johnmaconline

People at my age often stagnate.

And just as often, it’s on purpose. They’re tired, or feel like they’ve earned where they are, or feel done.

I don’t blame people for this. We’re 30 years into our careers and probably 20-30 years into family life. We’ve been there and done that. We’ve figured some stuff out.

However, you’re also never done.

The world keeps shifting. Technology and culture keep marching forward. Changing around us, if not with us.

You keep shifting. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. Whether you’ve embraced it or not.

You’re still becoming, whether by default or design.

The question is: Are you happy with who you’re becoming?

We confuse the two all the time. 

Knowledge is what you know. The dates, specs, and procedures. The contents of a book, the lecture, a YouTube video, or what you see from the stands. You can gain knowledge without ever leaving your chair. 

Learning is what happens when you engage. 

You can memorize the rules and strategies of chess, but what happens when you start playing? One gives you information, the other, transformation.

You can know everything there is about fitness and still never work out. You can know the steps of a sales process and still never close a deal. You can know leadership principles and still be a lousy leader.

Because knowledge doesn’t necessarily affect behavior.

Learning shows up in how you act, how you adapt, and how you grow. It shows up when you fall, reconsider, revise, and try again. It’s the shift in how you see the world, not just what you can recite from it.

Knowledge might help you join the conversation at a dinner party, but learning is what makes you worth listening to. 

Despite some rumors, your Costco ID will NOT work at the airport.

The Costco card indicates you’re part of that club, but that club doesn’t carry any weight at the airport.

We all carry various physical, intellectual, and emotional membership IDs. The key is to know which one to use when.

Deep down, we know what the real work is.

The phone call. Reworking the pitch for the umpteenth time. Redoing the research and the numbers. The thing that might not work.

But we don’t do it. Not right away.

Instead, we clean our desk.
We tinker with the fonts and images.
We attend a meeting that doesn’t need us.

It feels productive.
It feels like progress.
But it’s just sedation.

Busy work dulls the discomfort of real work.
It keeps us feeling safe, but not moving forward.

The real is scary. Uncertain. We might fail. We might be told we stink. We might be told we don’t have anything.

But it’s the only work that matters.

The rest is just anesthesia.

Are you doing the real work, or are you just staying numb?

You easily recognize the size of some decisions.

Marriage is easily recognized as big. Renting an apartment you’d probably call medium. And where you’ll eat lunch you wouldn’t think much about.

In the moment, or the lead-up to the moment, you may recognize the size, but it’s also just as likely that you won’t or you’ll get it wrong.

Maybe your lunch was tainted, and it put you in the hospital. Or, while eating your lunch, you serendipitously met your future partner, employer, or largest customer.

The reality is, size isn’t always measured by effort or emotion in the moment. Some big decisions feel small when they’re made. Some small ones echo for decades.

That job you took because it was convenient.
The person you met because you sat next to them.
That time you said yes, or no, without much thought.

Only hindsight can provide the necessary context.

Stay awake. Pay attention. But also, don’t fret too much. Don’t be paralyzed. Keep marching. Reflect, OK. Give yourself grace. The small may be bigger than it seems. The big may be more flexible than it feels.

Each decision shapes the story you’ll tell later, but that story is your own.

Big, medium, or small. They’re all chapters in your life.

It seems there is a pretend work trend in China.

“Many citizens who don’t want to explain their employment status pay to rent a position in a fake office, with some even assigning fictitious tasks and organizing supervisory rounds.”

Why? 

Because work is meaningful. For some, it’s identity. For others, it’s purpose. And others, it’s just what needs to be done. 

Work, by the way, doesn’t need to be “professional.” It’s application. Utility. Creativity. Expense of energy for some purpose. 

But in any case, it’s meaningful. 

Having “work” to do — or appearing to — communicates value. We want to feel valuable. 

We can talk about systems, institutions, and governments and how each of these has contributed to and sustains “where we are in human history,” but none of these exist without basic human ambition. 

The Smart People don’t give enough credit to the human spirit. To ambition. 

Humans want to matter. They want to contribute, to be seen, to be relevant. They want to work. 

Not everyone. But enough. 

The danger isn’t fake work. It’s systems that don’t make space for human ambition. It’s when bureaucracy, risk-aversion, and status produce work that feels just as fake but pays better.

Is our system perfect? Heck, no.

The good news is that if we continue to work on the systems, we can build work that matters. Work that welcomes people. Work that sees potential and encourages contribution. 

Because the future of work isn’t pretend.

The human spirit is too ambitious. 

A great way to think about and socialize your unique advantage is a differentiation grid.

It looks like this:

What are the axes on which you (or your product, your service) look the best?
Who are your competitors?
Where are they on the grid?

Find your axes. Find your magic.