Yesterday morning, my tennis coach sent me a text: “Do you want to work tomorrow morning?” His choice of the word work caught my attention. He didn’t ask if I wanted to “play”—he asked if I wanted to work. My reaction was an immediate and enthusiastic “Hell yes, I want to work!” It struck me that my excitement was even greater than it would have been if he had simply asked if I wanted to “play.” Why was that? Why did the idea of “working” fire me up so much?

After reflecting, I realized it’s because, for me, the word work carries a sense of effort, challenge, and growth. Work implies the opportunity to push myself, to struggle, to learn, and ultimately to improve. That’s exciting. I knew that hour would be exhausting, but by the end of it, I would be a better tennis player than I was before.

This train of thought led me to a broader question about our professional lives: Should work be hard? And if so, how hard should it be? To explore this, I started with the basics—the dictionary definitions of “work.” Here’s what I found:

• Noun: Activity involving mental or physical effort done to achieve a purpose or result.
• Noun: A task or tasks to be undertaken; something a person or thing has to do.
• Verb: To engage in physical or mental activity in order to achieve a result; to do work.
• Verb: (Of a machine or system) To operate or function, especially properly or effectively.

Not surprisingly, these definitions didn’t answer my question. So I turned inward to consider my own perspective. I do believe work (professionally speaking) should be hard—but hard in a way that drives growth. Hard enough to challenge us, to cause frustration, and, at times, even to push us to physical or mental exhaustion. Growth often involves failure, and failure, in turn, creates opportunities for learning. To me, this is where both personal development and the profound sense of achievement come from. After all, in the professional world, we’re paid to work—not because it’s easy, but because it’s not.

It reminds me of a story from childhood working as an 18-year old field laborer for my dad’s small construction company. It was 100-degree Virginia day and the site Foreman had me manually pounding rebar dowels 18″ deep into cinder block for 8-hours straight in the sun (outside of my rest and meal breaks). My wrist felt like it was broken by the end of the day and I was utterly exhausted. When I got home, the first thing I did was walk in the door and start complaining to my dad. I was ready for him to console me and say, “I’m sorry about that.” But that’s not the response I got. The response I got was, “You’ll be fine. It builds character.” And he was right – hard work does build character. A lesson that has stuck with me until this day.

This all made me curious about the contrast between work and play. So I looked up the definition of “play,” which is described as: “engaging in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than for a serious or practical purpose.” My first reaction was, “But I enjoy my [professional] work!” I recognize how fortunate I am to feel that way and that many do not. But this led to another question: What’s the difference between enjoyment and fulfillment?

Diving deeper, I found definitions for these feelings as well.

• Enjoyment: A positive emotion often linked to performance and self-regulation, arising when there’s a good balance between challenge and skill level.
• Fulfillment: A sense of happiness and satisfaction derived from a sense of purpose and the alignment of actions with values.

This distinction intrigued me. Is enjoyment or fulfillment more important at work? Enjoyment seems tied to immediate pleasure—an activity we’re well-equipped to handle feels smooth and rewarding. Fulfillment, however, stems from something deeper: the satisfaction of growth, purpose, and aligning actions with our values. The way I interpret this is that as the gap between the task’s difficulty and our current capabilities widens, enjoyment might decrease. But overcoming those challenges can lead to a greater sense of fulfillment, particularly if the work serves a meaningful purpose.

Why does all of this matter? Because mindset is everything. If we expect our professional work, the work we get paid to do, to be easy or focus solely on “enjoying” it, we may be setting ourselves up for disappointment—especially when tackling meaningful, complex, or demanding tasks. However, if we embrace the idea that work can and should be inherently challenging and focus on the growth, achievement, and fulfillment it can bring, we can approach it with a renewed sense of energy and engagement. (This all assumes that one’s work is in fact challenging and meaningful…if it is not, that presents a completely different set of circumstances and questions).

Imagine a world where we wake up each morning eager to say, “Hell yes, I want to work!” Perhaps by reframing how we view work—not as something to endure but as an avenue for purpose and growth—we can bring that mindset into our professional lives as well.

DISCLAIMER: Not considered in these thoughts above is pay being commensurate with the work being done and how commensurate would even be evaluated. Perhaps a subject to ponder for next time…