A Craftsman-Like Devotion To Work

Do you need to ratchet up your craftsman-like devotion to work?

I recently read an article over on Zen Habits where Leo spoke of a “craftsmen like devotion to our work” and it struck me like a ton of bricks that this is what I have been missing in my life.

We don’t always catch things about ourselves without someone pointing them out and this is one of those cases.

I am sharing this here with you in case you are making the same mistake.

I have always been devoted to my work but at a level that would not be described as “craftsman like.” I enjoy my work and I am proud of what I have accomplished but I wonder how much further I would be had I realized earlier that I have lacked the level of devotion required to make even greater progress.

I do have a craftsmen like devotion to my hobbies like woodworking and helping my wife build her Etsy items but not to my daily work and side hustles.

I now realize that I am always fragmented. My thinking and attention is always divided and I am never truly immersed in any one thing. It has never been my style to dive too deeply into any one thing. I have always been too hyper and ready to move on to the next step in the process. I can stick with a project long term but I tend to not devote too much attention to any one detail and I think that hurts my work.

When I work on a task I know that I only give a small part of my attention to it. I know that I rush through things. I know my objective is not to be fully engaged but to get it done. Getting it done is often my only objective. It’s like there is some sort of prize for getting done fast. I remember being this way in school with assignments. I always wanted to be the first one done for some reason. The minute I started I would rush through it as fast as I could. Even long-term things like book reports were rushed through so I could say I finished first. Not sure where all that started but I have held on to that habit my whole life.

Self- awareness is tricky. I have noticed and changed so many things about myself but not this. I really don’t know how I missed this for so long. It’s even more surprising because last year I read Deep Work by Cal Newport. I remember reading it and applying some of the lessons to my writing but nothing really stuck. I am going to start my journey to become more craftsman like in my work by rereading that book and applying some of the tactics from the article on Zen Habits that I linked above.

I need to get better. I need to take a craftsman like approach to more aspects of my work. I am starting on this journey now.

Do you have a craftsman like devotion to your work?


Steve Miller

Entrepreneur, Sales and Marketing Consultant, Mental Toughness Adviser, student of Self-Mastery. Founder at The Manly Club website, leader of The Manly Club Facebook Group with over 15,000 members. Outdoor enthusiast, weather buff, muscle car lover, cabin nut. Loving life up here in the PNW (Oregon) with my beautiful wife and two young sons.

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