Don't Like Work? Why? - DBR 062

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 The material stuff of our universe is there for us to do things with, we can bring forth that which is not readily apparent We're drawn to work. We like making places for ourselves, and we like occupying our attention with things. Many of the things we desire to have or be require work There are some things that we do at the request of other people, in exchange for money Four categories of "work" First category: you're going to your office or your business or your job, and you're doing the work Another category that's often called work is chore. The goal is problem avoidance, maintenance. The third category is Hobby. The goal is to "keep playing/producing", although it can be 'hard' work The fourth category – entertainment and amusement - pleasantly engaged with light positive emotion. Feelings about the four There are a full range of emotions across the four categories - positive and negative Dislike is a value judgement, not an emotion, although it can be spurred by negative emotion Chore vs. hobby - who has control of the standard of quality Chore and Economic work - both have an external (uncontrolled) standard Hobby - can be physically, emotionally, and mentally hard, but we don't dislike doing it Entertainment/amusement - the standard is very low. Dislike? Not owning the standard may correspond to dislike Mindset is the key to owning the standard Culture is the primary force that tells us work is "bad" - can we not adopt that trope Our minds give us what we expect Takeaways Own the standard and move chore and economic work toward hobby Refute the cultural meme about people who enjoy their (economic) work 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.   [email protected]; linkedin.com/in/larrytribble