“The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it but what they become by it.”
(John Ruskin)

Our 21st century infatuation with data has led us to worship efficiency at all costs. And one of the costs has been our appreciation of work itself.

When all we care about is a more efficient way to produce results, then doing good ol’ hard work becomes the worst of all sins. I’ve heard this from folks, young and old alike: “I don’t want to just start working hard on something, ‘cos what if I find out later it was the wrong way to go about it? I’ll just feel stupid, and I’ll have just wasted all that effort.”

Pursuing efficiency is certainly worthwhile, but so is learning that efficiency while working hard on the job.
Let’s not buy into the lie that external results thru maximum efficiency are all that matters; doing a hard day’s work has internal rewards that are far more valuable.

Peace begins with pause,