connecting the dots of life, work, and meaning
This weekend my daughter was a terror. On the one hand, that’s to be expected. She’s 7. On the other hand, every parent wants a perfect stress-free kid. (And if you ever figure out how to get one, let me know!) The problem is, in the moment it’s so hard to remember she’s 7, or that what she really needs is to learn the subtle difference in adult conversations verse kid conversations. It’s frankly much easier to yell, get angry, or put her in timeout.
I wish I ...
Psychology. It influences our thoughts, our actions, and the world around us. None of us can escape it. And we’re not talking about Freud here.
A great myth in life is that your work can make you happy. It can’t. The only way work brings meaning to your life is if you bring meaning to your work.
Whether we work from home, in an office, or in the field, we spend more time working than any other activity. Maybe it’s time we looked into what that means.
Over the years I’ve done a lot of volunteering. Some of the roles were awesome, fun, and energizing. Others, well, let’s just say they made me wonder how soon I could head home.
As I look back I realize that my involvement in each volunteering opportunity was hit or miss. I’d sign up for something to “give it a try.” Maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn’t. There wasn’t a strategy in how I decided where to volunteer. More importantly, however, organizations didn’t have a strategy for ...
I spend a lot of time trying not to suck.
I realize that’s rather blunt. But it’s true. Often my biggest motivator is fear of being terrible. I don’t want to turn in a crummy project to a client because I’m afraid they’ll think I’m an idiot. I edit, and re-edit (and sometimes re-re-edit) blog posts because I don’t want people to think I’m a lousy* writer. I’m driven to succeed because I’m afraid of failure. Afraid of being laughed at.
And I bet you are too.
Yet the ...
It's tough to be number one. In fact, by math, that means only one person, one team, one organization can be "the best" at a time. Which means that if you wait to celebrate until you've reached the top, you're going to be waiting a very long time. But is this a good thing? Should we celebrate more often? What about celebrating in the midst of suffering or problems? Is it even right to celebrate if we're not the best?
That's what I explore in my new ...
Can robots make a good sandwich? That’s a question that has plagued philosophers since the time of Aristotle. But before I give you the answer, let’s look at why this is important. (Although if you’ve been following Meaning to Work on Twitter, then you’d already know the answer.)
For starters, sandwich making robots are clearly the holy grail of science fiction. Which means we’re one step closer to living in the future. A future with great sandwiches!
But more than that, this has practical implications for ...
The former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca once said: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” That’s sound advice. And something I want to apply to the next year. But before we get to 2012, let’s take a look at what my goals were for 2011.
I set aside three SMART goals for 2011. If I hit those goals, I will consider 2011 a success They were:
1. To finish the second round of editing my book on managing volunteers by the 1st of ...
