Love What You Do and Do What Sustains You
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SETTING THE SCENE
Satisfaction is not a linear path, but a journey along which we try on a host of possible selves and test our possible futures. Hopefully, along the way you’ll discover the crucial intersection between what you love to do and how you contribute it to others. Fulfilment doesn’t come from isolated peak experiences, but rather from many consistent good days. So, how do we sustain performance, foster deeper connections, know ourselves, find more in life and do what we love?
"Nobody can make you happy. You’re happy if you’re doing your thing, reaching toward excellence, whether you achieve it or not, in a life that allows you to do so." - Norman Lear
Questions to consider
Are you your best every day? What needs to change?
Can you use love to reveal your unique gifts?
How can you pinpoint what makes you special?
Do you choose roles in which you'll excel?
How do you test your multiple talents, identities and possibilities?
Do you sustain performance, while avoiding burnout and stress?
How can you look somebody in the eye and see something
large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves?
Feeling a lack of work satisfaction or just plain unhappy, how
do you reinvent yourself on a new and different career path?
How do you make this transition successfully?
Happy reading and stay curious!
Here is more information about this selection of books.
Love + Work: How to Find What You Love, Love What You Do, and Do It for the Rest of Your Life (Harvard Business Review Press, July 2022) by Marcus Buckingham. You've long been told to "Do what you love." The real challenge is how to do this in a world not set up to help you. Most of us actually don't know the real truth of what we love ― what engages us and makes us thrive ― and others want us to conform. No person or system is dedicated to discovering the crucial intersection between what you love to do and how you contribute it to others. This uplifting book shows you how to break free from this conformity―how to decode your own loves, turn them into their most powerful expression, and do the same for those you lead or care for. How can you use love to reveal your unique gifts? How can you pinpoint what makes you stand out from anyone else? How can you choose roles in which you'll excel?
Optimal: How to Sustain Excellence Every Day (Penguin Business, January 2024) by Daniel Goleman and co-author Cary Cherniss. They reveal practical methods for applying the principles of EI to enter an optimal state of high performance, offering a roadmap to being at your best, every day. There are moments when we achieve peak performance: an athlete plays a perfect game; a business has a quarter with once-in-a-lifetime profits. But these moments are often fleeting, and for every amazing day, we may have a hundred ordinary and even unsatisfying ones. Fulfilment doesn’t come from isolated peak experiences, or elusive ‘flow’ states, but rather from many consistent good days. So how do we sustain performance, while avoiding burnout and maintaining balance?
How To Know a Person:The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Penguin, October 2023) by David Brooks. The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is a profoundly creative act: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives. Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and from the worlds of theatre, history, and education, to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. It shows how to become more understanding and considerate towards others and find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.
Do What You Love, Love What You Do: The Empowering Secrets to Turn Your Passion into Profit (Virgin Digital, May 2021) by Holly Tucker MBE. Demystifying the grey world of business, whether you've yet to take your first steps or find yourself stuck in a business rut, this beautiful and vibrant book will allow your dreams to take flight. Holly looks back at her own story, sharing her biggest lessons and proven advice on creating and growing a business. From side hustle to full-time, from defeating your confidence gremlins to creating an empowered community, Holly reveals both the skills and the mindset any founder needs to help their business thrive. Do What You Love, Love What You Do also shines a light on the creative community, showcasing the brilliant and unique output of small businesses, inspiring you to join them in their success.
The Good Enough Job: What We Gain When We Don’t Put Work First (Ebury Digital, May 2023) by Simone Stolzoff. Reminds us that the biggest goal of all is to live a life we are happy with, and in which work is but one of the multitude of facets that make us who we are. An antidote to the toxic ‘hustle movement’ convincing us all we need to find fulfilment in the office, it denounces the dangers of burnout linked to those of us who cannot answer the question: beyond work, what's left? Conversations of burnout have bubbled to the top of the cultural zeitgeist as the line between work and not-work continues to blur. Burnout and workaholism are symptoms of a deeper root cause: a lack of separation between who we are and what we do. This book is not a credo against looking to work for fulfilment, nor is it in favour of treating work as a necessary evil. It is a guide to developing a healthier relationship to work through the stories of people who have successfully done so. These are stories that invite us to re-evaluate what makes us happy.
Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, Updated Edition (Harvard Business Review Press; Revised edition, January 2024) by Herminia Ibarra. In this update of the groundbreaking classic, bestselling author Herminia Ibarra presents a model for career reinvention that flies in the face of everything we've learned from career experts ― and is tailor-made for changing careers in today's uncertain world. Successful reinvention comes not from deciphering and analysing our past, but from inventing and testing our possible futures. Ibarra identifies the three critical strategies ― experiment with new professional activities and identities, interact in new networks of people, and make sense of what is happening to us in light of emerging possibilities ― that all successful career changers use. Now with action-oriented exercises to help you work successfully through your own career transition, this updated edition gives you the tools for a new path and success in your new career.
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