Read This If You Want Your Job To Make You Happy
I have really bad news.
But first, I'm going to tell you a quick story.
When I was in college, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation. I pulled a few graduate students together, into a panel, and asked them questions.
One grad student said something that really resonated with me.
She said:
"there's no job in the world that will make you happy, unless you're already happy."
- Helen G.
Whoa. That really stood out.
Let's be clear, if you're a coal miner and you get the black lung, I think we can agree that you have a crummy job and you'd be much happier somewhere else.
The point that this grad student was making was that I had only considered external factors in the creation of my happiness. I had never considered all of the internal factors, and those were even more powerful.
My point in telling you this story is to ask you a question about your work, your productivity, and your impact.
It's not the job that makes us happy, it's how we see ourselves in our jobs.
It's not the career that makes us happy, it's all of the experiences we have and relationships we build that make us feel happy.
2 Minute Action:
So, today, I'd like you to take 2 minutes out of your day and consider some of the things that truly make you happy. Look outside yourself, but also look inside yourself.
Go ahead, make a list. I love lists.
When you see the full scope of what makes you feel alive, you'll be able to diversify your sources of happiness.
I know it's scary, but it's important.
The Fastest Way To An Idea
The bar is low.
Most people are boring, uncreative, and have a hard time thinking of others' needs.But not you.
You work harder than that.
You can go out of your way to make someone feel welcome.You can go out of your way to stand out.You can go out of your way to make people remember who you are.All you need is to start.You don't even need the idea.How? Try this . . .
2 Minute Action
The fastest way to get an idea?Google it.I'm not kidding. Someone else has probably thought of this before and has written 10 articles on it.The best part is that this generally helps spark other ideas.And that's the punch line.The hard part of getting something started isn't the idea . . . it's usually getting past the thought that you can't come up with an idea.Once you can outsmart or outwork yourself, you're really onto something.
Why The Grumpiest Person Is Your Best Friend
"Who is your grumpiest, most irritable, most frustratingly difficult IT guy?""Can you introduce me to him?"
Sounds crazy, but let me tell you why I wanted to meet this person so much.
I was running a software development team at the time.We were building a data visualization software for a government client--which posed a number of challenges.They were using old technology, which meant that a lot of the cool new features we wanted to add wouldn't work. We had to do things very differently if we wanted to get our customer these new features.They were also prone to a lot of needs for approvals, which meant it was slow to implement anything new.We also were up against personalities and politics, so we needed to make sure that the decision-makers were on our side.
So how do you get this new technology past an IT department so furiously vigilant to foreign antibodies?
You call the IT department and you ask for the most irritable, most frustratingly difficult IT guy who could possibly say "no" to your project.I'm dead serious--I've done this.
You ask for that person and you review your concept with them.
The point is that by winning over a decision-maker (or a decision-influencer) like this, you've done 90% of the work up-front. You didn't build out any code, but you solved a ton of problems before they happened.Make them your best friend and you will have a much better chance of success.On a single phone call, you have now increased outcome quality, decreased cost, and dramatically increased speed-to-market.
2 Minute Action
A call like this probably won't take 2 minutes, but that doesn't mean it won't take 2 minutes to schedule it.Who is someone who could say no to your project? How early on can you get them into your process?If it's not a person, what will happen at the last second that will prevent you from achieving your goal? Budget? Timeline?Take 2 minutes to call that out into the light and schedule the meeting, call, or workshop to address this head-on.By frontloading the work you get to solve problems before they happen.You will have a happier team, a lower cost, and higher quality output.