The word “work” has built quite a nasty little reputation for itself over the years.

Kids complain about doing homework. Adults complain about going to work. When we say that we have things to work on, it implies a difficult slog, something that we probably don’t want to do.

But when we strip away the negative connotations that we’ve added to it, the word “work,” in its pure form, simply means the transference of energy.

We transfer energy from ourselves to something else, in the form of our time or our brain power or our emotional investment.

So instead of asking ourselves “what do I want to work on this year?”, perhaps we should be asking: “where do I want to put my energy?”