In this brief morning reflection, the speaker shares a recent conversation with a longtime friend who is both a former college soccer coach and an attorney. The dialogue centered on the question, “What is the real work you’re doing?” The speaker expands this idea, arguing that a person’s true work is not defined by job titles or formal roles but by the influence, presence, and impact they have on others through their values, qualities, and daily interactions—whether at work, in parenting, or in relationships. The talk encourages listeners to reflect on their own “real work,” focusing on the lasting effect they create for the people around them, and ends with a prompt asking the audience to consider their own real work.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Here's your moment of yes for Thursday, September 8th. You know, we're kind of on an odd day instead of an even day. You know, the holiday kind of tends to do that. All right, your moment of yes for today. Just had breakfast with a longtime friend. He was one of my college soccer coaches. Known him for a while, and we were just having kind of an interesting catch-up work-wise. And he's an attorney, and he's done, you you know, lots of different work in education and law and just a really fascinating guy. And we were talking about, you know, I was talking a little bit about my work and what I'm trying to do and different things. And the conversation was interesting because a lot of it was, what is the real work you're doing? Right? Your title says this, but what is the real work that you're doing? And so I kind of found that fascinating. From the standpoint of, you know, it's once you're inside someplace, an organization, your title might be one thing, your role might be one thing, but what is the real work that you're doing? And when I think about that is who we are as people, you know, the qualities, our values, sort of kind of what we deem really, really important. You know, that's the influence that we have based on our presence. You know, and the work that we do, we tend to spend a lot of time with people, and that's the influence that you have. And it's kind of based on sort of who you are as a person. So like, that's the real work. What are we really doing? You know, parenting is the same way, and in our meaningful relationships, and it becomes less about your title and less about the actual job itself, but it's what is the real work? What is the impact that you're having on people on a day-to-day basis? You know, it'd be interesting if we talked about that more often. Like, what is your real work? And so I just kind of found that interesting. Sometimes it can be discouraging. Like, well, my title says I'm this or this. It says, yeah, but like, that doesn't matter. But what do you— what's the real work? What's the impact? What's the influence? What's the presence that you are creating with the people that you're around most? So my question to you, your moment of yes for today. What is your real work? I bet it's good. Have an awesome day, everybody.
