2-3-4 Friday 

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

I was doing some reflection recently after wondering how I had managed to survive the times when I didn't have a job for 2.5 years. 

I listed out all the jobs I did during that time.

1. IT Support, helping trainers during their Zoom facilitation 
2. Website developer 
3. Writer 
4. Facilitator with focus group discussions 
5. Digital marketer
6. Trainer, teaching mental health and transitions 
7. Social worker, counselling people 

Yet I realised it was this sheer range of work that made me excited, rather than tired. 

I want to invite you to think,

When was the last time you felt excited about your work?

Because as I’ve heard more and more people talk about their work, I realise that the core theme is that of ‘jadedness’.

You feel jaded from your work.

You go into the work, do the same, end the day, and the most exciting part of the day is the end of the day, with the Netflix you get.

Or planning your holiday. Or your wedding. Or thinking of buying that house. 

Or doing the renovation.

The most exciting stuff is what happens outside of work, not what’s inside.

Isn’t that sad?

Work doesn’t have to be like this.

For a long time, I stayed as a social worker, absolutely hating the job, and wondering when I could get out. 

I would sit in the office and check stock prices, studying annual reports, hoping that something more interesting would happen.

I built out websites, learnt about SEO, and then soon after, started writing books to fill the space in between.

I even went through a challenge where I made one video a day (no, it doesn't look good).

And then one day, the contract came to its natural end, and I had the time to do all these ‘by-the-way’ things as the full-time thing.

Whenever I think back about that journey, I realise I didn’t do anything special. All that happened was that I realised that better was possible, and I went on a frantic search to look for it. I knew that the job wasn’t fulfilling my innate desires to write, create, and sell.

So I went elsewhere to look for it.

If you’re facing jadedness today in your work, and you want something new, drop what you’re doing and try what excites you. You might just be surprised.

1 talk

You don’t need to have a great job, but you need to find some bits that make it great.

1 tip

There is a balance between trying many different things, and sticking to one thing for long enough to get the consequences of the hard work.

Here’s a healthy rule of thumb. 

For 6 months, stick to something. 6 is not too long, and not too short. It helps you to build a useful base to create something new from, and allows you to understand enough to begin to see the nuances in it.

When I first started writing in September 2018, I sucked. Big time. I go back to some of the articles I wrote as a student, and nearly laugh at the quality of what I wrote.

The problem is that many of us don’t stick long enough to improve.

Another case in point. In September 2016, as a pimply 20 year old, I started with my first stock buy. You can see here that for the first four years, the returns massively underperformed.

But after years of reading, discussing, and failing by doing, I finally turned the corner.

Returns tightened closer to the S&P500.

So my question today for you is,

if you’re jaded of your job, what are you doing to commit to doing something new?

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love

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