Stop Calling It “Real” Work (Part 2)
**This article is part 2 of a 3 part series on “Real” Work - for a longer conversation on this topic, check out this episode of Uncover the Human - a Siamo Podcast
Myth #2 – Real Work is Pragmatic
Another trap is believing “real” work must have a pragmatic outcome, one that is tangible or has immediately visible benefit. This may manifest when we want to make the most money with an opportunity or spend the least to get an opportunity, or we might feel that worth only exists when something is directly accomplished – a new software feature, a developed product, or closing a sale.
This myth sticks us in short-term thinking, often with a fixed mindset and missed opportunities.
If a sales team moves a deal 95% of the way through a pipeline, but then loses the deal, it can be tempting to write off all that work as “wasted.” This binary thinking dismisses the value created along the way:
A post-mortem can reveal a hole in the pitch or training materials for the sales staff
The experience may hone an approach to a certain industry or sector, or find there are industries that should not be pursued again
The loss may reveal a gap in the product offering
The pitch may not succeed at that company, but the people who heard it will move to other companies and may remember the name
Finding value in a lost deal can feel like simply putting extra work on an already “lost” cause, but if we label that work a “waste,” we eliminate the chance to improve. A lesson learned today may lead to a much bigger opportunity that we can close tomorrow.
Addiction to pragmatism can stifle innovation. If failure is seen only as a cost of time and money, there is no incentive to find improvements or disrupt outdated thinking.
Employees who face consequences for “wasted” time without consideration will gravitate towards less risky behavior and away from experimentation and innovation. Leaders who reject failure as harmful and ‘not pragmatic’ find themselves steering a stagnating ship.
Many successful, world-changing products were created by accident or after failures, including penicillin which was discovered by a “careless lab technician.”
Similar consequences face people and businesses that rely solely on financial pragmatism. A freelancer unwilling to pay for a certification may find their available customer pool is smaller. A contractor willing to take on any job that pays will end up drowned with difficult customers and no time to strategize (or take vacations for that matter). A company making all purchasing decisions based on which sticker price is lower can lose significantly more time and/or money on the back end by implementing a tool that does not fit their needs.
This type of short-term, achievement-based pragmatism in day-to-day life creates personal mental traps. We need to go to the grocery store and do laundry to keep our lives moving, but if we let that become the top priority, we can find weeks and months passing by without advancing our life goals.
Constantly checking off the quickest items on our to-do lists can feel good for a time, but our reward is a growing backlog of enormous, seemingly impossible tasks. This can double our demotivation as we find ourselves facing a larger mountain and having lost time in starting the ascent.
How to Confront this Myth
Allow space to decide if something is “pragmatic” or just “easy”
Making a purchase for a company based on what is cheaper may feel pragmatic, but what about the other costs like time and usability? When we are especially decision-fatigued it is easier to rely on quick facts without doing deeper analysis.
This is when procrastination, particularly on important goals, shines. After all, it’s easy to see the benefit of spending the afternoon cleaning our home, and much harder to answer the question is now the time to start my own business? We quickly convince ourselves that simply thinking about something is not as valuable as doing the work of scrubbing our toilets.
If we find ourselves relying on impulse more than analysis, it is a good time to take a break. Taking a beat before deciding what to work on or digging deeper into the pragmatic value returned by tasks in the short versus long term allows us to make balanced decisions.
When deciding where to spend money, this is the difference between cutting costs and choosing investments.
By habitually working on complex problems rather than leaping for a simpler answer, we create better mental models for future decisions. This allows us to move faster and achieve more.
Aim your pragmatism at goals not obligations
It may not seem pragmatic to spend $10,000 on a certification course, until you match that with a goal. If that certification gives you necessary credentials to play in a field you want to play in, taking the certification becomes the only pragmatic choice. Conversely, spending thousands on a certification which does not support a larger goal means that money is lost to pursuing something more personally meaningful.
Aligning pragmatism with a larger purpose and our values allows us to evaluate pragmatic means of accomplishing goals and mental satisfaction.
Consider Future Regrets
There is no lifetime achievement award for the most pragmatically lived life. In fact, “being more pragmatic” is the opposite of common deathbed regrets. Working because it is pragmatic or only working on something that seems pragmatic is an easy way to avoid experiencing a more meaningful life.
Asking what we might regret later is an easy way to prevent ourselves from choosing something because we feel like we “should” do it or it “makes more sense” under someone else’s value framework.
**Check in on part 3 in the coming weeks, or subscribe to the Uncover the Human newsletter