WANNA HAPPY PROFESSIONAL LIFE?
3 Things You Must Have on the Job
Folks - if you've been reading my blogs for the last 20 years, you know one thing for sure, "I don't know" is my best answer to most questions.
But as a very successful friend of mine says, "Well, one thing is for sure ... we've got a ton in the rear view mirror." Call it experience, call it school of hard knocks, or call it what it is: I've screwed up a ton in my professional career and had to figure out how to fix it.
Working with amazing folks at the EPA, General Motors, Deloitte, and PCG, we've learned by developing an approach (Think). Then, we set to the task of implementing with persistent "independent verification and validation" engineering (& Do). On the farm, we called it, "Measure twice, cut once."
A solid IV&V approach ensures failures happen fast, incremental, and provides fact-based insights for risky next steps.
"Well, we aren't 100% sure it will work, but let's give it a go!
#MyObservation: Folks I know that are real life examples of having a "happy professional life" (not just pictures on on IG, FB, Tick Tock, or Tweeter) have three (3) things in common:
- Purpose (Focus)
- Dreams (Hope)
- Connection (Community)
I'll spare the reading audience the long-list, but it's a well-documented list of what one would consider as "happy" professionals in consulting, sports, music, adventure, military, entertainment, and non-profits. Let's go to work.
PURPOSE
I was talking last week with a 25 year old women about her upcoming career moves. She graduated from college with a STEM degree CUM LAUDE. (that's Latin for smart as hell)
As we chatted, what became clear to me is that she had not yet found her purpose in life. She knew she wanted to do something new, different, and exciting ... BUT she hadn't focused in on the "what". Sure, she's young ... but you can't go up to the Ticket Desk and tell the Delta Airlines Kiosk, "I wanna fly."
Like it or not, you gotta know where you want to go. What do you want to do with that brief amount of time called your lifetime. Frankly, it's a question we should all be asking ourselves every day of our lives ... before we are called up yonder!
It's really hard to always know where you want to go if you have never left the State of Texas. If you've never read about any place but Texas. How can you possibly know that you might want to join the Peace Corps and help educate students in Africa if the only elephant you've ever seen is on your Uncle Jim's dart board in his Dallas Cowboys Man Cave? For the record, we are monster Will Grier #15 Dallas Cowboy fans ... put him in Coach! Let that pony run!
#My2Cents: You gotta do the work of uncovering your purpose. You gotta talk to a ton of different people, you gotta read a ton of varied magazine, books, websites, and fact-based periodicals. Get out of the echo chambers that keep you buried down in the fur-lined ruts of "same old same old." It's not easy. It's work. It takes trial and error. It takes hard work and sweat to squeeze out the "passion" inside you to be your best and most authentic self.
One thing is for sure ... your passion and purpose are inside of you. If you wanna happy professional career, dig deep inside to focus your life's work.
DREAMS
Now we can debate this all damn day long, but it's my opinion that you gotta FIRST have your PURPOSE and that will set the stage for you DREAMS.
Idea being that if you sit around dreaming all day about an unknown destination, it's just day dreaming. However, once you know where you wanna go, it's time to start dreaming BIG. The reason dreams are so important is that they serve as the ignition for manifesting your destiny. Dreams allow you to see yourself "successful" and help you to start imagining the steps in your journey towards happiness at work.
At the top of the blog next to dreams, I added (hope). If you don't have hope that your dreams will come true, then you ain't getting back to Kansas and you better like flying monkeys.
Once you have set your purpose, then it's critically important that you dream of getting from the "as is" to the "to be" state of your happiness. You must have hope. You must leverage your time/materials/energy/passion to build hope and inspire others to dream of success.
#My2Cents - you gotta be able to dream it to live it.
CONNECTION
We've all seen the movies that celebrate success, overcoming monumental challenges, and professional happiness, including:
- Apollo 13
- On the Basis of Sex
- The Great Debaters
- Suffragette
- Remember the Titans
The list goes on and on, but the point being: These story lines include: a) purpose ... focus on a worthy goal, b) dreaming of a better day, and c) community.
Without community, success and happiness can not exists. Without community, there is not real need for purpose or dreaming. Life is all about our connections with other humans and building a community to share the struggle and rewards of working together.
I don't know of a single person who accomplished anything of real value that didn't need friends, family, co-workers, mentors, staff, and clients to make it happen. Give me any profession ... anywhere across the globe, nobody becomes happily successful all by themselves. Folks ... yes ... I'm saying Isaac Newton did not have a happy career. He was profoundly successful, but Mr. Newton doesn't clear the "happy" hurdle. (Thanks AI)
Isaac Newton was likely not a happy man, as he was described as deeply introverted, socially isolated, and prone to intense insecurity, depression, and violent temper outbursts throughout his life.
#My2Cents - It's a long and lonely road to walk by yourself. I've never met another human who can honestly say, "I did it all by myself." Whatever "it" is ... for it to be happy, then you are gonna need a "we."
So, in case you are wondering where the source of energy I got for this blog post came from (sorry Dean Dannel's for ending the sentence with a preposition). Well it was my son's Leadville Silver Rush 50 performance. Ultra-marathoning is a very singular and private sport. However, upon reflection his success came from purpose, dreams, and just as importantly community. Enjoy. Photo/Video Credit @KelliDarlin (formerly known globally as social media influencer @mamahull)
Here's today's vid-clip:
Tony McLean Brown
A Western NC hillbilly through and through, Tony McLean Brown was born in the small town of Enka-Candler outside of Asheville. His parents re-named him when he was 3 years old to Tony (a nickname provided by his grandfather) McLean (middle name of his Uncle Michael) while retaining his legal surname Brown.
Throughout his career, Tony McLean Brown worked as a farmer, computer programmer, and management consultant – in his adventurous years – author, song-writer, bass player, poet, pilot, mountaineer, certified scuba diver, and competitor in professional bull riding, NASCAR late model racing, Toughman boxing, Crossfit Open, Ironman, pole vaulting, marathon and ultra-marathon running, as well as parenting.
www.HappyGuidetoaShortLife.com has been leveraged to help charities and non-profits across the globe, USA, NC, and Lake Norman area. If you, your family, school, church, or charity has been supported, please take the time to share, like, subscribe, comment, and provide a 5 star review!
What an insightful, and inspiring read! I really enjoyed your perspective, and how you connected these broad terms, while specifying how you can use this as a framework to achieve what you want in life.
Thanks @aaron for your kind words….. appreciate you reading and taking the time to comment. It’s been a wonderfully happy journey