On Meaningful Work

“When Bor­genicht came home at night to his chil­dren, he may have been tired and poor and over­whelmed, but he was alive. He was his own boss. He was respon­si­ble for his own deci­sions and direc­tion. His work was com­plex: it engaged his mind and imag­i­na­tion. And in his work, there was a rela­tion­ship between effort and reward. […]

“Those three things—autonomy, com­plex­ity, and a con­nec­tion between effort and reward—are, most peo­ple agree, the three qual­i­ties that work has to have if it is to be sat­is­fy­ing. It is not how much money we make that ulti­mately makes us happy between nine to five. It’s whether out work ful­fills us.” –Mal­colm Glad­well, Out­liers, pp149-​​50.

I am slowly set­tling into an idea of what, to me, con­sti­tutes mean­ing­ful. I know that I need to be excited each day by what I do or I floun­der. Auton­omy, com­plex­ity and a con­nec­tion between effort and reward. I should alight every morn­ing with a ter­ror rat­tling through my bones – then I know I’m chal­lenged! Nav­i­gat­ing within the con­fines of that chal­lenge brings reward, but chal­lenge is the key.