"This is my work now.”

Grit by Angela Duckworth, page 80. “... if you scored people a century ago against modern terms, they would have an average of seventy – borderline from having an intellectual disability.” Her point brought notice to gains in IQ over the last century as studied by Jim Flynn.

I wonder how that fairs with our concept of working hard. If the measurement of intelligence in comparison to one’s “peers” is relative to history, why wouldn’t that be the same with working hard?

Two personal experiences come to mind.  2011, I was sitting in the airport, my face in a laptop, working on a healthcare technology project. A gentleman, wearing some WWII patches, asked me what I was doing so intensely, I replied, “Work!” 

He gave me a puzzled look and asked, “Work?”

I repeated, “Work! This is my work now.”

He smiled and nodded his head and let me get back to work. 

Secondly, there is the case of some of my older siblings, an intermittent back and forth about our lack of… grit… especially the part of grit that requires hard work. For them, the last three of us only harvesting pine trees for pulpwood, cutting firewood, hours on a tractor, cutting corn stalks for feed, rounding up cattle on foot, and dozens of other duties and not leaving any of those undone was synonymous to being spoiled and lacking work ethic.

So, as in the case of the WWII Veteran, are we asking questions of students and apprentices? Or are our observations leading to generational generalizations about work and work ethic that are counterproductive to connecting with them?

In the case of my older siblings, in our generalization about their generation, are we not acknowledging their individual experiences?

Note: I really wanted to use the word pulpwooding. In rural Alabama, it is proper English, noun, verb, and adverb. But I thought it may take away from the flow.

Please send comments to ahardy@careerxpl.life