Narcotic work vs. What Matters.

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

I wrote on Sunday about the importance of "not doing", and that triggered a follow on reflection around how, when we are doing, we go about it.

I think it lies on a spectrum. At one end we have doing at the level of the narcotic. Work so prescribed. familiar and addictive that we spend hours doing it and take nothing from it other than financial reward. At the other end is the work of day to day progress - crossing boundaries, sidestepping constraints, and embracing the risk of failure in the knowledge that we're learning and doing something that matters more than any money it might bring us.

I see and talk with people every day who live at many points on this spectrum, from those taking mind bending rewards for getting into the stream of money rather than doing anything to create value, to those doing the work that humbles me through it's generosity of spirit.

What strikes me at the moment is the fragility of narcotic work. It is so easily disrupted, …