What Even Is Real Work?
From corporate pick-me to present moment mystic
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on an old belief I used to hold.
If you missed it, I recently shared 9 beliefs I had back when I was a full-blown corporate pick-me.
10/10 recommend this post!
Now, let’s talk about one of the big ones:
The idea that some work is real and some isn’t.
The phrase “real work” implies there’s such a thing as fake work.
But who decides that?
“Real work” is entirely subjective. And often, it's just a polite way of reinforcing a silent caste system in the U.S.
“I’m becoming a construction worker so I can build America, not sit at a desk.”
Or
“I work in tech where real innovation happens.”
I was the ladder.
So I’ve just been asking my past self what the fuck does that even mean?
Why does your work count more than someone else’s?
When I’ve said this about my own past jobs writing off my old roles as “not real work” just because they weren’t sexy or hands-on. When most of this self-proclaimed “real work” of it was just pushing around SOPs handed down from a Fortune 500 company via some McKinsey consultant.
What is “real” about telling a client to calm down over email because their branded app isn’t ready yet—especially when the app is just a slightly shinier version of what they already had, meant to boost some food & beverage giant’s online sales by 7%?
How is that more “real” than a janitor cleaning a public library?
Or a mom staying home to raise kids and keep a house running?
That’s work. All of it is. It just… is.
There’s no moral hierarchy to attach to it.
I Do My Best Work When I'm Not Working
Not to quote myself (but I’m doing it anyway), I always say:
“I do my best work when I’m not working.”
This has two meanings:
I come up with my best ideas away from the laptop, like in the yoga studio or the shower.
I solve problems in my business when it’s finally allowed to wander while brushing my teeth.The real work is when I am not working.
It’s learning how to be kind to myself while I figure out how to care for myself and my people.
It’s being fully present with someone I love, even when my brain is screaming at me about the 900 things I could be doing instead.
It’s choosing compassion when my boyfriend disagrees with me and my brain tries to turn that into a threat.
That’s work too.
And maybe the truest kind.
What Would the Mystics Say?
Over the past few months, I’ve been chasing language for this thing. I have been attempting to put words to this deeper truth about what “real work” actually is.
Sometimes I get a hit, like a really good idea that feels so true in my bones. But then I spend hours trying to shrink it down into a 90-second clip. This process is most my job, btw.
It’s cognitively demanding.
Very fun.
Yet, usually maddening.
Because if I can’t translate a big truth into something retained, then I’m not teaching.
I’m just rambling.
And I never want my content to be pseudo-teaching. Pseudo-teaching is this thing where you feel inspired for two seconds, but forget it ten minutes later. That’s what happens when the lesson isn’t digestible or replicable.
It’s the same reason you’ve read 12 books on budgeting but still don’t have a budget.
Which no judgement, we’ve all been there.
So today, I turned to ChatGPT and said:
“Roleplay as the greats like the mystics, the philosophers, the prophets. Answer one question:
Why do we work?”
Here’s what they said:
Socrates
“Before I answer, let me ask: what is work? And for whom do you work? If it is for coin alone, you are a slave to appetite. If it is for honor alone, you are a slave to opinion. But if your labor serves the soul—if it awakens virtue—then perhaps it is not work at all. Perhaps it is philosophy in motion. Let us not toil without questioning the purpose of our toil, lest we live lives unworthy of our own inquiry.”
Jesus of Nazareth
“Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for what nourishes eternal life. The world will tell you to toil for wealth, for status, for the approval of men—but I say, your work is meant to heal, to feed, to lift the broken, to love without payment. If your hands build, let them build peace. If your voice moves, let it speak truth. Blessed are those who serve not empire, but each other.”
Alan Watts
“The trouble with how we think about work is that we treat it as a means to an end—as though life begins after five o’clock. But life is now, you see. If you’re dancing, you don’t dance to get to the end of the floor. You dance because the dancing is the point. Work, if it is real, is play done with sincerity. So ask not what job you can endure—but what work feels like music to your being.”
Plato
“In a just society, each soul contributes according to its nature. The craftsman creates, the guardian protects, the philosopher contemplates. But when the parts are disordered—when the soul is ruled by appetite rather than reason—then work becomes tyranny. True work is the expression of one’s inner harmony in service of the greater good. Without virtue, all labor is corruption in disguise.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance. It does not matter whether you sweep the streets or sit in the halls of power—what matters is that your work is done with purpose, and with love. But let us also be clear: too many are asked to labor under systems that devalue their very humanity. We must not only ask why we work, but who profits from our working—and whether justice lives in that equation.”
One Last Definition of Real Work
A commenter on my Instagram post left this:
This is a comment also gives the vibe of this poem:
The Real Work
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings
After exploring this idea with me, what is real work to you?