Born for This

JOY + MONEY + FLOW.

<— That’s the key.

But, before we get into the details, let’s take a moment to focus on the fact that, unless we get PAID to do what we love, we have a *hobby* not a career. Very important distinction.

… OK, so back to winning the career lottery. We want to find work that we love to do. That pays the bills. And that uses our greatest strengths.

Put those three together and we win what Chris calls the “career lottery.” Miss any one of those three and, well, it’s just not that awesome.

Chris has some great, simple ven diagrams in the book to help us see the sweet spot (and the not-so-sweet spots).

Here’s the quick re-cap:

JOY + MONEY – flow —> Leads to “unfulfilled potential.”

JOY – money + FLOW —> Say hello to the “starving artist.”

– joy + MONEY + FLOW —> “Success without purpose.”

JOY + MONEY + FLOW —> “Winning the Career Lottery.”
<— YAYUH! = Happy dance to work every morning.

The book, of course, is all about winning that career lottery which, Chris wisely reminds us throughout the book, is more about trial and error than luck or brilliance.

We’ve hit on similar models many times throughout these Notes.

In Purpose 101 I talk about Jim Collins’s “hedgehog concept.” He tells us that great companies (and great lives) focus on the nexus of what they LOVE (aka Joy), what they can be GREAT at (aka Flow) and what the world NEEDS + will pay for—the “economic engine” (aka Money).

We need all three.

Tom Rath echoes this as well in Are You Fully Charged? (see those Notes) where he tells us: “You create meaning when your strengths and interests meet the needs of the world. Knowing your talents and passions is critical, but that is only half of this supply-and-demand equation. What may be even more important is understanding what the world needs from you and how you can productively apply your strengths and interests. …

One of the rightful critiques of all the ‘follow your passion’ advice is that it presumes that you are the center of the world, and pursuing your own joy is the objective of life. Those who make a profound difference, in contrast, begin by asking what they can give. Starting with this question allows you to direct your talents toward what matters most for others.”

So, for Tom, meaning comes when Strengths (/Flow) + Interests (/Joy) meet the Needs of the world (/Money).

Check out the book for some great, simple exercises to help you gain more clarity on how to tap into your Joy + Money + Flow.

For now, let’s do a super-quick inventory:

—> What gives you JOY? What do you love to do so much you’d do it for free?

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—> What can you make MONEY doing? How can you meet specific needs and get *paid*?!

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—> When do you experience FLOW? What strengths do you have that, when you engage them, make time fly?!

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Let’s take a little deeper look at our JOY-MONEY-FLOW model.

First: Remember that we’re not trying to find “a” thing you can do. We’re trying to find “THE” thing you were BORN TO DO.

Robert Greene calls that our “Life’s Work.” Stephen Cope calls it our “Sacred Work.”

In Mastery (see Notes), Greene puts it this way: “Let us state it in the following way: At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy. Your Life’s Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfill. The stronger you feel and maintain it—as a force, a voice, or in whatever form—the greater your chance for fulfilling this Life’s Task and achieving mastery.

What weakens this force, what makes you not feel it or even doubt its existence, is the degree to which you have succumbed to another force in life—social pressures to conform. This counterforce can be very powerful. You want to fit into a group. Unconsciously, you might feel that what makes you different is embarrassing or painful…

At all costs you must avoid such a fate. The process of following your Life’s Task all the way to mastery can essentially begin at any point in life. The hidden force within you is always there and ready to be engaged.”

While in The Great Work of Your Life, Cope says: “The yoga tradition is very, very interested in the idea of an inner possibility harbored within every human soul. Yogis insist that every single human being has a unique vocation. They call this dharma. Dharma is a potent Sanskrit word that is packed tight with meaning, like one of those little sponge animals that expands to six times its original size when you add water. Dharma means, variously, ‘path,’ ‘teaching,’ or ‘law.’ For our purposes in this book it will mean primarily, ‘vocation,’ or ‘sacred duty.’ It means, most of all—and in all cases—truth. Yogis believe that our greatest responsibility in life is to this inner possibility—this dharma—and they believe that every human being’s duty is to utterly, fully, and completely embody his own idiosyncratic dharma.”

So, back to this exercise Chris gives us (the book is packed with them). Remember:

JOY = Stuff you love to do.
MONEY = How you get paid.
FLOW = Where your skills meet challenges.

Start by making a list of all the options you have in your life right now. Maybe you can keep doing what you’re doing, go back to school, start X business or work for Z business or do consulting or…

List them. Then, start eliminating. Start by getting rid of the things that don’t give you JOY. As Chris says, this should be the first criterion. Life is WAY too short to do things we don’t enjoy.

Then eliminate all the things you could do that wouldn’t adequately take care of MONEY. (Remember: We’re not talking about a hobby here.)

Then, get rid of all the things that wouldn’t give you FLOW. More clarity now?

First, having backup plans is *not* wimpy. In fact, according to Nassim Taleb, it’s actually a key aspect of being anti-fragile.

(Remember: fragile = breaks at first challenge; robust = can handle some challenges; ANTI-fragile = gets STRONGER *with* challenges.)

Taleb calls it “optionality.”

One option? That’s (very) fragile. Two or three options? That’s more robust. An alphabet/infinite # of options? Now we’re talking anti-fragility.

Scientists agree. When they talk about Hope—the belief that your future will be better than your present—they tell us that a key variable is “Pathways.” You have a desired future outcome. You have “agency” or a sense of your own power to bring that outcome to life AND you’re willing to try multiple pathways until you achieve your outcome.

Here’s how Shane Lopez puts it in Making Hope Happen (see Notes): “World-famous boxer and armchair philosopher Mike Tyson once observed, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’ No matter how good we are at futurecasting, life throws punches. A key skill of high-hope people is the ability to plan for ifs, the ability to anticipate obstacles and create multiple pathways to each and every goal. This skill is rooted in two core beliefs of hopeful people: there are many paths to goals and none of them is free of obstacles.

Futurecasting creates momentum, the energy of hope. This energy builds on the positive emotions around our goals, our sense of personal confidence (or agency), and our willpower, or ability to persevere. But when things don’t go according to plan, our energy can be quickly depleted. Maybe we try harder, earning credit for our grit. But if we stick with the same strategy, using it over and over, we’ll eventually crash. Instead, we need to develop the street smarts of hope. Creating a new way gives you the will you need to press on, a boost of will that keeps you going.”

So, remember: Tough guys and gals have options/multiple “pathways.” Do you?

Here’s to getting STRONGER with every challenge we lift in our lives!

P.S. Let’s keep this wisdom in mind as well: Jeff Goins tells us that pivoting (or trying new things) isn’t even Plan B—it’s simply part of the process. He puts it this way in The Art of Work (see Notes): “A pivot is powerful because it takes away all of your excuses. It puts you back in control of the game you’re playing. Pivoting isn’t plan B; it’s a part of the process. Unexpected things will happen; setbacks do occur. Whether or not you’re prepared to pivot will affect how well you weather those storms and find a way to survive.

We often look at successful people, hearing their stories of failure, and think that they succeeded despite the fact that they failed. But that’s not true. Successful people and organizations don’t succeed in spite of failure. They succeed because of it. …

The world can be cruel. It’s nobody’s responsibility to make your dream come true. Tough times will come, and what determines a person’s success during such trying times is the ability to pivot. Every calling encounters setbacks, and sometimes people don’t want what you have to offer, or maybe they just don’t understand it. Other times, life throws you a curveball or the passion you once had wanes. At times like these, we are inclined to give up, but these are the moments that require our most intentional action.”

That’s from a chapter called “Life Coaching from Jay-Z” in which Chris tells us we want to expand our list of goals and then contract them.

Let’s do Buffett’s exercise now.

Step 1. Make a list of the top 25 things you want to do in your life. Seriously. Make it now. :)

1. __________________ 10. __________________ 19. __________________

2. __________________ 11. __________________ 20. __________________

3. __________________ 12. __________________ 21. __________________

4. __________________ 13. __________________ 22. __________________

5. __________________ 14. __________________ 23. __________________

6. __________________ 15. __________________ 24. __________________

7. __________________ 16. __________________ 25. __________________

8. __________________ 17. __________________

9. __________________ 18. __________________

Step 2. Circle the top 5.

Step 3. THROW AWAY the other 20.

DE-CIDE what is most important to you.

Have the courage to FOCUS.

Drucker is always helpful in times like these: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

That’s from the last chapter: “Winners Give Up All the Time.”

“Real winners never quit.”

Really? :)

Persistence is (obviously) a key part of success.

And… Chris tells us that if you’re missing every shot you’re taking that might be a sign you’re not quite in your “FLOW”/What-you’re-great-at-zone.

So, be willing to quit.

Not the, “It got hard and I folded” variety but the “You know, I went for it and it just *isn’t* working—so I wisely + courageously decided to quit and try something new.”

Only you know where you are on that spectrum and I’ve only learned to master it with a little more grace after a good 20 years of trial and error. :)