primary Pursuit: the most important area of focus that drives our decision-making process for everything else.
If we’re not paying attention, our career becomes our Primary Pursuit by default because it consumes so much of our time and provides our livelihood. If we value other Worthwhile Pursuits more, this can throw the balance of life out of whack.
In our efforts to become a bit better each day, we’re really chasing a life that’s fulfilling, enjoyable, and makes us proud of ourselves. Sometimes we can find this in our work, but more often than not, an intentional allocation of time and energy across our Worthwhile Pursuits is what leads us to the life we want, not some mythical job that pays great, makes an impact, and lets us work whenever we want.
Work can be many different things, but it’s important we understand the role it plays in our lives so we know what to expect from it and how to organize the other 88% of our lives.
Prompts
If you have an amazing day at work, does it fill your bucket for the day? Or are you left wanting more?
Is your job your Primary Pursuit? Does the time and energy you put into work match what you’re getting out of it?
What is work to you?
Deep Dive
How to Find Meaning When Your Job Feels Meaningless
An article from Harvard Business Review from the pandemic that still has some useful tips for today.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin