A Wrap-Up on Joy and Satisfaction at Work
To close out this series on the main lessons on Finding Joy, Meaning, and Satisfaction at Work that I’ve uncovered from all of the books I’ve read over the past few years, I thought I’d give you a taste of the other potential topics that came up when reviewing my notes. For each, I had the main idea, but didn’t think there was much beyond the direct point to write a post on it.
Work Is Like a Reality TV Show. Just Admit You Like the Drama. We sometimes build the drama and importance of work in our minds as a way of justifying why we put so much time and effort into it. We can decide whether to be The Bachelor contestant who’s deep into the drama, or the one who realizes much of it is manufactured.
Planning Is Often Just Small-Batch, Craft BSing. Planning is often about making us feel like we have more control over the future than we do. It’s a warm blanket. The line between productive thinking and ruminating about an uncertain future is thin.
“If you had 90 minutes and a big cup of coffee, could you just get the work done?” I often ask this question when I hear someone talking about how they’re struggling to get started on work—or when they’re about to create a huge project to “help” themselves accomplish the task.
You’re Not That Powerful, Just Quit. We all have power to improve our situations, but we probably don’t have the power to change the overall culture of our organization if it’s just not a fit for how we operate. We also can’t change the personalities our bosses have built over the 40 or 50 or 60 years of their lives. And even if we could influence them, why would that be worth our precious effort and attention?
Be Professionally Promiscuous. When dating, we know the formula is just to be interesting and to have lots of conversations with potential partners. But somehow, when thinking about getting a new job, it often becomes a big project that requires planning before taking action. You really just need to get out there and flirt—all the time.
Maybe I’ll come back to these ideas later!
In any case, next week, I’ll shift to the second topic of this exploration of the literature: Being a Strategic Leader.
Thanks for reading!
Charles
SUBSCRIBE TO MONDAY MUSINGS
I publish this blog series each Monday. Like this one, it’ll contain something useful and something fun to start your week. If you want to receive Monday Musings in your inbox, subscribe here!