Getting stuff done feels great. There’s usually relaxation and a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes, the feelings we get are a big part of why we do things.
But there’s a downside to basking in our accomplishment which isn’t usually discussed. It’s usually not seen for what it often is… part of an unhealthy attachment to work.
Basking in pride isn’t conducive to greater average productivity. It’s just a conditioned response. Sorry for the buzzkill.
Work Is Life’s Great Equalizer
Life requires constant work. The rhythm of constant and eternal work is everywhere.
It doesn’t know the feeling of pride or accomplishment. It just goes on.
- Our heart doesn’t take a break after 100 beats to see how many liters of blood it’s pumped.
- The sun doesn’t periodically stop launching photons to count how many it’s kicked out in the last million years.
- The earth isn’t constantly wondering about its total number of orbits.
The universe keeps doing its thing. No follower count needed.
Contrarily, we’ve conditioned ourselves to see milestones and take them seriously. And this causes so much drag. Over the course of our lives, how much time and energy will we waste thinking about or telling others what we’ve accomplished on a given day? Or, what we didn’t?
The whole of hustle culture is built around selling us a fantasy of a “perpetual emotional high” at the end of whatever gauntlet of BS we decided to torture ourselves with this year.
But it’s just distraction from reality: work never ends.
Disregarding the Reward Cycle Saves Energy
Late-work guilt and post-work pride can hold us back. Why not just keep going? Wouldn’t we get more done? Yes, we would. But that’s only one part of my point.
By accepting that work is never-ending, we can stop fooling ourselves into being driven by the emotional payoff. We can become LESS hyper-focused on reward attainment and more focused on what brings us daily fulfillment.
If we’re willing, work can become less about accomplishment and reward chasing and more about self-exploration. We can make real decisions about what we want to work on, instead of just picking the work with the greatest emotional (or financial) payoff.
