Meaningful work combats cortisol

In his famous 2008 book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that the three key components of meaningful work are autonomy, complexity and a clear relationship between effort and reward. I believe those elements make sense, yet I wonder if they hold true in our digital, AI world.

Meaningful work. What does it entail? How many of us have it?

Luckily, I have had two professions — journalism and education — that warrant meaning. Using Gladwell's definition, autonomy, complexity and reward (good enough reward, I suppose) have been a part of my careers. Thank God for that because I spent 12 years as a journalist and 19 as an educator. That's a big ole chunk of time.

I consider myself privileged to be fortunate enough to choose professions because I know that many have no choice, whether it be out of financial necessity, family or cultural norms. I am hoping that youngsters don't feel too much pressure when it comes to making a living and make wise choices on their career path.

My unsolicited advice to any youngster about to embark on an occupation or study for one is to understand that professional growth and development is a cycle. I stumbled across the illustration above with "The Cycle of Meaningful Work," and I find that it rings true.

In work, or even in one's personal life, discovering, learning, building and thriving are crucial. Meaningful work is never finished, and that's a good thing. If we ever feel as if "we've got this" or "been there, done that" or "this is so easy, I can do it in my sleep," I highly doubt we are professionally fulfilled.

Another way to look at our professions, or personal lives, is to point out how important learning is. I was stuck in a minor rut last month, and part of the reason was that things had gotten a little stale. Finally, I had a spring break, which was exceptionally late this year, and I reset my mindset.

But I worry for those who can't reset, or are stuck on the hamster wheel of meaningless work. Last year, the Surgeon General released a report called Parents Under Pressure that pointed out 41 percent of the 63 million parents in the United States said that they were so stressed they could not function and 48 percent of parents reported they felt "completely overwhelmed."

It seems to me that modern work typically involves the cell phone, which is an omnipotent stress-inducing cortisol machine. We might think the phone is a dopamine-eliciting, pleasure-inducing toy, but, nah, in order for the algorithm to keep the user there, it constantly enacts, or tries to enact, cortisol.

The state of the news media, politics, TV shows and movies, by and large, is a cortisol factory. But for anybody lucky enough to have lives with meaningful work, whether it be professional and/or personal, I say there is a chance this combats stress.

For anybody without meaningful work, I wonder if it is a perspective issue, or if their job truly is toxic. Good coworkers, and a sense of belonging, go a long way. But chances are, based on the Surgeon General's report, that our fellow coworkers are completely stressed. How does that affect everyone?

I don't have any simple solution for combatting chronic stress, but there has to be hope. We all can put ourselves on a path to finding meaningful work, or we can revision our current work. Maybe, only maybe, we can lose some of our stress and find more joy, and meaning, in our lives.