This is the second part of a three-part series exploring the emotional underpinnings of work.

Last week, I discussed the feeling of stress in the context of work and offered some reasons as to why work is stressful for people. This week, I want to go in a happier direction—for the people who enjoy or appreciate their work, what underlies that feeling?

What Makes Work Worth Doing?

When people describe work in a positive context, some of these are usually present:

·         Interest

·         Good money

·         Purpose and meaning

·         Contribution and service

·         People

·         Challenge

·         Pride

I’ll discuss them each in turn.

1)      Interest

Everything is easier when we find our work interesting.

For me, it’s been the primary guide for the career choices I’ve made, and I think it’s the main reason I have never felt too bad about working. When I was considering leaving consulting and deciding between finance and startups, my friend Darnell asked me, “what do you stay up until 3am reading?” I made my decision based on that.

Moreover, I’ve prioritized interest over compensation consistently in my career. I took a pay cut to go from Skadden to McKinsey, another pay cut to go from McKinsey to the New York Fed, and yet another pay cut to go from the Fed to entrepreneurship. I don’t regret any of those choices because in each case I was moving towards something I was interested in.

The only caveat I’ll add here is that when I say interests in the context of working, I mean interests that carry commercial value in society. Not personal entertainment. I may have a great interest in reading spy novels, but that isn’t valuable to another person. If I had a great interest in writing spy novels, that would be a different story.

2)      Money

Getting paid well salves a lot of wounds. There’s three aspects to this.

First, if you feel you are well-compensated, naturally, you won’t feel the stress related to not making enough or the anger of being taken advantage of that I discussed in last week's note.

Second, many people put up with otherwise miserable work environments (many lawyers and investment bankers) because they feel the compensation they receive is so high that it’s worth it to put up with a lot of other headaches. Sometimes people feel that they’ll “work really hard for 5 or 10 years and then retire” and that makes it worth it. This is a “light at the end of the tunnel” type of approach.

Third, the most joyful version of money for work is the “I can’t believe I get paid to do this” version. This ties into interest, as I’ve felt this at several points during my career. However, this isn’t necessarily better than “get paid a ton in a toxic environment”—there’s a tradeoff between the two and everyone makes their own choice.

3)      Purpose and Meaning

This one is probably the most important, in the grand scheme of things.

I imagine that finding purpose in life, whether through work or something else, is the kind of thing that allows a person to pass away at the end of their life without regrets. If I feel that my life was worth it, that it had a meaning, at the moment of death that is probably worth more than all of the interesting things I learned or the money I made.

I don’t have much else to add on this as I don’t find a lot of meaning in my work. If you’re interested in this angle, you must read Viktor Frankl’s book.

4)      Contribution and Service

Helping others makes us feel good.

Have you ever gone out of your way to help someone else? How did you feel afterwards? Not even a big thing—maybe holding the door for several people at a restaurant, or helping an elderly person load heavy groceries into their car. If you stop to notice, I guarantee you’ll feel good about what you did.

When we find work that contributes to the well-being of others, or serves others in some way, we get to feel like this all the time. I think of it as the opposite of cognitive dissonance—most of us have an internal moral compass, and when get to act in concert with it, we feel the opposite of internal conflict.

Regardless of what you do, in my opinion it’s worth thinking about how the work you do connects to improving the lives of others. And this includes for-profit businesses—the ideal version of capitalism is about creating value for other people. Airlines help people meet their loved ones or go on vacation, Google helps people satisfy their curiosity, fashion companies help you stay warm and feel stylish and confident, etc.

One caveat—the more distant we are from creating a benefit for another person, the less powerful this feeling is. I’ve spoken to many people who do help others in their work, and yet want to make a career or role change because they are too far away from the people they want to help (e.g. being a nurse vs. doing IT management for a hospital system).

5)      People

If you like your colleagues, that’s a huge bonus.

For some people, this is one of the primary motivators to work—social connection. I think this one is underrated, especially in an era of partially remote work. I miss going to the office and getting to know my colleagues, at least part of the time.

With that said, it isn’t a primary motivator for everyone. I mention it here in order to spark reflection on how much this matters for you.

6)      Challenge and Competition

Some people are motivated by challenge.

I think people that are in high-conflict professions, like trial lawyers or pro athletes, tend to have a lot of this in their personality. They’re driven by a desire to win, usually by beating someone else. Work is just one way for them to channel this part of their psyche.

There’s also challenge that doesn’t involve competition, like solving a difficult mathematical theorem or executing a difficult surgery. Overcoming a challenge like this in our work produces the same thrill that we get when we solve a crossword puzzle—the human brain enjoys challenges up to a certain degree.

If you don’t feel challenged at all, that is probably a bad thing. To me, a lack of challenge = boredom. If you’re bored at work, you need to do something harder.

7)      Pride and Satisfaction in a Job Well Done

I love showing my work off!

There’s just something very satisfying to me about doing a piece of creative work, finishing it, and showing it to other people. Some of that is probably the positive feedback and acclaim I get from others, but some of it is also intrinsic. When I wrote finance notes at the Fed, I always hated re-reading my work for final proofreading and edits. But after it was published, I’d usually reread the piece three or four times. I do the same with my video lectures and my blog posts.

I think this emotion of pride and satisfaction doesn’t have to be linked to creative work. My guess is that it can be linked to anything—a physical task or even something mundane like getting your taxes done—as long as it was something hard (relating to #6 on challenge above).

Habit, Identity and a Lack of Stress

One last thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes I don’t feel any distinct positive emotion when working, but I don’t notice any source of stress either. The only way I can describe my feeling is “lack of stress.”

And that in and of itself feels great.

I don’t know exactly how I get to a point of feeling no emotions at all, but I suspect that it has something to do with habits and core identity. For example, I don’t feel any stress or joy at brushing my teeth, even though it’s work—it’s just a habit I have that connects to my identity as a hygienic person. I feel something similar to this when I write these days—I don’t always feel “inspired” to put these blog posts out, but I also don’t stress about them—I just do them. And the identity I’ve created for myself as someone who writes consistently is something that I’m proud of.

Exercise

Journal on the following or discuss with a friend.

1)      Inventory

What, if anything, in this note resonated with me? Do I feel any sources of joy in connection with the work I am currently doing?

2)      Past Inquiry

Looking back over my life, when I reflect on the work I’ve done that I have felt joy in, what was the most consistent source of it?

To what extent are the sources of joy I’ve felt historically missing in the work I do now?

What conclusions can I draw about what motivates me?

3)      Action

What needs to change in my work in order for me to feel the way I want to feel?

What is the smallest action step I can take to move towards that change?