The Nature of “Real and Professional” Work

There exists a warped perception in nature of and pursuit of authentic work. Real and authentic work is always incredibly challenging and meaningful, but always appears simple, fun, and casual.

The truly successful people have a very different definition of real, authentic work. The successful people pursue harder tasks more often, take up seemingly unattainable goals more frequently. The most distinguishing characteristic of a successful person is that they accomplish those daunting feats with the appearance of grace, ease, and fun. Look at Michael Jordan on the basketball court. He is working harder than most of the other players on the court because he is always hustling and on the ball, but is he grunting and complaining about the fatigue of dribbling up and down the court? No! He has his tongue hanging out while slam-dunking a shot and is also having the most fun on the court out of most all other players.

Examine Mick Jagger, who is not only an extremely successful musician, but a remarkably charismatic inspiration. After seeing the Rolling Stones play at the United Center, there is no doubt that Mick, Richards, Watts, and Wood had the jam-packed stadium’s 24,500 audience members standing up, dancing, and clapping with their creativity, control, and mastery of their energy. It is not necessarily is musical talent that is so inspiring; Mick Jagger’s mother claimed, “He was always the least musical of the family” (Sandford 87). Getting that many people so inspired and into the music is about as prodigious of a task as you can get, and it is guaranteed that that it was not accomplished by whining “This is too hard” or “This work is too tough”. They are so successful because they not only cultivate the energy to inspire countless crowds but they channel it in meaningful activities, all while making it appear as if they are having so much fun on stage. The delete the burden and toil of their work. Is there work real, authentic work based on exerting themselves for the goal? For certain. But are the also having a dynamically fun and charismatic experience? For certain, as well. It is the combination of real work with real enjoyment and play that makes profound success.

We should delete working for works sake, working for x number of ours so we can “feel good that at least we worked”. We should alter the quality of our work so that it is not something we desire to terminate because it is drab and dull, but rather, something that is entertaining, poignant, and purposeful. You don’t complain or exclude people because something is entertaining, poignant, and purposeful, but it is something that needs tremendous focus.

Real, authentic work is about a connection to a prodigious task and discovering a stylish process of joy, excitement, and evocative energy. Real work is never complaining about how much “work” the work is; it is making a true challenge look nothing like work. Consider the most successful athletes. Phelps looks like an otter swimming a gold-medal pace 400 medley. 10,000-meter gold-medalist Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia looks like a graceful gazelle in his races. He doesn’t even were shoes. The point is that these people aren’t thrashing and grasping in the water, panting and out of breath on the track, exhausted and withered on the stage. They frequently accomplish the most daunting tasks with tremendous style, never dismaying their confidence and always keeping it awake and alert.

A tremendous amount of people work for work’s sake, creating a vacant, counterfeit expectation of productivity. I remember countless times being shunned because people couldn’t mix work with play. I have heard people say, verbatim, “You have to leave because I have to do real, professional work”. I’ve seen patronization in many forms but that’s about as supercilious as it gets. It implies that my interaction with that person is not real and not professional for one thing. Most importantly, it reveals something remarkably sad about that person. Most people weren’t doing “real and professional work” when they’ve said that. They simply plan to go send emails or sometimes something as casual as lunch. Any claim that sending emails or making a few phone calls is "real and authentic work" is a joke.

The point is that “real and professional work” is a fantastic endeavor, but the irony is that the authentically real and the genuinely professional work occurs very rarely and when it does, it never feels like work! People like Mick Jagger, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, and other great souls work harder than any other person in honing their message, channeling their intention, and activating their charisma, but one reason why they are so great is that they choose to delete “burden” connotation of work. The definition of work is a mental or physical activity down to reach a desired result.

The truly great workers do three unique things:

1. They delete the toil and tedious operations of work.
   
2. There work generates prodigiously important result and functions for a remarkable purpose.
   
3. The manufacture a modus operandi for accomplishing their colossal task that makes the endeavor incredibly fun, stylish, charismatic and enticing.
   

Basically the formula for “real and professional” work is a colossal goal, an unique style and vitality, and a way to eliminate toil and difficulties in something that is tremendously difficult.

Far too often, people misconstrue “real and professional work as putting the nose to the grindstone while doing something we don’t enjoy and but are obligated to do. That is not creative, not dynamic, and not alive. Most work is dead. It is tedious, repetitive and insipid. Spanish Philosopher Baltasar Gracian suggests that we “Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.” This is the epitome of creating real work for ourselves. Authentic, real, professional work doesn’t even have to be difficult, just as long as we attempt that work with the mentality opposite the nature of the work. If it’s easy, make it hard; if it’s challenging, make it easy. Real and authentic work tricks our doubt so that our confidence remains activated and shines regardless of the task.

Sandford, Christopher. Mick Jagger: Rebel Knight. London: Omnibus Press, 2003.