Once we know what the work really is, we can't help but start

A career is just a vehicle for constant improvement: improve ourselves, improve our teams, improve our communities, improve our world. Careers are just the label we use to describe the arc of time that passes, from the moment we started working to the moment we stop working. All they are, really, are vehicles to keep improving between those two moments.

So when we decide that we can’t start doing something, or we need to talk to someone else over coffee to get it right, or find the “best practice,” or get more years at the corporate gig before we launch our own thing, or whatever story we’re telling ourselves, all we’re doing is delaying the inevitable: The work is NOT about being right in theory. It’s about getting in right in reality. It’s about constant improvement, the slow but steady progress forward.

When we delay our first attempt at something new, exciting, and ours, all we’re doing is delaying the start of the improvement process. And if we want to do great work and have great careers, shouldn’t we want to start improving right away, so we can do something great sooner?

When we sit on the idea and agonize and over-research, we’re failing to see what the work really is: constant improvement.

So you may as well start right now.

— — —

New to my writing? Subscribe if you haven’t yet. You’ll get each new idea as it’s published — a few short posts per week. Subscribers also get exclusive announcements, access, and experimental projects every few months. You can also support what I do by purchasing a book.