On A Thursday?

It didn’t look like work, at least not the way I’m used to defining it. I sat on the couch, drank coffee, and plucked the keyboard of my laptop. On a Thursday.

I won’t be getting paid for this morning’s work. There’s no one to bill for that time. There’s not much that’s tangible to show for the effort: a blog post not many will read, a few pages of a book in progress, failed negotiations for a piece of used equipment, and a search for granite. But I believe this work will pay off. Not in an exchange of time for money, but in a shift in mindset. Because I now believe that this is work. 

I was raised with the idea that real work happens with your hands. That if you’re not doing something physical, it’s not really work at all. This thinking wasn't forced on me.  It’s what I saw my dad do every day. He's a lobsterman. At 82, he’s still hauling traps. His work doesn’t pay an hourly wage, but it requires him to go out on the water to earn his living. There’s a kind of freedom in that—you don’t have to go hauling if you don’t want to. But if you don’t, you make no money.

That’s the kind of freedom I’ve built for myself. I mostly own my time, but I only get paid if I show up and move stone. Today, I’ll leave in an hour to go to a job site. No one is making me. But if I don’t go, I don’t make any money.

That feels like a trap. A trap I built for myself. A trap I want to get out of.

It starts with changing how I define work.