Are You Perfecting Your Craft

Yesterday my daughter and son joined Sloan and I as we ate Sunday lunch at the round oak table in our kitchen. Both of them left home years ago but live in Knoxville and it was a fun “Waltons” moment in a crazy week. They both started a new chapter in their respective careers in the last year, are working long hard days right now, and their triumphs and fatigue showed in the way they talked about their work.

At one point in the conversation, I made a point of letting them know how proud I am of who they are and how they’re doing their work. They’re on the front end in their jobs and they’re putting in the hard work that comes at the beginning of a learning curve. Working hard to become better at your work is an idea that’s out of fashion and, perhaps, foreign in the current labor market. But there are good reasons to have the mindset of a craftsman (craftsperson?) about what you do for a living.

Solomon is well-known for being the wise, rich (and womanizing) king of Israel three thousand years ago, but he was also an author and poet who wrote three books of the Bible. In his book Ecclesiastes, he takes the mindset of a teacher and examines the long-term impact and meaning of all we do and pursue in life, most of which he proclaims is “Meaningless” (or “Vanity” in the King James Bible). But several times Solomon states that “there’s nothing better than for a man (or woman) to take pride in and enjoy his (her) work.”

We don’t talk about work as something to be proud of too often, except maybe for the wealthy, powerful, athletic or celebrities who get to occupy the media spotlight. And taking pride in our work is a strange idea if we only work to fund our lifestyles, provide for daily needs, keep the wolf of poverty away from our doors, or do it because someone in power tells us we must. In our culture there’s just not much reason to approach our work like we’re a craftsperson making objects to admire or artisans making objects of beauty. But maybe there should be.

In 1949 author Dorothy Sayers (1) proposed that we need a higher view of our work than consumerism or pragmatism allow. She noted that if our work is for praise, recognition, or monetary reward then we “will begin to bargain for reward, to angle for applause, and to harbor a grievance if [we] are not appreciated.” Doesn’t that sound like the situation of our day, where so many employees see work only as a means to earn money, then simply fail to show up for work or “ghost” an interview when they find a job with 50-cents-more per hour elsewhere?

Instead, she offered that we should ask of our own work “is it good?”… “what is [my] work worth?”… “are these useful-things-well-made?”, and “will [my work] exercise my faculties to the utmost?”. She even gives the example of a brewery that doesn’t focus on sales volume and profit statements but has a sense of personal responsibility in their product, viewing quality as the bottom line and asking, “what goes into the beer?” (I think I would have liked Dorothy Sayers.)

If you think of yourself as a craftsperson and your work as a product of craftsmanship it shifts your perspective from “what am I getting out of this” to “what (of myself) am I putting into this?” It also shifts your perspective about yourself as a worker from “am I doing what’s required” to “am I getting better at what I do?” (Of course, these shifts are predicated on the ideas that you’re in work that fits your abilities, skills, and passions – the core of what I help people identify before choosing and pursuing their careers.)

It takes time to become truly good at something. There is truth in the adage that "it takes 10,000 hours (five years of forty-hour work weeks) to master a skill" or job. I tell career clients that it will take them six months in a job before they have a grasp of the tasks it requires, and a year and a half before they fully understand most jobs. If you have the mindset of a craftsperson then these truths make logical sense, and you have the understanding that you will become increasingly better at your vocation because you “put in the time”. In Dorothy Sayers' terms, "you serve the work".

More important, a craftsperson mindset inspires you to take mistakes in stride, knowing your challenge is to always grow and become better at your craft. (Which also explains why I just read an eighty-year-old book about work - I wanted to learn Dorothy Sayers’ ideas because they can help me become better at my craft.)

Do you see a higher purpose and meaning in your work and life? Do you want it to stand out in quality, usefulness, and impact in a world of people who are merely doing what’s required? Then I encourage you to take on the mindset of a craftsperson. For that matter, take on the mindset of a craftsperson in your marriage, relationships and personal life. Approach the work and interactions of your day as though you're creating a fine piece of handmade furniture or beautiful piece of art. It may change your life.

1) Dorothy Sayers, “Why Work” in Creed or Chaos? (Harcourt Brace, 1949), 59, 52