The Triple Meaning of Practical Work

Undertaking endeavors and building careers is founded on practical work. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Through scientific decision-making and practical, hard work, create achievements that withstand the test of practice and history, truly benefit the people, and gain public recognition.” [1]1 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Currently, China is in a critical period of laying a solid foundation for and comprehensively advancing the basic realization of socialist modernization. The development model is shifting from extensive development to high-quality development; reform tasks are moving from “breakthroughs at single points” to “systemic integration”; governance challenges are transitioning from “linear problem-solving” to “multi-dimensional coordination.” This transformation places unprecedented high demands on practical work—requiring both a sense of urgency that time waits for no one and a scientific spirit that respects laws; both bold and decisive courage and meticulous patience. One key lies in deeply grasping the triple meaning of practical work.

干事创业立基于实干。习近平总书记强调：“通过科学决策和实干苦干，创造经得起实践和历史检验、真正造福人民、得到群众公认的业绩。”当前，我国正处于基本实现社会主义现代化夯实基础、全面发力的关键时期，发展方式从粗放型发展转向高质量发展，改革任务从“单点突破”转向“系统集成”，治理难题从“线性求解”转向“多维统筹”。这种变化，对实干提出了前所未有的高要求——既要有时不我待的紧迫感，也要有尊重规律的科学精神；既要有大刀阔斧的魄力，也要有精雕细琢的耐心。其中一个关键，在于深刻把握实干的三重意涵。

Practical work must be down-to-earth, stepping firmly at every step with the spirit of driving a nail. [2] Facing the accelerated breakthroughs of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, along with increasingly fierce international competition, a blueprint without action remains merely a mirage. Party members and cadres who are keen on “short, flat, and fast” projects, indulge in “digital political performance” and “paper political performance,” or prefer to “add icing on the cake” rather than “provide timely help” [3] are essentially alienating work into a bargaining chip for personal promotion rather than a responsibility to benefit the people. True practitioners are those who hammer one blow after another, grasp one task after another until results are achieved; they are those willing to deeply cultivate latent achievements and gladly act as “paving stones.” They understand that on the track of high-quality development, there are no shortcuts. Only by not indulging in utopian thinking or chasing empty fame, and by striving to make every step solid, steady, and well-placed, can they truly achieve steady and long-term progress.

实干须脚踏实地，以钉钉子精神踩实每一步。面对新一轮科技革命和产业变革加速突破、国际竞争日趋激烈的复杂局面，空有蓝图无行动，再美好的愿景也只是镜花水月。那些热衷于“短平快”项目、沉迷“数字政绩”和“材料政绩”、只愿“锦上添花”不愿“雪中送炭”的党员干部，本质上是将工作异化为个人升迁的筹码，而非为民造福的责任。真正的实干者，是一锤接着一锤敲、一件事接着一件事抓，直到抓出成效的人，是甘于深耕潜绩、乐于做“铺路石”的人。他们懂得，在高质量发展的赛道上没有捷径可走，只有不驰于空想、不骛于虚声，努力把每一步踩实、踩稳、踩到位，才能真正行稳致远。

Practical work must respect laws, adopting an attitude of seeking practical results to solve real problems and genuine difficulties. Currently, the complexity of the development environment, the depth of contradictions and issues, and the diversity of risks and challenges we face all far exceed those of the past. The root cause why Party members and cadres who make decisions by patting their heads, act on impulse, blindly follow trends, or implement policies with a “one-size-fits-all” approach fail to produce real achievements lies in their deviation from the ideological line of seeking truth from facts. Practical work is not about acting on feelings or impulse; it requires understanding, respecting, and following laws. This demands that Party members and cadres properly handle relationships such as stability and progress, establishment and abolition, near-term and long-term, and the whole and the part, pursuing high-quality, sustainable development. In the New Era, from identifying the “root of poverty” in the fight against poverty, applying targeted measures and precise drip-irrigation, to doing a good job on “local specialties” in industrial revitalization; from urban planning that “follows the wind to make fire and splits wood along the grain” [4] to developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions—these methodologies all point to the same principle: practical work must be scientific, respect laws, be grounded in “reality” to seek “truth,” and, on the basis of insisting on “asking the woodcutter when entering the mountain and asking the fisherman when entering the water,” [5] clarify the situation, pinpoint the problems, and make the countermeasures concrete.

实干须尊重规律，以求实效的态度破解真问题真难题。当前，我们面对的发展环境之复杂、矛盾问题之深刻、风险挑战之多样，均远超以往。那些拍脑袋决策、凭冲动干事、盲目跟风、搞“一刀切”落实的党员干部，之所以干不出真正的业绩，根源在于背离了实事求是的思想路线。实干不是凭感觉与冲动干事，必须认识规律、尊重规律、遵循规律。这就要求党员干部处理好稳与进、立与破、近与远、全局与局部等关系，追求高质量、可持续的发展。新时代，从脱贫攻坚找到“贫根”，对症下药、精准滴灌到产业振兴做好“土特产”文章，从城市规划因风吹火、照纹劈柴到因地制宜发展新质生产力，这些方法论都指向同一个道理：实干必须讲求科学、尊重规律，立足于“实”探求“是”，在坚持“入山问樵、入水问渔”的基础上，把情况摸清、把问题找准、把对策提实。

Practical work must seek truth and be pragmatic, pursuing practical results with the tenacity of enduring perseverance. Jiao Yulu planted paulownia trees and controlled sand in Lankao, fulfilling his promise to the people with his life; Liao Junbo traveled through northern Fujian for poverty alleviation, measuring the warmth and cold of people’s livelihoods with his footsteps; Yang Shanzhou took root in barren mountains, greening the peaks with his unchanging original aspiration… Their practical work all possessed a tenacity to face difficulties head-on and persevere unremittingly. Practical work means daring to shoulder the heaviest burdens and daring to solve the most difficult problems for the people, not retreating when encountering “hard bones,” but grasping firmly at tasks once identified. For urgent matters, act immediately, handle them promptly; for long-term tasks, maintain strategic resolve, and persist in carrying them out one after another. The 70-plus-year relay of sand control and afforestation in Youyu, Shanxi, and the more than 20-year anchoring of the “Thousand Village Demonstration, Ten Thousand Village Renovation” project [6] in Zhejiang to build beautiful and harmonious villages—these achievements recorded in history are the results of generation after generation of genuine hard work and relay efforts, vividly interpreting the realm of “achievement need not be in my name” and the responsibility of “achievement must certainly have my contribution.”

实干须求真务实，以久久为功的韧劲追求实效。焦裕禄兰考植桐治沙，以生命践行为民之诺；廖俊波闽北奔波扶贫，以脚步丈量民生冷暖；杨善洲扎根荒山，以不渝初心染绿群山……他们的实干都有一股迎难而上、锲而不舍的韧劲。实干，就要敢于挑最重的担子，敢于解决群众最困难的问题，不能因为遭遇“硬骨头”就退缩，而要对认准了的事一抓到底。对当务之急，立说立行、紧抓快办；对长期任务，保持战略定力，坚持不懈一茬接着一茬干。山西右玉70余年接力推进治沙造林、浙江“千万工程”20多年锚定建设和美乡村，这些载入史册的成绩，都是一代又一代人真抓实干、接力奋斗的成果，生动诠释了“功成不必在我”的境界与“功成必定有我”的担当。

Practical work is the action that tempers the original aspiration, the cornerstone that drives development, and one of the most profound undertones of the New Era. The realization of all grand blueprints, the solution of all development challenges, and the enhancement of all people’s well-being ultimately depend on down-to-earth cultivation, law-respecting practice, and enduring perseverance. We created a glorious past through practical work, and we must rely on practical work to create a bright future. By establishing ourselves through practical work, empowering ourselves through practical work, and reaching far through practical work, taking one solid step at a time to do practical things, solve problems, and create real achievements, we will surely be able to write a new answer sheet for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.

实干是砥砺初心的行动，是推动发展的基石，是新时代最厚重的底色之一。一切宏伟蓝图的落地、一切发展难题的破解、一切民生福祉的增进，归根结底都离不开脚踏实地的耕耘、尊重规律的笃行、久久为功的坚守。我们靠实干创造了辉煌的过去，更要靠实干开创美好的未来。以实干立身、以实干赋能、以实干致远，一步一个脚印办实事、解难题、创实绩，一定能够奋力书写以中国式现代化全面推进强国建设、民族复兴伟业的崭新答卷。