Work doesn’t have to be exhausting — but the way we’ve been trained to approach it often makes it that way.

We’ve been taught to see work as a transaction, an exchange of time for money. That view reduces work to a trade instead of an experience, robbing it of its deeper meaning.

Work is more than a transaction — it’s an interaction.

How we think, relate, and execute determines whether work drains us or energizes us. The classy problem isn’t inefficiency, it’s misalignment. When these three aren’t in sync, work feels like just another obligation.

When they align, the byproduct is contribution — the intersection of thinking, relating, and executing. It’s not about doing more, it’s about engaging with more intention.

To redeem work is not to optimize effort. It is to shift from transaction to contribution.

What if work wasn’t something to endure but an opportunity to contribute?