What Matters Most at Work? Part 1: Excellence

Work is as old as Creation and problems at work are as old as the Fall.

Since the Fall, the ground has resisted Man’s cultivation. The world is not as easy to form and steward. This plays out in the physical world in the form of thorns and barren ground. It also plays out in the form of clerical mistakes, unproductive hours, and futile missions.

God is in the business of redeeming the world. That includes work. When we approach our careers, our work, with a redemptive attitude we can contribute to God’s kingdom through the work we do, no matter what it is.

Work is going to be a fairly regular theme for Young Man’s Odyssey. After all, young men work. As young men, we think a lot about our careers, our work, and our futures as they pertain to the work we do. As we discuss work, we specifically want to understand what matters most about our work. Is it money? Status? Impact? What do we need to do and who do we need to be to work redemptively? In this “What Matters Most at Work” series, we will address some of the things that should be foremost in our considerations about work.

Let’s start with a big one:

Excellence

Redemptive work pursues excellence.

God does not create trash. Neither should we. As God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), we are called to follow God in His excellence.

What does this look like in real life?

It looks like producing quality work. Whether it’s a neatly mowed lawn or a thorough programming project, we want to bring something valuable to the world. We want it to be good.

Of course, this can easily become perfectionism. That is not our goal. We can strive for excellence in our work while also understanding that the curse of the Fall has not faded yet. Our real-world work will still bear its marks. Perfection is not attainable on this side of Heaven.

While perfectionism is only a distraction that sets us up for disappointment, excellence is one way we “work unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).

How to Foster Excellence

Here are some strategies to consider when seeking to pursue and build excellence:

1. Have a Beginner’s Mindset.

Excellence is built through learning, experience, and practice. The enemy of such things is the belief that we already know what we’re doing. When we embrace the beginner’s mindset and come to a new project or task with a desire to learn instead of a desire to prove ourselves, we will grow.

2. Have an Attitude of Mastery.

We want to come to work as beginners but we don’t want to stay there. Having an attitude of mastery helps us intentionally build excellence and leverage new skills for maximum impact.

3. Embrace Limited Iteration.

This is a fancy way of saying “keep trying but only for so long“. We want to improve the things we produce or the processes we use but we can’t keep critiquing them forever. At some point, we have to reject perfectionism and focus on implementing the improvements we’ve settled on. This is especially relevant to creative work like filmmaking, writing, music-making, art, and the like.

Iterate, that is, keep improving. But do so for only a limited time. There is a quote about initiative that goes something like this: “A ship is safe in harbor but that’s not what ships are built for.” [source]

The same goes for creative work: books, poems, paintings, wood carvings, and films are all meant for “the sea”, not for the harbor. At some point, we have to let them sail.

Bringing It Home

How can you pursue excellence in your day-to-day work?