Work would be easy if were just about the work

Here’s what we all learned about work:

Show up. Be professional. Do your job. Leave your feelings at the door.

Here’s what actually happens at work:

You walk into a meeting. Your stomach tightens before anyone speaks.

A colleague’s tone shifts. Something inside you goes cold.

Your boss gives you feedback. Your hands start shaking, even though you’re nodding and saying “Great, thanks.”

You have no idea why a particular person irritates you so much.

You can’t explain why you avoid certain conversations.

You don’t understand why you said yes to something you wanted to say no to, again.

At work, when we’re busy being professional and all so put together, something deeper is running the show from behind the scenes.

Something you were probably never taught to see, let alone work with.

Carl Jung called it the shadow: the parts of ourselves we’ve learned to deny, hide, and repress. And we all have some parts of ourselves that we have learned to deny or hide.

It’s the central thesis of this book that if we can learn to see and work with our shadows, we’ll all be far happier at work.

And if we can do this as a species, it might just save the world.