Shaping A Working Life That Brings Joy
5 tips to follow
Posted on 10-12-2020, Read Time: Min
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100,000 hours. That’s how much time you might spend working. This toiling takes up more time and by God, more energy, than any other aspect of your life. So why not make it meaningful? Even joyful?
Here are five sure-fire ways to set you on the right track:
Light Yourself Up
Our inner drive rests on three innate psychological needs that shape your behavior. They are autonomy, relatedness, and competence. When these three criteria are met, you’re well poised to continually grow and discover meaning.
To put it another way, while status and a paycheck may be the consequences of why you work, the real signal of your contribution, and progress comes from what motivates you.
Enter the shaper - someone who becomes energized by work. The way shapers work provides for the highest expression of self. They lead deeper and more fulfilling lives because what they do every day serves them and the greater good. As such, shapers seek freedom within work, connecting with their purpose, and fuel themselves to get better all the time.
To put it another way, while status and a paycheck may be the consequences of why you work, the real signal of your contribution, and progress comes from what motivates you.
Enter the shaper - someone who becomes energized by work. The way shapers work provides for the highest expression of self. They lead deeper and more fulfilling lives because what they do every day serves them and the greater good. As such, shapers seek freedom within work, connecting with their purpose, and fuel themselves to get better all the time.
Burst Work
How you work can be as detrimental as what you work on. Enter burst working: set intervals of focused work sprinkled with short breaks. These bursts should last at least 25 minutes and if you’ve trained hard — up to 2 hours.
While everyone has a distinct working style, it’s by managing energy in this deliberate fashion that you can find flow in your work and optimize your workflow.
Discovering when, where, and how you work best really does take work. Our offices can often be hostile environments for thoughtful work and with the recent shifts in the world, your home needs to become a safe-haven for productivity.
While everyone has a distinct working style, it’s by managing energy in this deliberate fashion that you can find flow in your work and optimize your workflow.
Discovering when, where, and how you work best really does take work. Our offices can often be hostile environments for thoughtful work and with the recent shifts in the world, your home needs to become a safe-haven for productivity.
Set (and Keep) Boundaries
We talk about setting boundaries so much but do we actually do it? Designing out distractions, putting off people, and taming technology are all things we must practice.
When we are at our best doing the work that matters most, we can’t be responding to every ping and request. Discovering and safeguarding precious time is absolutely essential if we are to make meaningful progress.
Shapers religiously schedule uninterrupted time for when they hit a stride, permitting them to indulge in moments of peak performance.
When we are at our best doing the work that matters most, we can’t be responding to every ping and request. Discovering and safeguarding precious time is absolutely essential if we are to make meaningful progress.
Shapers religiously schedule uninterrupted time for when they hit a stride, permitting them to indulge in moments of peak performance.
Practice Doing Nothing
We are human beings, not human doings. It’s all too easy to forget that. Our identities and sense of self are enmeshed with the principles of progress. With our fixation on doing, comes the productivity ninjas and struggle pornographers we cherish today.
Simply doing nothing from time to time can work wonders. ‘It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing’ wrote author and poet Gertrude Stein.
Shifting into this slower gear means facing our fear of idleness. Yet it's these dedicated times to bugger off that have led to the discovery of many things we know and love: scotch tape, sticky notes, and gravity to name but a few. Intuitively we know when we need to rest and yet it’s easy to ignore this voice by powering through the day and pounding another latte.
Shapers organize their day and their minds to ensure there is space for great ideas to happen. To do and be our best, sometimes we simply need to slow down in order to get ahead.
Simply doing nothing from time to time can work wonders. ‘It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing’ wrote author and poet Gertrude Stein.
Shifting into this slower gear means facing our fear of idleness. Yet it's these dedicated times to bugger off that have led to the discovery of many things we know and love: scotch tape, sticky notes, and gravity to name but a few. Intuitively we know when we need to rest and yet it’s easy to ignore this voice by powering through the day and pounding another latte.
Shapers organize their day and their minds to ensure there is space for great ideas to happen. To do and be our best, sometimes we simply need to slow down in order to get ahead.
Lead with Heart
You don't have to be designated as a leader in order to be one. All you need is a first follower. Increasingly, employees are making more decisions regarding their own work and seizing the opportunity to step up.
These leaders as shapers have a new mode of operating that is premised first and foremost on trust. Refusing to operate from fear, they demonstrate courage. In so doing they ask, 'How can I help my teammates do their best work?' and help to cultivate psychologically safe spaces.
When we learn to show up as the leader we know we can be, people become comfortable saying what they mean and commit to doing what they say. It really is a beautiful thing.
These leaders as shapers have a new mode of operating that is premised first and foremost on trust. Refusing to operate from fear, they demonstrate courage. In so doing they ask, 'How can I help my teammates do their best work?' and help to cultivate psychologically safe spaces.
When we learn to show up as the leader we know we can be, people become comfortable saying what they mean and commit to doing what they say. It really is a beautiful thing.
Author Bio
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Jonas Altman is the author of SHAPERS: Reinvent the Way You Work and Change the Future (Wiley, Sept 2020). He is a speaker, writer, and entrepreneur on a mission to make the world of work more human. As the founder of award-winning design practice Social Fabric, he creates learning experiences to elevate and grow leaders at the world’s boldest organizations. Visit www.jonasaltman.com Connect Jonas Altman |
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