What if we could just get into our flow state, once every day? Imagine, where our life would go in a Year. Ok ! In a decade, we will be well off; financially, physically and relationally; for I don’t know a better way to connect ‘relation’ with ‘ly’ !
All different + amazing + great things happen in our flow state. My life doesn’t exist, unless I am bent, hitting keyboards and coding something. Without flow, I am nothing but walking dead meat.
If you have been doing a lot of work, and still feeling dull, tired, worried or low — there is only 1 reason : —
“You do not love the things you are doing”.
What you do when you are unable to feel fulfilled after hours of work?
“You worry — lose focus — feel bad — and live a life in hell”.
Enough said. Now ! is the time to realize — your job is not fun unless you sprinkle some Fun into it. Superimpose your boring office hours with things that give you Contentment. Not same old religious sermons — but truly heartfelt satisfaction.
So… what should you do when can’t control your life’s wheel?
Let’s explore today !
1 — Feel the worrying attitude
Identify places where you are lacking charisma, fun, energy, passion, heat of the battle or beating drums.
Not noise, but things that give you dopamine kicks over never-ending spans of time.
Todo
Take one day calendar. Mark your hours of dullness on it. Place reasons as call-outs that normally destroys your day’s peace. Take sticky notes. Write solution to each problem. Paste against the reasons.
It will do some awesome things to you: —
- You will have realized the things that are eating you up.
- You will know the triggers that bring you down.
- You will have realized the lack of consistency in your busy schedule.
After the realization, you will manage to take your first step. And only after the first step, you will be able to steer yourself out of these chaotic circumstances.
2 — Urgent need of a Direction
Bosses …
Good bosses have a direction. It is this simple. They along with their teams are heading towards these directions — every minute of the day they spend in their offices.
If you are a boss and you lack direction — you are in urgent need of direction. You are not sailing your ship out of a storm. But you are leading your people into conflicts, useless arguments and a bad future.
Employees …
When your job is not fun. It obviously means you are not acting leaderly to bring back the lost fun at your job.
While there are numerous myths convincing us “Jobs are boring”, “Bosses are bad”, “We are not slaves” — we need to halt for a moment and ask ourselves !
Are these the “job” a reason for our lost lives Or it is “we”, ourselves, lacking courage to live a Fun life.
People …
Major mistake most people make is : —
The failure of identifying self interest that they can superimpose over their problems.
For Example …
- If you can’t find fun in cooking break fast — you do not know the art to superimpose your measuring-progress-habit over cooking habit.
- If you can’t find fun going office — you have not yet superimposed your podcasts-listening-habit over driving habit.
- If you can’t feel great sitting in your office — you have not yet managed to introduce the Pomodoro-technique to work in isolation from the noise at your company.
Friends …
Today if your company does not lit spark and joy in your life. It is not the type of space where you can sit and feel good. It is now your job to understand the problem, act bossy, sprinkle fun around, and make it cosy.
Once our jobs are Fun places, you will find the Flow of your life in your existing work routine. But without Fun, you won’t find the Flow after hours long of hard work.
Identify a goal that gives you wings and start working on it during / after office routine.
3 — Too much sitting on the plate
We have put too much trash on our plates. Other’s problems, people’s stories, gossips and spice.
Even when we are not so lost in gossipy lifestyle — still the excess of information has put huge amount of tasks on our plates. Living a normal and sane life today, has become so rare that most label it abnormal.
Placing too much on our plate makes our innocent brains confused. These multi layered tasks, start jumbling up and we end up losing tons of hours weighing out the priority and importance. What tasks comes before? What call takes priority? What budget is more? A lot of ifs, buts and whats !
Engineers have taken on the work of Managers. And managers are scratching their heads; confused, trying to find a respectful spot in their own spaces.
It all leads to confusion and a tired mind. We never really manage to get One thing done in a good way.
Find your niche — not what you do good — but what you want to do good. And stick to it.
I love writing code. So — I resorted to most alien code editor that doesn’t take mouse movements; Vim, and I get lost into coding. I am not a good coder — but — this is what I want to do everyday. And I am doing it everyday. It brings me joy, spark and a sense of fulfillment. A slight affirmation; “I have walked few steps down and I am a little closer to gaining Mastery”.
Less on your plate, makes it easier to fork the tasks, organise them and keep moving forward.
Conclusion
The only difference between good and great is — consistency. All things done good, are great if they are repeated everyday.
You can’t achieve it thorough momentary spikes of great work. You can’t hit it with once a year project. You only get there if you — DO IT EVERYDAY.
Consistency can bring in the greatness. But great products can not build consistency. It is you, the human underneath, that defines how great your product is going to be. Not the product, that defines how great a human you are going to be.
Show up everyday, and you have become great, already. Without a doubt. Without people’s validation.
Slowly people also validate it — but that is not what you were striving — You were here to, be Great as per your own definition of Greatness !
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Book Suggestion — Good to Great by Jim Collins
