What is the problem with modern work? Well, ever since Copernicus moved the sun to the centre of our universe and Nietzsche announced that God was dead, humanity had all the evidence it required to leave religious institutions and give up on spiritual life. Finding meaning not in the heavens, but in institutions, careers, family, communities and personal growth. Allowing the scientific classification of the world and mass industrialisation (with its untempered fetish for scale) to take root.

Here the empiric and material world-view agreed with one another and modernity sided with Aristotle over Plato as the philosophy for the new world.

No furniture maker needs to know about divine forms, only “real” forms. If the furniture maker must build a chair by hand, society had to let them know that there was nothing inherently special about that bond between them and their craft. It was just material. The wood is lifeless. If they were smart, they would mass-produce it themselves.

The world declared your experience with the work does not matter, only the quantity sold does. We lost, in this transition, the incredibly rich experience that happens in the process of making, creating and doing work that one is intensely entangled with because of the composition of their own soul. Is it any surprise then, that society is now engaging with work superficially and fixated only on end-results?

We find ourselves the recipients of a Faustian Bargain, whereby humanity traded the experience of creation for things and digital bits. Impoverished by a surface fixation and believing that experience with our work does not matter. It is here that we look to the practice and appreciation of craftsmanship, as it can revive the personal and the sacred in our work.

When an individual suggests using better quality materials to a manager, why are they frequently met with criticism? Told that it costs more, takes too long to source and that they need to be efficient with their time. The human desire to reach higher is squashed. Better is efficiency. Better is cost-cutting. Better is technology doing the job. Better has been defined by someone else.

But this definition of better is not better as it lacks the experiential substance of life. As Lloyd Alexander, the young adult fantasy author, said, “Craftsmanship isn’t like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it’s empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains.” In denying individuals this ability to move towards betterment, doing work that enriches the experience of life itself, a type of humanity is emerging of which we will not be proud of. One which regularly and consistently lowers itself and calls it, “better” as if to name it as such makes it so.

The widespread lament for the objects that are deteriorating in quality and increasing in price is a symbolic reflection of the inner state of the modern individual’s relationship to their work. Being asked repeatedly to mass produce work that they do not believe in. On the other side of the work, consumers are crying out and telling us that homes are ugly, fashion fabrics are cheap, furniture and appliances do not last a day beyond the warranty and they are right.

But where are the cries for the humans who are making this?

Shaped to lower themselves in exchange for career or business success. My heart breaks at the thought. The maker’s experience with their work is as important as what is created by them and craftsmanship nurtures the souls of all those who practice it. Without craftsmanship modern existence is perverted, forced to look down instead of up.

Modern craftsmanship encourages individuals to raise their heads towards higher possibilities. It looks at the work one is doing and the way we are working, questioning our choices.

Why do you work tired when that will affect the work’s quality?

If those who purchase your work knew how it was created would they still believe you care? Why do you attempt less when you know what better is?

Have you not read Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace? Viewed the 17th century Fujisan Tea Bowl by Hon’ami Koetsu? Seen a 1967 Ford Mustang coated in Shadow Black G1 paint?

Modern craftsmanship asks us to reassess our work, and by doing so, we reassess modern life. Spending less time on social media and when one is on it, they spend more time with those nurturing our work rather than seeking to hold our attention with polarising views. They take care of their health, mental and physical, knowing that the maker is as important as what is made. That the maker affects what is made.

According to The State of Workplace Burnout 2025 report by Infinite Potential, only 33% of people are satisfied with their job. As for business owners, the University of New Hampshire in 2025 found that 88% of entrepreneurs struggle with their mental health. Here we can view the detachment of the individual from craftsmanship.

No one can be dissatisfied with their job and do their best work.

No one does their best under the weight of mental health issues.

One also challenges themselves with every attempt and to better each true work. Find themselves as an opposing force to low quality mass manufacturing and hyper-consumerism. Knowing that for humanity to believe in craftsmanship again, it begins with not compromising on one’s own work.

Craftsmanship offers us meaningful present moments that are filled with deep pleasure without being purely hedonistic; ready to destroy our future. It also offers future contentment without having to live an ordinary, boring and stoic life.

Because both the process towards and the mastery over one’s craft provides momentary satisfaction, beautifies and excites existence and aids one’s pursuit of their vocation. Exalting them along the way.

If we look at Alexandre Cabanel’s painting entitled, Michelangelo in His Studio Visited by Pope Julius II, we view a renaissance master surrounded by marble statues of his own creation. Engaged with his work, reflecting and thinking about his next decision.

Anyone who practices craftsmanship knows this experience.

The glory of being immersed in the figuring out, the unfolding and the problem solving which generates meaningful work. In this, one loses the boundaries of self and time. An exchange is taking place, between what one is working on and their spirit. Skill acting as a translator and with enough skill, inspiration is properly communicated and poured into a form. Here we are alive. As alive as a human in love. Over time the practice of craftsmanship naturally takes an individual to mastery with its search for quality, its love of skill and belief in the importance of care. This feeling, being fully with ‘it’, and this increasingly rare experience, that of mastering one’s craft, can still be experienced in modern existence.

Deep Dive Study On Modern Craftsmanship:

Modern craftsmanship requires human smudge to be in every work that an individual makes. Without it the human story is missing. It imbues all that it touches with the best of us. This idea, which was laid in point seven of our Craftsmanship Manifesto, reflects how craftsmanship can save us and enrich modern existence.

We are now midway through our eight week deep dive on Modern Craftsmanship here on Substack. With the second half looking at how to apply and navigate craftsmanship in our own practices. For our Path Studies members, know that next week we will be looking at a psychological barrier that emerges as one practices craftsmanship. Which, in overcoming, helps us deepen craftsmanship in our vocations.

If you are a free subscriber, you will not receive this lesson. However if you’d like to, simply upgrade your subscription. By upgrading you’ll also get access to these previous lessons on craftsmanship:

No AI was used throughout the process of creating this article.

In practicing craftsmanship one is handed a set of values that become unspoken oaths. Agreed on when an individual decides with conviction on the creation of great works. These values enter and orchestrate one’s existence; guiding the placement of each next step. In noticing that no short-cuts were taken in constructing the Parthenon. Nor Euripides’ play Bacchae or Sevdaliza’s track Human.

It is understood that great work cannot be done on a whim. That it would lose its footing on the fragile surface of a momentary desire.

Craftsmanship, for it to emerge, has to be rooted in the dirt of everyday life—a practice that can nourish every field and every craft.

Whether one is using solid materials such as wood, steel, clay or cloth; or nonphysical materials such as memory, erudition, language or sound. This way of life brings reverence to those who practice it. Daily activities are set in unison with one’s temperament whilst being asked to reach beyond the outer walls of their current state and skills. It is an existence that seeks total harmony, with self, other and world. Great works become a reflection of the good life that the ancient philosophers have attempted to define for centuries. The practice of craftsmanship is a branch of the good life.

What does craftsmanship look like in daily life? Let’s compare it with the modern life that many have selected over it.

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Fragile homes being built to last as long as a renters term, jackets threaded with weaves so distant that they fall apart after three washes, and books written for trends, algorithms and political agendas. Everyday items have been deteriorating over the past decade with the decline of craftsmanship and we are all suffering because of this. But the stock prices? They only rise. Happy to use quality and craftsmanship as an image which is no longer present in the backbone of the creation itself. This myth making process, discussed at length in boardrooms and during marketing team zoom calls, is all about the story of quality, either forgetting or not caring that it is not there.

One cannot help but recall René Magritte’s famous surrealist painting, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”. This artwork shows a pipe with a sentence underneath that translates as, “This is not a pipe.” In the same way Magritte shows that the image is not the thing, we can point to modern homes, education, clothing, software, furniture, experiences, technology, food, and say, “This is not quality.” Nor is it beautiful, as beauty is a consequence of quality. The ancient Greeks understood this. In their time beauty was a marker of a society moving in the correct direction. Which is why when we look at our world we have to ask ourselves, why are we heading this way? If the answer is profit, then the reasoning is weak as society is poorer, not richer, because of it. For us to restore our damaged world, to make it lush, alive and ready to withstand the conditions of life, we must believe in craftsmanship again.

What does a world without craftsmanship look like? Well, we are already witnessing some of its consequences today. From a personal point of view it’s opening a fast delivery package to the synthetic smells of a far-away factory. From a global viewpoint it’s an increase in pollution and economic disparity. 85% of all textiles go to the dumps each year according to earth.org, and according to the economic policy institute between 1979 and 2024 productivity increased by 80.9% and hourly pay only grew by 29.4%. This means more waste and more poorly crafted items are being produced more efficiently, whilst everyday people have less buying power. But it gets worse.

If we continue agreeing to a world without craftsmanship, there will be no heirlooms to hand down because a grandmother’s ring will not be able to withstand the test of time. There will be a normalisation of purchasing multiple storage units to throw mindless purchases into. Couples that want to start families will be forced to save hundreds of thousands of dollars for a minimum deposit on a home that may not last the time it takes to pay the mortgage off. Then living on a street where all the homes on their street have the same paper thin walls, cheap flooring and fridges that manufacturers have designed to break just after the warranty. As Aldous Huxley writes in his novel The Island, “Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence—those are the three pillars of Western prosperity.”

If we continue to agree to a world without craftsmanship we will plummet into a state of hopelessness. As there would be no inspiration, no human smudge, pressed into what one wears, what one reads, what one sits on or what one looks at. The signs are all around us. Short shelf-lives, details missed, cost cutting materials, items without character, these do not build a strong future. They build a weak one.

How does craftsmanship address these issues? Well we can begin with it valuing longevity and durability. It’s not incentivised by replacement, rather it prides itself on enduring across extended periods of time. We see this in Philip Webb’s Red House built during the Arts and Crafts period, still standing strong over 150 years later. Would we have 85% of all textiles going to the dump if all clothing was expected to last decades rather than seasons?

Craftsmanship also values care for other humans. If you are lucky enough to come across someone who still practices craftsmanship, note how they do not focus their speech on sales or bargains or trends or revenue or the celebrities that endorsed them. Instead they will talk about the intricacies of the work itself. The nuances and hidden details. The reasons why they chose walnut over oak or decided to make a button a soft sky blue. They will tell you about the problems and how after many models and a variety of drafts they reached a creation that they could be proud of if it entered into the life of another.

This perspective of love and care for other human-beings, is embedded in craftsmanship. In a recent Path Studies article I laid out The Craftsmanship Manifesto with seven items with number five being, “People can feel care and discern quality. Though they cannot articulate it consciously, when given the option and when within their means, humanity selects for quality. Craftsmanship provides humanity not with its basest desires, but with its highest.”

A world that values craftsmanship values other humans as craftsmanship elevates the human experience. By practicing craftsmanship and selecting for it, we help put the loose threads of society back together again.

DEEP DIVE STUDY ON ‘CRAFTSMANSHIP’: 8 WEEKS ON SUBSTACK

Over the next 8 weeks we will be exploring, here on Substack, craftsmanship and its importance in the modern world. Discussing societal issues, real-world problems around the lack of craftsmanship that we face as practitioners of craft, as well as why valuing it again is important for one’s sacred work.

Whether you already practice craftsmanship, are still seeking your vocation or are looking to make wiser decisions in selecting works that honours the human experience, the following weeks will both enrich and educate on this important problem. We’re looking forward to exploring craftsmanship alongside you all and doing our part to help revive it to its proper place.

CAREER ARCHETYPES STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:

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Our Career Archetypes Course leads students through an intensive process that teaches them how to discover their unique strengths, talents, passions, dreams, interests and ultimately, their unique archetypal work expression (the Career Archetype). The Career Archetype is used to help students discover their sacred work and aid them in moving towards their vocation.

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No Generative AI was used in this article.

Manifesto: “A written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.”

In viewing the stitching of an Alexander McQueen gown, the delicate walls of a Lucie Rie ceramic or the drama in an Annie Leibovitz photograph, we see firsthand how craftsmanship nurtures the soul of this world. But it seems that even witnessing the beauty that craftsmanship provides is not enough. As still, it is not revered. Why?

The modern world has made it clear that it values something other than quality, care, detail, love, workmanship, artistry, refinement and precision. The modern world values scale.

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Introducing our deep dive study on Substack, for our free & paid subscribers

Since 2024 each of our articles and essays have focused on a different element of the vocation, but starting on May 1st, we are experimenting with changing that to ensure we can provide greater depth to the topics we cover. This will allow our readers to go deeper than a single article has previously offered.

What will this look like?

While we will be exploring one topic, we will be using it as an over-arching theme as we take time to look at this topic from many vantage points. Think of it like a small course of 8 articles and lessons!

Paid subscribers will receive 8 posts over the eight week period:

• Path Studies members will be receiving the in-depth lessons and guides written specifically for those further in their paths, and seeking to master their vocation.

• They will also receive articles on societal issues and real-world problems around the subject.

Free subscribers will receive 4 posts over the eight week period:

• We will be sharing this 8-week topic with our free Substack and Instagram, where we’ll be discussing societal issues and real-world problems around the subject.

Modern Craftsmanship: A deep dive study

Every 8 weeks we are going to be taking our readers into the deeper terrain of a particular of domain of ‘Vocation’—and this chapter will be Modern Craftsmanship.

Craftsmanship has suffered over the past 150 years; however, we can revive it and make it strong once more.

Our first lesson, “The Craftsmanship Manifesto”, goes out to our Paid Subscribers in 2 days!

Soon we will be sending out our very first lesson to paid subscribers—a manifesto on craftsmanship, as the world needs craftsmanship more than it ever has before, with a set of reminders of why.

Paid subscribers will automatically receive this lesson. If you are free subscriber, you will not receive this lesson. However if you’d like to, simply upgrade your subscription.

Looking forward to wading into “Modern Craftsmanship” with you over the next eight weeks.

— Joel Uili

Callings are intimately woven into the fabric of time. In beginning, walking and ending our paths, we learn that they are as mortal as us. With this unfolding story in mind and with the inevitable conclusion of death far-off but always ever-nearing, we are asked to make decisions.

What creative projects are worth my time? How will having a family influence my pursuits of mastery? If this particular album does not come out now, will it ever? Bounded to chronological time, we are presented with options that require contemplation on how one should pass their time.

Few have contemplated this subject better than Florence Welch.

Florence Welch, the lead singer and songwriter for Florence + The Machine, is known for her voice that brings forth ghosts and angels, a baroque indie rock sound, her gothic taste and a bohemian style. With a track record of high excellence, from Lung in 2009 to How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful in 2015 to Everybody Scream in 2025, her listeners adore her ability to touch and move the composition of their souls. A grieving moment, a collective catharsis, a feeling of raw, ancient and primal uninhibited power, all of which pours out in Florence’s music. Florence’s outpouring however has been rocked by limits; aging, the body, having a family, sacrificing for greatness and the grand structure of time. Florence has had to wade through the deep waters of time, nearly drowning in moments, but nevertheless learning how to swim with grace.

There are urgent moments in time

There are opportunities that present themselves in our path that may never happen again. We understand this intuitively as we farewell college friends on graduation day and then turn around and walk into the next movement of our life. Time marches forward and we do not return. Which marks the great beauty and tragedy of life, that we are fleeting and many of the experiences that we can have at this point in time will end. Masters at pursuing their vocation understand this, and seize onto these opportunities when they surface. They do not house regrets in their future. It is why Nietzsche, when overcome with an ecstatic vision for Thus Spoke Zarathustra, spent ten days in a fog of work, writing with intensity and inking thoughts, images and ideas on paper.

Whether opportunities last ten days or half a decade, they will end. Because time changes, and the conditions of what’s possible right now may not be tomorrow. Which is why when Florence said, “It’s either now or this record never comes out” she understood the moment of time she was in.

When Florence began creating her album Everybody Scream, it was urgent. There was a deep seeded need to record and it came out in this, ‘furious burst’. She knew that this record was unlike the others. That there was a moment in time available to her that if this album did not come out now, she was never going to put it out. The reason was simple, how she felt was incredibly specific to this moment in time and to wait and let it pass her by, would be to miss it. The challenges that arose during the pandemic did not stop her fury and things did not flow effortlessly into place, but the awareness of it being now was saliently in her awareness. Which is why, when she released it in 2025, she had completed a work that may have never happened, and yet there it was, ready to be listened to by all.

Age determines what we pursue

Our aims change with age. A youthful twenty year old may have dreams of creating art alone in the hills whilst that same person, fifteen years later, may be living in the hills but now has dreams of raising a family there. As the path unfolds and as we continue to accumulate self-knowledge, our personal mythology regularly interrupts and asks us whether what we are seeking is worth the pursuit. The pressure of time forces us to decide how we will live and presents limits on what we can and cannot do. The challenges and contemplation that occur from this make us wiser, however it can be painful. We need to remind ourselves that the etymological roots for the word “decide” is to cut-off. But what is not said in the roots of the word is that even if we cut off multiple futures, that more are being seeded ahead of us. Spontaneous surprises that are growing far-off, impossible for us to see because they are underground.

Florence went through a period of asking the question, “Do I want to have children?” This question is a modern dilemma for women as they rise in the world of work en masse. Never before have they had the choice, so outrightly, to choose whether or not they want to have children. For Florence this choice came with friction. Prior to this her approach to music has made her into a symbol of heightened possibilities in those that listen. On target to fulfil the shoes of one of the greats, archetypally similar to Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith. But if she has children, why must it come with sacrificing her creative heights? In finding herself enclosed by her professional aims and a visceral sense that the time to start a family is running out it sometimes felt, ‘like a scream.’ Realising that as a woman it was going to be different for her compared to men and there was fury in the unfairness. Age had thrust a new aim upon her and it was up to her to decide what she would do. After much contemplation she chose to have a child, excited by the thought of a future family. Again breaking through norms and challenging what’s possible in our modern world.

True work has prophetic capabilities

True work is beyond us in our path timeline and is prophetic. Our work has the ability to place itself in the future and by completing it, we are shaped through the act. This is the author, who, in sitting down at their laptop and hoping that the muses see their determination, are provided with a down-pouring of inspiration which shapes them with each new letter pressed into the keyboard. This is where the unconscious and the conscious meet and where chronological time overlaps with time eternal. Here the present, past and future are all at once. Because of this, prophecies can appear in our work and future works can appear earlier than the timeline foretells.

Those who have pursued their vocation for at least half a decade, begin noticing patterns of prophecies in their work, as well as the seeds of future projects appearing in earlier ones. Whilst these prophetic insights can be both good and bad, one needs to remember that they are part of the grand mythology of one path in entirety.

Florence unfortunately lost her baby due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy in 2023. This caused further health complications that nearly stole her life. After this tragedy, Florence spent time healing and processing her loss by mixing herbs, being close to nature’s cycles and speaking with a trauma therapist. She also found that, “Shit was coming true.” Because the line in her song King read as, “I never knew my killer was coming from within.” A prophecy that did not help her but reminded her that “I think the songs are always like three steps ahead of me. It’s been like that my whole life.”

To heal from this situation she returned to the place that made her feel most herself, her music. Deciding to create a magical world that would free her from feeling trapped in the body. Out of this came her album Everybody Scream, where ambition and trauma and rage and confession come together to create a hauntingly beautiful musical horror film. We do not know what is next for Florence, but if one goes and listens to the album they’ll find that in the last song, and with the last words, she sings, “Peace is coming”.

Chronological time has been thrust upon us. However, rather than viewing this is a burden, we have the ability to seek the blessings in this sequence of events. With every tough question that time asks of us in our path, we learn more about ourselves, our path and our world. Florence’s contemplations on time allow us to peer into a soul that is perfecting itself through the vocation itself. To borrow Saint Teresa of Avila’s term, it is the way of perfection. We all have a mortal existence and with this can decide to walk a worthwhile path, no matter the hardships that emerge because of life’s eventual final chapter.

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• The Career Archetypes 8 Week Course which guides you step by step to finding your archetype

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No Generative AI was used in this article.

Humans copy popular self-images. It’s natural to look outside of one’s being for how to act and think in the world. Children learn language by listening to others, teenagers wear the same outfits to fit in and adults listen to similar sources for news. However, those who pursue their vocations are tasked with living from the core of themselves. Rather than a fixation on recreating external images they pay attention to their own internal identity.

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I. What happens when we seek perfection
II. Concentrating our hearts on the process itself
III. Nurturing your love for the work
IIII. Lowering your head and appreciating the process
V. Plus! Supplementary materials for further reading

In visiting Paris and witnessing Yamamoto’s 2026 Spring/Summer fashion collection, an individual may be inspired to become a fashion designer. In this event they will unconsciously hold Yamamoto’s work as the standard.

This is because we hold standards in our minds as to what is perfect and what is not. These standards are dissolved into our being during life (often unconsciously) and dictate the experience we have with our work.

Read more

Society is being rejuvenated by the burnout generation’s mythology. Courageous individuals, en masse, are now rejecting the modern workplace ethos that was thrust upon them as a fact of life and are now stating that the workplace made them ill.

This awareness has implanted new expectations into this generation which rivals and seeks to overcome insufficient fantasies imposed by previous eras of society. New fantasies that weave family time, nature dwelling and slow living are confronting old fantasies of promotions, fast-paced environments and 6-figure paycheques. Because of the burnout generation, the old fantasy is now competing saliently with what it cannot offer, and it’s losing ground.

However, this new fantasy is not a static location where one arrives in peace and prosperity. Landing a publishing deal, creating content, starting an online business or taking a sabbatical will not give this generation the escape and stability it seeks. This secondary fantasy, though an improvement, will not satiate itself. This is because, from the perspective of myth, it is transitionary.

The burnout generation is at the beginning of their own mythology

The burnout generation is finalising the first stage in their myth; leaving workplaces, seeking healing and approaching work with intentions that could have only ever emerged after leaving sick environments. Governed by personal pain, the path was moulded by the avoidance of it. If we are to agree with Byun-Chul’s opening sentence in The Burnout Society, that, “Every age has its signature affiliations”, then we may also take a step further than him. Every affliction therefore must also have its own remedy. The beginnings of this remedy is seen early on in the burnout generations focus on self-healing, rest and re-location.

In 2018, when the Cottagecore aesthetic emerged, burnout was also entering the vernacular of everyday life. Termed Cottagecore, this image depicted a lifestyle of natural living, the romancing of experience and a simple existence amongst greenery, wildflowers and whimsical cottages, capturing and celebrating what workplace culture denied. The desire for this image only intensified over the next few years because it functioned, metaphysically, as a cocooned atmosphere that was safe and magical. It pushed the outer edges of the burnout myth beyond an internally located experience focused on pure healing, and gave situational possibilities of a life that was better visually and emotionally post-burnout.

Here the burnout generation’s mythology is no longer tied to being governed solely by pain (seen in the will to leave the workplace), but now becomes pleasure seeking. Life is no longer repressed, which is what happens when one is burning out, rather life now seeks affirmation. It requests a smudge on experience to know that we were here. Whether or not one desired the Cottagecore aesthetic specifically, by existing in the terrain of beauty for the collective to witness, it helped the burnout generation create alternative paths in the imagination layer of experience. Re-envisioning what existence could be, opened space to reconcile themselves with new futures. Visions that were inspiring and full of the pleasures that human experience has on offer.

Thinking in paintings, the burnout generation moved from The Healing of Palladia by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, whereby sickness is treated and physical health is idealised to The Bacchanal of the Andrians by Titian, depicting a feast taking place with both mortals and gods, celebrating existence and dancing next to a river that flowed with wine.

However, self-satiation has limits and the human spirit’s capacity for love overpowers pure pleasure. A return is imminent. The burnout generation, in healing themselves, hear the world’s cries.

A trait that typifies the burnout generation is the reevaluation of values. Because modern society is in a state of high critique, configuring itself around the inadequacies of long-tail subjective experience, the burnout generation knows how to point out and analyse wrongs. We see an example of this trait in the view on workplace promotions. What was once an accomplishment is now viewed by many as cultural and capitalistic conditioning within an achievement-based society. We also see this in the new fantastical desires, such as the Cottagecore aesthetic, whereby individuals question their enjoyment of it. The guilt of living this way whilst others are suffering in the world causes a tension that makes pure long-term enjoyment inaccessible. This trait, forever critical of experience, allowed individuals to self-assess their mental health and quit the sick society. However it also recognises the problems of leaving that society to exist as it is. Understood properly, the development of this trait is leading individuals to an overflowing love; love of their sacred moment here on earth and love of others. It is reaching for, as the historian Thomas Kuhn puts it, a paradigm shift.

Originally, the burnout generation places others before themselves, dissolving into the needs of organisations that forget them. Then they learn to be the centre of the world, finding individuality in healing. The selfless need to learn selfishness to rectify the psychological imbalances caused by burnout. However, neither extremes will lead the burnout generation to the experience where all layers of life are being properly attended to. It is here that they are guided to their vocation, and this is what’s next for the burnout generation.

A ‘Vocation’ is the next step for the burnout generation

In the vocation, people can find both self-sanctification and great works, as it allows an individual to contribute to the world, the self and the divine. This is where the burnout generation returns to the sick society they left. For some their sacred work will appear as directly reforming institutions, workplace cultures, healing individuals who are going through similar experiences and for others it will be indirect, nurturing the collective unconscious through their way of being, their creations and the way they carry themselves in life.

If we are to think again in paintings we can wash our eyes over the Sistine Madonna by Raphael, witnessing a mother caring for and holding the divine child whilst Saint Sixtus looks upwards towards the heavens and Saint Barbara looks down towards earth.

Here pleasure and pain are transcended, and the dramatic scene visualises the deeper knowing that there is something more to ascend towards and it is made manifest on earth. Reevaluating the values of the workplace was a form of providence for the burnout generation, leading them to a life immersed in beauty and contribution to humanity.

We are still only feeling the repercussions of their early acts from 2018, now. Mental health dates, four-day work weeks and meditation memberships to alleviate employee stress. These are all consequences from the past decisions made by them over half a decade ago. Thanks to their reevaluation of work and being courageous enough to select paths based on meaningful work, they are slowly reforming the sick society.

However, this is the beginning and the real influence they will have is still coming. As these individuals are now discerning their calling and beginning to bring it forth into the world through sacred work. Realising that all areas of life are worthy of being drenched with the vibrant colours of a fruitful existence. As being struck with an arrow coated in hydra’s blood would take the Greek God Chiron to Prometheus, freeing the torchbearer, the Burnout generation’s original wound has placed them on the path of returning to the world with the gift of fire.

Take the first step to finding your calling—join The Career Archetypes Course!

Our Career Archetypes Course leads students through an intensive process that teaches them how to discover their unique strengths, talents, passions, dreams, interests and ultimately, their unique archetypal work expression (the Career Archetype). The Career Archetype is used to help students discover their sacred work and aid them in moving towards their vocation.

We are welcoming new students each week, and would love to have you! This is what is included:

• The Career Archetypes 8 Week Course which guides you step by step to finding your archetype

• Regular video calls with Joel to ask questions and connect with the community

• A private online space dedicated to everything Career Archetypes, and a supportive, encouraging community

Join our 8 week course

No Generative AI was used in this article.

In this edition we’ll be looking at productivity apps and their effect on our callings. Below are the lessons included:

I. Understanding what kind of ‘time’ our vocation requires
II. Why productivity apps ‘feel’ like work, but aren’t
III. Why a vocation needs non-linear time for success
IIII. The addictive quality of productivity apps
V. Plus! Supplementary materials for further reading

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When the vocation is prioritised it gives individuals peace, deepens their appreciation for existence, and feeds the deeper recesses of their soul.

However, the modern world has the ability to drag our attention around with it.

Media consumption hits the collective psyche and causes politics, memes and cultural news to regularly enter conversations. Family duties take up further space with archetypal expectations placed upon us and, as all parents know, the children need to see you in the audience or be permanently pained. The house requires cleaning, the body requests care and if we do not rest and recover, we will slowly erode.

The 21st century, with all its activity, leaves us little room for our vocation. Our sacred calling is given secondary status in this world—though the importance of this idea has held throughout time, having roots as far back as the Greeks who debated beauty, goodness and truth near the Parthenon, and later entering the minds of the people during the Protestant Reformation during the 16th century, the modern world cares little for it.

This makes it hard for us to pursue our vocation.

Yet we have work we’re born to do in this world, and this is why we must prioritise it, even if no one else will.

I. Why we need to prioritise the vocation

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When Christopher Hitchens the acclaimed writer, journalist and renowned combatant of organised religion told a packed out auditorium that to be a writer it cannot be something you want to do, “...it must be the thing that you have to do. It must be that without which you could not live," the irony was present.

Known for his polemical hot takes, there was none this time. Instead, this atheist spoke in a tone befitting a preacher. Revealing that where religion had failed for him, writing had taken its place. Hitchen’s work gave him a reason to live and because of this he experienced it as sacred.

We all have sacred work to do

Sacred work is work that makes you want to live. It is life-affirming. Rather than taking life away, the effort you put into it gives you energy and keeps you going. We need only reflect on the mythology of Prometheus, who decided of his own volition that humanity deserves fire. Going against the gods orders and descending down Mount Olympus he provided us with the heat of life. In his rebellion he found his work, making a divine contribution to the world.

We too have work to do which may defy the orders given to us by the world. Work that will nurture our soul and by consequence, contribute to humanity. But first we must understand what sacred work is and why it is foreign to most of us.

When the words ‘sacred’ and ‘work’ appear next to each other they seem to be from entirely different worlds

Sacred originates from Latin words that mean holy and purification. Work, however, has come to mean effort for the sake of survival and brings up visceral reactions of heaviness, burden and sorrow. In many ways it feels opposite to purification, which can be seen in the ritual of throwing off one’s clothes and going for a shower at the end of the work day. This difference represents our shared experiences with modern careers. A Kafka castle of Mondays that’s never ending. Our society has pushed people to build shells to sustain appearances for work which hides the crumbling ruin of the soul within.

This is why work must be restored to its rightful place, because humanity is starving for sacred work. In bringing these words together the very concept that has burdened us, work, is the very thing that can liberate us. Sacred work is our saving grace.

I. Sacred work is not solely for the wealthy or the lucky

Every single person has sacred work to do on this earth. It is not reserved purely for the wealthy, the young, the monks in churches or the artist who got lucky and was discovered by an agent. It is for everyone.

Because in the life of every human being there are important unfolding patterns of existence that seek expression, what we might simply call our storylines. One of the most important storylines running through our lives is what we’re here to contribute to the world. And knowing the type of contribution, also known as our calling, comes from us. It is not based on what the economy wants or desires. Rather, it’s grounded on what we are uniquely gifted to bring forth into the world. Which, ironically, elevates not only the economy, but more importantly the whole of humanity because of its rippling effect.

Just imagine what the world would look like if every single person you knew was pursuing work that they felt deeply connected to, and you’ll understand the profound impact pursuing sacred work can have on the world.

However right now this fact is hidden. As any biology student knows, we carry genes that are not expressed in our physical traits. For example, we may have brown eyes but we may also carry the gene for green eyes. The code is there within, even if it’s unseen. In the same way, we have sacred work within us, often lying dormant. However the major difference between our eye colour and sacred work is that we have the ability to bring it into our existence and pursue it in the world. It is our choice. Perhaps conditions such as parents, societal norms, and cost of living are hindering it from appearing, but it’s there. Waiting for activation like a quiet volcano.

To think sacred work is only for others is like thinking only a few humans carry the code for eye colour variation. Which is why we must learn to see our work differently, with hues, shades and spectral pigments of who we are, waiting to be painted into our everyday lives.

II. Sacred work is an antidote to meaningless suffering

We do not need to suffer at work. People will go through tremendous amounts of pain for jobs and careers that they aren’t born for nor care deeply about. This is on account of survival and knowing no other way. Yet, when we find our calling and pursue it with devotion, we feel this reverence for the work. A serenity in our own outpouring. This gift, experiencing what we’re put onto this earth to do, immerses us in a life worth living. So even when we do come up against challenges we know deep down that it’s worth it. This sustaining force helps us to persevere and overcome.

In other words, when we pursue sacred work we do not suffer in meaninglessness. Rather, if we do suffer, it’s because it’s for something. The transcendent, the act, the other, and the revealing of one’s self.

When teenage Charlie Parker, who became one of the greatest Jazz musicians of all time, was in his bedroom, he would play the saxophone for 12+ hours a day. The neighbours would complain and his mother feared eviction. But he could not be stopped. He played and played and played, and in hearing about this creative teenager who was obsessed with the saxophone, we must ask ourselves why? If we take a look at the state of the world in 1936-1940, we see the Great Depression, pre-war tension and intense racial inequality raging throughout the US. Take that horn away from Charlie Parker and what do you have? A world where he’s steeped in pain and meaningless suffering. The worth of existence enters the mind and one naturally questions the point of it all. But give him that horn and let him blow, and bear witness to a sustaining force that gave him meaning.

III. Sacred work is the highest form of service

Our work is our ultimate contribution to humanity, and serving humanity is fundamentally human.

If we think about humans that we admire, whether they are famous past icons like Frida Kahlo or Joan Didion, or modern names like Fred Again and Ocean Vuong, or whether it’s people we know personally like a friend or peer, we admire their contribution. We recognise that they’re doing something of worth that is beyond the scope of the ordinary. A reflective occurrence that instills us with inspiration and at the same time, instructs us on where the higher aim is mounted. This admiration can help us feel when our work is missing the sacred. Because giving to the world is not simply helping others in any way we can, it’s about helping others in the best way that we can.

Which means that we cannot help fully if we are ignorant of ourselves, and instead need to work on coming into a deep congruence with an awareness of what our soul desires. This is where our ultimate contribution is seeded at birth and where it awaits its bloom.

Around 2019, a young nurse of about the age of 29 came to me seeking guidance on her career path. She told me that she wanted to help others. Hearing this I was taken aback because the nursing profession is known as a hallmark career for helping others. Only a year later it would be announced by news outlets around the world as the most compassionate profession one could pursue, with people cheering in the streets as mask stricken nurses got into their cars every morning. Which is why I was confused. I asked her, “...but you are helping others aren’t you?” To which she replied, “Yes, but there’s something missing.”

What became clear was that she was helping, but had an inclination that there was an ultimate way for her to serve, which wasn’t being met as a nurse. The nursing profession was for someone else. There was another form of work waiting for her that would be able to act as her ultimate contribution to humanity.

IIII. Sacred Work sanctifies the self

Our work rids ourselves of who we are not and allows who we are to emerge. It is in the consecrated effort of pursuing it that we come to know ourselves in a way we couldn’t have without it. Meaning that work is a part of our identity formation. Which is why it’s important that we do work that is true to the core of who we are. Because doing work that feels off centre creates an imbalanced society with groups in it that seek to rebalance the world through the rejection of any form of work, right down to the rejection of the word itself. This is where traditional work has gone fundamentally wrong. It seeks to contort people into identities that are not their own, causing deep self-suffering.

Sacred work, however, does the opposite. Sacred work asks us to bring forward parts of ourselves that are lying dormant within us. Parts that are raw, far reaching and yearning to breathe. The more we do it, the more we emerge in the world. Becoming proud of the work we do and proud of the person staring at us in the mirror every morning.

During the Middle Ages the building of monumental cathedrals was seen as a reflection of faith and a place to pour the community’s creative energy. Beautifully crafted cathedrals still stand today as testament to the work that was done. The Notre-Dame de Paris and Milan Cathedral are just two examples with the latter cathedral taking 579 years to complete. One can only imagine the detailed planning, the foresight, the ongoing problems and resolutions that needed to be solved to bring this to life. Navigating the mortar which could only be used during the warmer months to resources and funding running low during economic hardship.

We look at these monuments in awe, and even travel from around the globe to take a photograph but we need to also imagine the incredible transformation that took place upon those who helped build them. Every brick placed required precision, every sketched draft required skill and every act required belief to see the work through to the end. The people who worked on the cathedrals would have been fundamentally changed because of it. In other words, these cathedrals aren’t simply monuments of devotion, they’re a reflection of the inner sanctification that can occur within us when we pursue work that is true to our core.

Helpful Questions to ask yourself

1. Do you believe doing work that you love is for a chosen and lucky few?

2. What activities do you naturally pursue which make life feel worth living?

3. Who are you inspired by in this world and what do they contribute to humanity?

4. What types of work have you ever done, paid or unpaid, that gave you the space to become someone you were proud of being?

We all have sacred work to do which is life-affirming

It is important that if we don't know what our vocation is, we find it. And if we do know what it is, we don’t let anyone sway us from the pursuit of it. Because by doing our sacred work in the world we serve humanity, sanctify the self and find the divine here on earth. Remembering through the words of the late Christopher Hitchens, “...it must be the thing that you have to do. It must be that without which you could not live.”

Let’s explore The Career Archetypes! (There are hundreds…)

A Career Archetype is a unique pattern of expression that acts as a guiding force in one’s vocation, calling and career. It helps you understand what work you were born to do, at a core level.

Today we’ll be looking at the Decorator.

The Decorator Career Archetype:

Life is drab without beauty; it needs flourishes, curves and touches of magic. The Decorator Career Archetype knows this. By seeking to adorn existence so that the eyes glimmer on sight of their work, they move beyond function, and find themselves in the aesthetic terrain of existence. Any space they ornate turns into its own world, ready for stories to appear and turns the imagination on for the humans who enter these places.

Their work is in showing us how externality can both beautify existence, and tell us about the magnificence of the spirit. However, the challenge they face in their path is in the utility of life. There are constraints to materials, and dealing with material restrictions is a reoccurring difficulty. Part of their mythology is in finding synthesis between what decoration can be, and the materials, tools and skills we have at hand. By decorating existence they remind us that beauty is deeply entrenched in the human spirit, and can be expressed in the world.

To discover your own Career Archetype join our Career Archetypes Course & Community. A process specifically designed for the discovery of one’s archetype.

Find Your Career Archetype

No Generative AI was used in this article.

Definition;
Transcendent work is any work that attempts to reach for a higher standard than one is used to

Transcendent work is work that is done with repeated, elevated attempts, aimed at being better each time. Over time each attempt takes us ever-closer towards the height of our own vocation, and those who repeatedly attempt their work in this way lift us all higher.

They create works of awe and wonderment; Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Wintour’s Vogue and Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra are all examples that belong in the pantheon of transcendent works.

These are divine breakthroughs externalised, which now exist as works in the world. They reach into our human spirit, reveal possibilities and plead with us to adopt a similar aim. It is not easy to pursue transcendent work as humans are afraid of their own celestial heights. But every time we ask more of ourselves and the work we attempt, we move towards and finally crack through the breakthroughs we seek.

Why do we want transcendent work?

Humans desire reaching their own higher states of being. We are hungry things that want growth in life and reach, sometimes tentatively and sometimes courageously, to make our fragile dreams an earthy reality.

Intuitively, we know that there is more in us than what we are now. This feeling, that there is a personal height, exaltation and form which exists in the future of our own world, is always there, bobbing up and down out of consciousness. This is why we do transcendent work, because the very act of it brings that height out of us.

If every work we do is beyond what we have done before, we are asked to renew ourselves in the face of it. Skills must be learnt, cherished beliefs released, risks taken. We are continually refined with every upward step.

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Sensing that we are falling behind in life can cause anxiety, not reaching a career milestone on time can throw us into a state of urgency, and in order to progress, one feels they must move quickly.

However stories from antiquity, which have been handed down to us, echo an alternative way. Rather than focus on speed, a slow, steady and constant stepping forward is offered as its better. In a Greek fable, the storyteller Aesop tells us about a slow and steady tortoise winning a race against a speedy, arrogant hare. We’ve all heard renditions of this story in childhood, how the tortoise in the beginning is far behind and yet slowly wins the race.

Though a fable often told to us as children, this lesson provides us with vocational insight on how one may approach creating masterworks in a way that they enjoy. We may experience the feeling of being behind, but we do not need to panic. If it takes us longer to reach the aims that others already have, this is okay. It is better to create excellent work in a way that is both enjoyable and meaningful to us than compromise for the sake of external achievement.

A slow and deliberate approach to our work opens up the path to reaching milestones that can only be arrived at through extended periods of time. What is missed in speedy attempts is gained in works that stand the testament of time.

Donna Tartt, one of the great novelists of our time, is a master of this approach.

Donna Tartt is an author who has written 3 books over the past 30 years

Donna Tartt has written three works of fiction over the past 30 years; The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2002) and The Goldfinch (2013). Winning multiple awards, such as The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and majorly influencing the popular Dark Academia aesthetic. Her books have created a wonderfully obsessed readership that adores her writing, and even Donna’s decade long writing process has not deterred them. However, even if it did, it is unlikely that she would change as she respects the craft too much. Learning early on that if the work is not enjoyable, then one is not doing it right.

Slowdown, the work is meant to be enjoyable

Enjoyment is a crucial part of our work. How one experiences doing the work matters as much as the work that is created from the activity itself. This notion is a foreign concept to the modern world that places the focus on creation rather than the creator. Speed is expected and timelines are enforced. This pressure can cause deep, personal dissatisfaction with the work; rushing tasks, missing standards, worrying daily and tarnishing what could have been an object of high quality. This is why being told to produce at speed should be questioned.

Slowing down often makes sense as it allows one to breathe, dream and play. It gives one the space to pay attention to the smallest of details. Large scale works are able to unfold and emerge over time. Which is why Donna says again and again, when questioned about her pace, that if she wrote faster it wouldn’t be fun for her or the readers.

Donna has faced harsh judgement for the pace it takes to complete her novels. Even Stephen King, the acclaimed horror author, commented on it. In reviewing Donna’s novel, The Goldfinch, in a New York Times review, Stephen was full of praise and admiration for everything except her level of productivity, “But three books in 30 years?” However, Donna knows that working to produce more would feel like, “A horrible chore.” Emphasising the importance of enjoying her work and holding firm to the perspective that there is a way that works best for you. She even tried at one point to work fast but recognised quickly that it made it feel job-like.

What is hidden from view is that a crucial part of the exquisite storytelling that occurs in Donna’s novels happens because she slows down. Donna maintains a sensitivity to enjoyment of the work itself. Knowing that if she was to meet her aim of excellent work, wanting those who read her books to do so with glee, she must have fun creating them. This belief, that the experience she had creating the work will spill over into those who receive her work, opens us up to an ethical question.

Anyone pursuing their calling needs to ask themselves, “If not enjoying what I am creating is transmitted into the experience of the work itself, what am I pouring into this world?”

Speed can prevent great work from emerging

When the focus of one’s work is finishing it within a timeframe, the external pressure naturally affects the work. Whilst there are those who thrive under these conditions, others do not. To make certain works excellent, reaching beyond what one has reached before, longer timelines may be required. When the focus of an individual is on speed of production, finishing the work becomes more important than creating the best work one can do. This attitude can be harmful to the work itself, and is unfortunately a dominating perspective in the digital landscape where beliefs regularly focus on putting out work rather than improving at the craft itself. Creators are frequently told that, “Done is better than perfect”. This saying is useful for beginners who hope to use social media for their work, who do not have momentum.

However, this can lead to producing mass amounts of work without standards. Forgoing the opportunity to slow down and improve what is being done because they feel pressured to ‘deliver’. The consequence being that works which were still unfolding, unready and in a state of becoming, are published in an infantile state. Drafts that could have been masterpieces are lost to the world for the sake of quickly progressing towards one’s aim. The irony being that if one focuses on doing quality work, they still reach milestones that those churning out work at speed do, and they can also reach ones that those churning out work cannot. Knowing that time is a great equaliser, and there are certain things that cannot be done within short periods of time. It is no mistake that Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have worked on the Mona Lisa for 14 years, that James Joyce worked on Finnegans Wake for 17 years and Donna Tartt worked on The Goldfinch for 11 years.

Donna puts the work first no matter how long it takes, and this attitude has served her work incredibly well. Realising early on that she needed a solitary life away from the literary world, which has expectations on authors to produce books regularly at the pace of one book every 2-3 years. In finding herself repeatedly having to deal with questions of speed, this outside pressure which has pushed many authors to create in a particular way, did not have the same effect on her.

Instead of producing more books, she gave less interviews. She knew that this pressure emphasising speed would ruin her work, deciding instead to write in solitude and timeless calm. This has allowed her to do things other authors cannot, such as reworking a story four years into writing it with plenty of time to spare; which is what happened to The Secret History. If she had published it in year three before it had been reworked we would never have received the masterpiece that appeared in year nine. Publicity, as Tartt explains it, is, ‘...actively harmful. It draws attention away from the books. The books are the important thing.’ Instead of submitting to the benchmarks of her field, Donna lets the world know when she is ready. Rather than rushing her work to meet an industry standard, the work will tell her when it’s time.

Donna Tartt teaches us that, although the world offers us a timeline of when certain milestones need to be accomplished, we do not have to agree to its terms. If the vocation asks us to create great works, and those works need time, we do not have to rush them. That if the pressure of time morphs the work we love into a job we despise, it’s okay to slow down.

Her maxim, “If there's no fun for the writer, there's no fun for the reader” reminds us that our experience of doing the work matters as much as the work itself. Focusing on speed, output and productivity can hinder rather than aid one’s work. In learning from her path we can look at it like an Aesop fable, asking ourselves if we also went slowly, and focused on enjoying the process of our work as much as what is created, how much higher could we go?

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No Generative AI was used in this article.

“For mastery to take place it must be understood that each work has phases, similar to the natural world.”

If we regularly observe the sky after dusk we will notice that the moon’s light is constantly on the move. There are nights where it is full, nights where it’s a slither and nights where it has disappeared. This fluctuation is represented mythically by the ancient Greek world. Goddesses such as Artemis, Selene and Hecate appear depending on the moon’s phase, with each holding its own myth and purpose. But why are there more than one? The Greeks understood that different representations of the moon were required to depict the different phases.

Ontologically speaking, the same can be said of us and the relationship we have with the works that we create. Certain approaches, methods and ways of being are needed during distinct phases of any work we undertake if we are to come close to its perfected state.

By consistently asking, “What does the work need from me at this point in time?”, we find patterns that repeat and cycles that recur. By mastering each phase we progress towards mastery itself.

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In 2026, we will be releasing 26 more editions! Each new edition will focus on a different aspect of the vocation. We would love for you to join us.

An educational publication for those pursuing their craft, calling and life’s work

Path Studies is a publication created to help readers navigate and develop their vocation through knowledge, education and encouragement. Every second week paid subscribers will receive a new edition of Path Studies directly in their inbox. These guides accumulate into an archive you can revisit anytime.

• Who is it for: This publication is particularly suited to those in the arts or humanities, though anyone looking to blend meaning with craft will benefit.

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To sign up to ‘Path Studies’, simply upgrade your subscription.

Note on subscription increase date: Originally our date was set to the 25th of January, however we recently adjusted the date to the January 30th due to a slight mishap on our end. Apologies everyone.

In comparing the paths of Charles Bukowski and Franz Kafka, two giants in literature, we find that they hold few things in common.

One penned potent, short-lined sentences whereas the other composed extended prose with few breaks. One is mythologised as a grumpy, old man who drinks whiskey whereas the other maintains a youthful image haunted by despair. One had multiple relationships whereas the other struggled with intimacy. However, where they find common ground is in despising their “bread job”. Both yearning to write rather than work to pay the bills. But here again we view a major difference. Because while Bukowski quit his job to pursue writing full-time at the age of 49, Kafka was not as lucky. He never left his job until forced by illness, passing away at the age of 40.

Vocationally speaking, we do not know if we are Bukowski or Kafka, which is why, if we are doing work that is not meaningful, we must prepare to quit our job, even if that means leaving this year. There may not be another opportunity.

Jobs are antithetical to meaningful work

We can define meaningful work as an active and applied effort towards a vocational aim which is self-selected as worthy of our time. Jobs, however, strip the self from the selection process. In jobs we are told what to work on and rarely have full agency over the aims of that job. Symbolically speaking, because of this, jobs become old exoskeletons like those left by grasshoppers after shedding. They are bodies without life as jobs are structures without meaning. By staying in a job that lacks what is needed for true work, we find ourselves doing work with the sacred core missing.

Even the justification for it, such as paying the bills, saving for a mortgage and supporting our families is not enough. This is because what we work on is, simultaneously, working on us. So when the work is not meaningful we must ask ourselves, “What is this job doing to me?” Rather than morph into that which we are not, we can decide to leave and live for what we are.

Jobs waste time whereas the vocation deepens time

Surviving life is not the purpose of it. It is not about claiming the title of oldest person alive or having the biggest retirement fund. Rather it is about the relationships we have, the work we do, the internal spirit we cultivate and the felt-experiences we find ourselves in along the way. Jobs however focus on the survival and continuation of physical life. They keep existence flat, safe and certain.

Yet everyone has a vocation—a calling that if they pursue, will allow much of life’s intensities, spectrums and celestial heights to enter everyday experience. We work for about 80,000 hours of our lives (or 40+ years) which is the majority of our adult lives. Not only is this a fleeting moment, but each moment of time has a potential depth. Which can only be accessed if we truly wish to be in that moment. It’s not only about how we spend our time, but also about how deeply we experience what time we have.

Here’s a thought experiment:

1. Imagine being in a customer service centre, constantly taking calls and dealing with angry customers everyday. How is time experienced? Do you treasure time or urge it to hurry past so that you can leave and do something else?

2. Now imagine you love designing fashion and find yourself creating your own collection full-time. How does this change how time is experienced compared to the previous example? Perhaps you desire more time in the work day because there’s more care involved now or maybe you discover that a deep gratitude wells from within because this type of work feels sacred.

By simply contrasting the two work experiences we peer into the phenomenological differences that emerge between a vocation and work done at a job that lacks meaning.

The shortness of life inspires meaningful work choices

Hearing that life is short can cause anxiety and guilt. The feeling that we have already wasted so much time and have to start again creates a struggle between the possibility of wasting even more time if we leave and fail, and knowing that if we do not attempt a different life, we will never know what could have been. In this way, the shortness of life can act as a harsh judge which informs us of wrongdoing. But it can also act as mortal inspiration. A justification for risk, a plea to attempt that which feels beyond us and focuses us on what truly matters against the schemata of what modern work is. It uses the fact that we will not live forever, in favour of a higher existence.

When Michelangelo said, “Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven,” we can think about this from the perspective of our job. Is this job worth dying for? Does this job allow me to pour love into it? If the answer to both is no, we are not using Michelangelo’s wings but rather descending into Dante’s inferno. If we are to ascend, we need to use the shortness of life to inspire ourselves rather than paralyze us into staying put—submitting passively to a set of circumstances we do not believe in.

In Harmen Steenwijck’s still life painting entitled, “An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life”, he depicts a table with a set of objects on top of it including a skull, flute, book, shell, samurai sword, lamp, overturned fruit basket and a pink cloth. A light beam directly shines on the skull and asks the viewer to contemplate the paradox that death presents us with in life. Which is namely, how one should fill their time in this life, considering it will end one day?

Each symbol represents a different type of life; adventure, creativity, travel. The formation of life is made up of what we decide to spend our time on in the little time we have. The acts of life, rather than the yearnings of life, are what appear solidified on the table when our time is over. Recognising our mortality gives us the power to rearrange the table layout at any moment. Which is why when we leave a job in pursuit of meaningful work, we’ve made room for a new object to appear.

Society elevates when individuals do true work

The majority of humanity is in the wrong line of work. Feeling forced to do work which is not for them, they numb the part of themselves that desires meaningful work. Exchanging life for existence. This is the cause of deep suffering and discontent in the world. Individuals who do not pursue their vocation never experience the sacredness of work, never come into their own selfhood and do not contribute all that they could have.

However, if we understand the vocation and we imagine an alternative world where everyone is able to pursue their own, we can grasp the leap forward that society will experience, purely by re-organising it in such a way that ensures we work on what we find meaningful. Arriving there means that more and more of us need to accept meaningful work and nothing else. Showing others that it is possible. We become symbols of hope by quitting our jobs and turning ourselves into a living argument against working for “free” time and week “ends”. We too often think that quitting our jobs is only about us, but it’s more than that. It’s about the world we are agreeing to live in. If we do not desire a world that places the majority of humanity in the wrong line of work and watches them suffer, we must have the courage to leave it behind.

In 2020, before Doechii became a genre-bending Grammy award winning rapper, she was fired from her retail job. Anyone who watched a few of Doechii’s YouTube videos from around that time would instantly know that she was not meant for that type of work. Yet there she was, working in a retail job becoming frustrated until fate fired her. This catalysed her commitment to music but not all of us will be lucky enough to be fired. Most of us need to quit. Otherwise we will work in jobs until we are jaded, numb or full of resentment. Turning us into humans that we do not wish to be.

Though leaving jobs for meaningful work is not simply about avoiding pain and pursuing pleasure in the Freudian sense. When the work we do is true, we give our best in effort, care and love. This affects all of us and ripples outwards into the world. We are all elevated when one person pursues their vocation. If every person we knew was doing meaningful work, humanity would stop questioning the need for meaningful work and see it for what it is—a human right. Which is why, if we have not been given this human right, we need to claim it for ourselves and that may mean quitting this year.

Jobs are life-denying whereas the vocation is life-affirming

By quitting a job that holds no deeper meaning in it than surviving, vitality is allowed to emerge. Though this destabilises us momentarily it nurtures us by taking us closer to what we need to work on to become what we are.

Rather than attempting to do meaningful work whilst holding down “bread jobs” like Kafka and Bukowski did, we can challenge ourselves to live differently. Looking at their output during those years as miracles considering what they were up against. Following this up by reflecting on what Kafka could have written if he never had to fill his time with annual reports for the insurance company he worked for? We unfortunately will never know. What little fragments we have are blessings and we should both applaud his ability to have left these behind whilst simultaneously wanting no part in repeating history.

Readying one’s self to quit their job this year is no small feat, but if we know that the time is upon us and yet still find ourselves wavering, we can receive inspiration in the first line of Charles Bukowski’s poem, Roll The Dice. Saying, “If you’re going to try, go all the way.” Knowing that he wrote this about two decades after quitting his post office job.

More education: Path Studies: Lessons & Guides | The Career Archetypes Course

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No Generative AI was used in this article.

“Expressing one’s self differently in the public domain is a formal declaration of inner change.”

When we change internally and it affects our work, we need to publicly express this change to progress our vocation. But why does this act of renewal, in which we will be seen differently in the eyes of others, cause such intense worry and fear?

The contention for this, which author and political activist Marianne Williamson famously made when telling humans about their base nature, was contrary to childhood lore. According to most four-year-olds darkness is the most feared piece of equipment that nature has to use against us. But no, Williamson disagrees, humans are more fearful of the light. Explaining, “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.”

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In the Art Historian Rab Hatfield’s book, The Wealth of Michelangelo, he reports that Michelangelo died with approximately $40 million to his name in today’s money and was one of the richest people in Europe during his life.

Unlike the Broke Artist story we’re frequently told by concerned family, friends and contemporary society, his example reveals an interesting fact. Not all artists die broke. With this one case we can oppose this rhetoric and see that the Broke Artist is not a universal law. By treating it as the most likely outcome we reinforce this false idea as truth. This belief, handed down to creative people as helpful realism, hinders their vocation and corrupts path choices because it places economic certainty as the ultimate value. However, rather than agree that the Broke Artist is condemned to suffering in poverty, we can question the idea itself:

What does Michelangelo’s wealth and masterpieces such as the Pietà, David and Sistine Chapel tell us about modern culture’s wrongdoing in passing the idea of the Broke Artist to its creative people.

Understanding the basic origins of the Broke Artist

The Broke Artist is a mythology of society’s artistic professional class. Defined simply, the Broke Artist sacrifices material safety, financial gain and personal health for their art. This idea likely originated in the form we know it today with Henri Murger who wrote the play Scènes de la Vie de Bohème where he romanticised the starving artist. The artists wanted to replicate what they saw and parents, teachers and social commentators wanted to warn against it. This idea spread and has since been passed down through generations, shaping cultures’ view on what it means to pursue an artistic vocation.

Stories of homelessness, Van Gogh’s ear and the inability to retire at 65+ years of age has been enough concrete reinforcement for the deceptive story to hold across time. Though this is not the reality that those who select a creative path need endure, because of the belief in it, it persists.

The two main problems with the Broke Artist as a cultural symbol

There are two main problems with the Broke Artist as a cultural symbol.

The first is that creative people have the ability to romanticise nearly all areas of life—heartbreak, poverty, despair, addiction and exile can become desired with an artistic perspective. With this ability, they can be placed into the most dire situations and make beauty from it. Therefore the Broke Artist can be viewed, not as something to be changed, but rather an artistic expression that they can give interpretation. In the same way that artists such as Salvador Dalí and Hieronymus Bosch painted their own version of The Temptation of Saint Anthony, creative people can give us their own version of the Broke Artist. Rather than question whether a life of poverty is worth painting, they keep the core idea (often unconsciously), and give us their interpretation.

The second problem is that the Broke Artist symbol is reinforced as the most likely outcome; by non-artists and artists who have given up professional aspirations. Professions have dominant mythologies which inform us on what will happen to us if we select a particular path. They are often outdated, overblown and do not take into account the true experience. It was only 5 years ago where learning to code had the mythology of earning $200K+ and being set for life. College students are now realising this story is far from reality and are forced to adapt to the technological reality of the 21st century. The Broke Artist has a similar mis-match. Assuming that poverty is a necessary risk for artistic paths, it causes artistic people to believe they’re deciding between art or security.

This cultural meme has taken root in the creative mind and has caused artistic life that is not drowning in debt to be viewed as an outlier experience. However, if we take into account the alternative routes and the evidence that many artists have been incredibly wealthy without losing integrity, then the Broke Artist mythology only remains true for those who believe in it.

The high cultural impact of art vs. the low appreciation of artists

The value of the arts is understood economically. The Art Basel and UBS Survey estimated the global art market to be valued at $57.5 billion dollars in 2024. The value of the arts is also known experientially. We make pilgrimages to Venice to witness Mary in all her shades of blue, stare at the exquisite architecture of Mosques and watch beautiful films for hours.

However, the modern world does not know the value of artists. A 2003 study by the Urban Institute found out that, “96% of Americans value art, but only 27% value artists.” This distance between the art and the artist contributes to the suffering of the people who create what we value so highly. The Broke Artist idea contributes to this divide. This is because every time creative people are warned against an artistic vocation because of economic uncertainty, the world loses something beautiful. This loss goes undetected because what could have been created was never made.

But here’s a thought experiment:

Imagine that every hour for the next 50 years one piece of creativity that the world adores disappeared from it. Rosalía’s Lux album fades away, Schiaparelli’s surreal designs disappear from the runway and Alexandros of Antioch’s sculpted masterpiece Venus de Milo is the first to vanish from the Louvre. Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is next and this continues on until finally Michelangelo’s David no longer exists.

We as a society understand what we would lose when we take the arts away, but we do not understand what we could gain if we understood the true value of the arts. The Broke Artist idea is passed down as wisdom, but its rotten core indebts not only the receiver with unnecessary suffering, but also our culture.

Both artists and non-artists are responsible for rejecting the cultural symbol of the Broke Artist

Creativity as an act takes the creator beyond the known and into the unknown. However the Broke Artist avoids the unknown because the idea itself says that it knows what will happen by pursuing an artistic vocation. It lacks the many other routes a creative life can take and suggests that the artist can only earn a living through very specific means or they will be condemned to poverty. This is therefore a 2-Dimensional idea. It makes the path a linear step-by-step process as if they were following an instruction manual, and gives the responsibility for breakthrough to someone else discovering them. Agents, talent scouts, publishers, these are all idealised when the Broke Artist idea is accepted. Playing the role of a helpless creative who can only do their artistic work and nothing more. This belief cuts them off path possibilities. Rather than pouring their creative gift into changing their situation, they accept it. As if creativity only occurs in their chosen medium.

This is why artists need to reject the Broke Artist. There are many ways to approach an artistic life from a vocational perspective which support artists and their work financially. We do not have to decide between art or financial safety, rather we need to reject the premise that this selection is binary. Understanding that not only will we need to do creative work on the canvas or at the workbench, but also on the path itself and on the person walking it. When the path doesn’t exist, create it.

Moving past an outdated cultural symbol towards financial mending

Society views the mutual relationship between Michelangelo’s art and his wealth as a lonesome exception. There are many exceptions to the Broke Artist even during the Renaissance period alone. What of Titian, Leonardo, Raphael, Verrachio, Anguissola, Botticelli, Donatello, Nelli, Bosch and Dürer? How many exceptions must we be confronted with before we learn from them?

The idea of the Broke Artist needs to be questioned on both sides. Non-artists who believe they’re doing good in telling others to face reality need to face their own reality; they are causing suffering in spreading what they believe reality “is” rather than asking and working on what it can be. Artists also have a responsibility. They need to question the idea that by doing great work and maintaining their artistic integrity that it will lead them to poverty. Artists have control beyond their selected mediums and need to see the path as a part of their creative work. The Broke Artist idea simplifies a complex world and gives them a way to avoid responsibility and an excuse as to why their art is unable to support them.

By pursuing an artistic vocation whilst rejecting the Broke Artist, we will find new pathways that repair the damage this idea has done to artists and society. Creating a new one where more creative people are sustained and supported by their artistic craft. The Broke Artist is viewed by many as the fate for anyone who pursues an artistic vocation, however by learning from the likes of Michelangelo we can create a new mythology. One that mends the damage of a long-standing cultural symbol and financially liberates artists in the process.

More education: Path Studies: Lessons & Guides | The Career Archetypes Course

Find us on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Podcasts | Instagram | Pinterest

This article was written by a human. No Generative AI was used.

A lesson on why we need both vocational romanticism and vocational pragmatism

If the path has no romanticism in it, it will fail to inspire. But if it has no practicality in it, it will not come to pass. Understanding this relationship between all that we can be and how it happens is vital if we are to reach the celestial height of our calling. We need both the elevation and hope that romanticism provides, as well as the rigorous steps that pragmatism offers.

Yet this relationship has a bitter history. Viewed in Kierkegaardian framing as an, “Either/Or” choice, many select either a romantic world-view or a pragmatic one. Both parties shirk the claims of the other.

The romantics say that without dreams life is drained of colour, hope and meaning.

The pragmatics express that pursuing one’s passion is a pipe dream and charade. Hearing, “That’s unrealistic” is a common response to grand aims.

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