Posts tagged #purpose
How to be unproductive.
When your self-worth is linked to your productivity, you see every activity in your day as either valuable (productive) or not. I have this disease. At some point, the ability to check items off a todo-list stops moving you forward, and instead holds you back. Rick Foerster argues for the value of “unproductive” time without metrics.
A whisper or a notion.
What did you figure out on sabbatical? What was the takeaway from the 10-day? When you give yourself time and space to ask big questions, you expect to have an epiphany. But there are no lightning bolts. Instead, you get a whisper or a notion, wisps of ideas and longings. Some pass quickly, others tug your sleeve. Some dissipate given attention, others take root with nurturing. Stop looking at your watch and wondering when the revelation will arrive, and listen for the whispers instead them all.
Confusing intensity and passion is a common mistake. Intensity is external; passion invokes something inside you. Passion is a call-and-response with your soul. It’s not just adrenaline.
– Po Bronson makes a useful distinction in his book What Should I Do with My Life? (my review). It’s easy to look back at intense, adrenaline-driven times in your career and feel nostalgia for the clarity of focus, but it doesn’t necessarily mean what you were doing was your passion.