Here we are just 18 days into the new year. It has already been chock full of activities, some that spilled over from the old year and some that really were part of this brand new one. Did you plan out your new year? Well I discovered a new word in this new year, metawork. I really hadn't thought about the meaning of the word althought I certainly had heard it used in various technical conversation snippets here and there. I discovered it is something most of us do and mostly what I discovered is that it is the part of getting going that can keep us immobile because in doing it we sometimes think we've done what our goal was. Confused? Ok I'll break it down because it can be really important to know and understand the difference. First let me state a camparison....Real work versus Metawork...Oh, hmmmm whaat? Perhaps it would make sense if we compare it to other meta words. Metadata – data about data. Metajoke – a joke about jokes. Metameeting? A meeting about whether or not you need to plan additional meetings. So-ooooo now is it more clear?
Of course, to some degree metawork is necessary – if you don’t take some steps to plan our how you will achieve your goals, you won’t know when you’ve accomplished them. And....left without direction we tend to wander aimlessly.
Compared to metawork, real work is just plain old fashioned work that has a direct impact on progress towards completing our tasks and goals.
Thinking in terms of a concrete example might help here – consider someone who wants to improve their health by lifting weights. Planning your workout schedule, thinking about how many repetitions to do, the cadence at which you want to lift the weights, which exercises to do all on which days – these are all decisions that i would classify as metawork. It’s important to consider them and have a plan of attack, but at some point you’ve got to actually to go the gym if you want any results...Which brings me to why I am ruminating over the word metawork.
In this New Year we tend to all create resolutions, make plans, etc. I want to make a positive difference this year in my life and the lives of those around me. Its been said that Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world. -Joel A. Barker
Can metawork help us to get to the dream? I believe it can but I also believe it can be the very thing that can keep us immobile and ineffective in life.
Can I raise a toast to this New Year, a challenge if you will?
"May we all move past the metawork in our lives and accomplish the real things that make a difference to us." Cheers!
"May we all move past the metawork in our lives and accomplish the real things that make a difference to us." Cheers!
