I want to explore what we mean when we say we don't like to work, or we don't like our work, or we don't like a task.
A buddy of mine, Justin Janowski, captured this recently saying about a task, “It didn’t feel like work, it felt like hanging out with friends and having discussions.” Punchline: I think he was referring to recording marketing videos in an all day session - something many people would dread.
Why can't we take this view more often?
I firmly believe that the evidence shows that our feelings about something have a huge impact on our experience with it. What I mean is, if we expect something to make us unhappy, it's very likely that it will.
Made to work
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The material stuff of our universe is there for us to do things with, we can bring forth that which is not readily apparent
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We're drawn to work. We like making places for ourselves, and we like occupying our attention with things.
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Many of the things we desire to have or be require work
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There are some things that we do at the request of other people, in exchange for money
Four categories of “work”
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First category: you're going to your office or your business or your job, and you're doing the work
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Another category that's often called work is chore. The goal is problem avoidance, maintenance.
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The third category is Hobby. The goal is to “keep playing/producing”, although it can be ‘hard’ work
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The fourth category – entertainment and amusement - pleasantly engaged with light positive emotion.
Feelings about the four
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There are a full range of emotions across the four categories - positive and negative
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Dislike is a value judgement, not an emotion, although it can be spurred by negative emotion
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Chore vs. hobby - who has control of the standard of quality
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Chore and Economic work - both have an external (uncontrolled) standard
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Hobby - can be physically, emotionally, and mentally hard, but we don't dislike doing it
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Entertainment/amusement - the standard is very low.
Dislike?
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Not owning the standard may correspond to dislike
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Mindset is the key to owning the standard
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Culture is the primary force that tells us work is "bad" - can we not adopt that trope
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Our minds give us what we expect
Takeaways
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Own the standard and move chore and economic work toward hobby
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Refute the cultural meme about people who enjoy their (economic) work
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Entertainment/amusement is addictive in our culture; so is hobby (but hobby produces results)
I think both economic work and chore can be elevated out of the dislike category. Own the standard and raise your skill so that your standard exceeds the external one.
Entertainment/amusement is probably dangerous and should be strictly self-controlled.
