What should you do next? What is the action that will lead to your ideal life?
The problem I see with this line of thought is… What if instead of an ideal life, it’s more like a range. One path that would lead to extreme happiness. Others would lead you to a perfectly happy. The only route to misery is non-action
So what should you do at any one moment? I think the best thing you can do is pick a path. And build from that.
The blogosphere is filled with romantic ideas. Living debt free, entrepreneurship, start-up success, finding a mission or purpose, zen *insert whatever word*.
You don’t hear any romanticizing being an employee. Why? It’s work. And now a days work is not something we get excited about.
It’s great to read stories of Seth Godin who writes and speaks 24/7, right? Or Chris Guillebeau who travels and writes 24/7, right? Or Mark Zuckerberg who had this facebook thing planned from day 1, right? Or Warren Buffett who would have been the E-trade baby if he were born 50 years later, right? The list of idols goes on and on.
We all lament that we could be like them. We could be stars! Or at least we could do something we love. That’s what life is about, right? LOVE!
Why can’t you do something you love while being an employee? Do something on the side, or maybe do something in house(GASP! You can’t be happy working for the man! He’s the man!)
The world needs as many employees as they need Seth Buffetts.
It’s scary to be the one person in the bureaucracy to stand up and make a difference. In a company filled with dim bulbs, it’s down right frightening to be a light house. Everyone knows you. Everyone knows you are weird, strange, and you keep rocking their boat. DON’T ROCK THE BOAT! Right?
Employee is another title, like entrepreneur. What gives meaning to a title, is the meaning you give it. It could mean more energy for your family or a side passion. It could mean you are a respected thought leader in your company.
Or it can mean your job is worthless and you are too. Right?
What is enough? If you reached all your goals, would you stop?
No, you would set a new goal. We don’t set goals because we want something, we set goals because of who we are.
We see life as something to achieve, not something to be spent.
We will never have enough, because it’s not a certain threshold that matters, it’s a way of life. A feeling of progressing and see today the things we did yesterday and saying ‘well done.’
It’s so hard to actually DO what is important. Many distractions force us off track. The short term decision leads to long term frustration, and we can see that when we make the short term decision. But we make it anyway. We make it out of habits or fears. Habits that we have created make it so easy to get distracted from the important pieces of life. And fear that once we start becoming more committed we will somehow change, that life will become more, and we’re not sure that we can handle more life.
If you treat your employees like they are all the same, because giving perks to one person may upset others, you will get an average employees. Greatness doesn’t come by treating everyone the same. You need to upset others. Only when they are upset will you find out what they stand for. Do they wilt like a flower, or do they stand out like a shooting star.
