Bad work is exhausting
I don't know if "Back to the Future" is the best movie ever made, but I do know this. I recently introduced the franchise to one of my kids, and he loved it. He thought Marty and Doc were cool; he thought Biff Tannen was both funny and scary. He also wished we owned a Delorean.
This movie is now over 40 years old, yet it remains timeless. Each new generation of fans discovers and enjoys it.
In Michael J. Fox's recent memoir, "Future Boy", he recounts the grueling schedule that was involved in making Back to the Future back in 1984. For a period of time, Fox did double duty, playing the role of Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties during the day, and then, in the evenings, he was on the Universal Studios lot as the legendary Marty McFly. An exhausting schedule that would overwhelm most of us. The book reminded me of the self-sustaining power that can carry us when we’re doing meaningful work with a great team. I will never encourage people to work 20 hours a day, nonstop, and brag about it on this platform or any other, but I do believe we all ought to seek work that is good and fulfilling.
Bad work is exhausting. You know what I’m talking about—the kind that life has forced you to do. Some of us win the lottery and get the role we dreamed of at age nine. Most of us find a job that makes sense and provides for ourselves and our families. The latter should not stop us from living with passion and purpose. More importantly, if you're a leader, you are in the best position to dig deep and unearth the possibilities of good work from the rocky, lifeless road of unrewarding work.
"The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest. The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness. You are so tired through and through because a good half of what you do here in this organization has nothing to do with your true powers, or the place you have reached in your life. You are only half here, and half here will kill you after a while."- Brother David Steindl-Rast.
While our work may not leave a cultural legacy like this film, we can choose how we approach it. I remind my team that this stage is just a chapter, and meaning is what we bring to the experience. We owe it to ourselves to bring our best, so the stories we end up telling about this chapter will be worth telling. Working while walking with this kind of vision adds extra speed and energy to my steps. Good work takes a great deal of energy, but it’s the kind of work that you can do with a smile. Good work is achieved when we connect care and creativity to our tasks.
This week had Blue Monday on January 19th, a date recognized as the most depressing day of the year. It’s a day where a cold Edmontonian day feels a lot longer, and Christmas bills and loneliness all seem to catch up on us. Blue Monday+ Workgrind is unfortunate emotional math that no one wants to do. We planned for this day and made creative adjustments.
We had a special yoga session in the morning. Later that morning, we brought in another team member to lead an essential oil craft session, and for lunch, we had our kitchen deliver some mouthwatering New York-inspired pastrami sandwiches. Blue Monday didn’t live up to the stress its name implied, and the day went quickly. Not only that, but a ton of work got done, and while these activities had value, they were not expensive. The cost was in our team using some creative elbow grease. I believe it’s a great example of bringing your whole heart to work, connecting us to a vein of energy we needed on what could be a difficult day. We brought out quirky, fun selves to work, and the work got done.
If you work in a place where 7 out of 10 days are good, you have a good job and should hold onto it. A good work culture will sustain you on the 3 miserable days. Again, if you’re the leader, you are the one with the power to steer your team toward 1.21 gigawatt, life-giving work.
You got this!
