Category Archives: Focus
CAREER ADVICE: DO WHAT YOU SPEND TIME ON
The Partial Advice
We often hear the advice given to career seekers: “Do what you love” or “follow your passion.”
This is good advice, as far as it goes. It is terrible advice, however, for both what it omits and the huge caveat it fails to mention.
Should you do what you love? Should you follow your passion? Of course. As Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius
Philosopher Confucius
So why should we be cautious of the advice to “do what you love”? Because we often aren’t clear on the one thing we truly love. As humans, we often deceive ourselves. When I try to focus on “what I Love” or “what I am passionate about,” I can think of dozens of things I love to do without breaking a sweat.
So now I still haven’t narrowed it down, but I realize it isn’t what I am doing. If I was able to narrow my passion down to a single item, I still have to know I am capable of monetizing it (if the goal is to “do what I am passionate about,” as a job, I am going to need to be able to make a living at it, correct?)
The Better Analysis
The Full Advice
While it is critical to do something you love and have a passion for, the full advice that should be given to career seekers has three parts:
- Do something you are passionate about; and
- Do something you are good at; and
- Do something you will work hard at.
How Do You Spend Your Time?
The way to discover which path will lead to all three of these things is to analyze what you spend your time on. Time is the one resource that is a constant for every single person on this planet. Rich people don’t get more of it. You don’t get less opportunities for time if your country is poor or you are born into the wrong caste. Time is not subject to the whims of inflation, the foreign exchange rate, or interest rates. No matter what religion, ethnic group, gender, or political party you belong to – you receive the same 24 hours per day that every other person receives.
We all are going to die eventually. And we all know it. Each 24 hours brings us one day closer to the day we will die. We don’t get to choose the day we will die – but we absolutely do get to decide whether we will LIVE before that day rolls around! We exchange each 24 hours for one day of our life . . . whether we spent that day doing something we love, or with people we love – or as slave to the grind just making ends meet and wishing for the weekend.
We don’t get to choose the day we will die – but we absolutely do get to decide whether we will LIVE before that day rolls around!
Some people with the greatest faith have found themselves in the latter situation and simply quit, trusting in God that He would provide another job for them doing something they love. The problem is: a year or two into the new job, the person sometimes realizes that this is not their “Great Passion.”
You Don’t Decide When You Will Die. You Do Decide If You Will Live First!
The way to avoid all of this is not to “follow your passion” or “do what you love.” Instead “follow what you do with your time.” That is what you actually love. What you spend time at, you will become better at. As you become better, you will enjoy it more and more. This in turn, will tend to make you love it. As your passion grows, you will work hard to become better. This will cause you to enjoy it even more.
And so on.
Ultimately, getting “stuck” in an endless loop like that. . . isn’t a bad way to spend your Life!
To finding the Time of your Life,
Scotty b.
about.me/AttorneyBlackburn
ATTORNEYS OR WOLVES: WHICH IS MOST DANGEROUS?
Focus.
Yes, I am sure there must be a great lawyer joke in this post’s title. But it is not a joke. So focus.
Question: Which one, attorney or wolf, left unchecked, is most dangerous? Are you focused on that?
What if both were inside your head? Focus on which would be most dangerous then.
How about two of each inside your head?!? Two attorneys and two wolves.
You must have a gigantic noggin for us to have stuffed all that inside! But that’s not the point. In this post we are focused on . . .
Focus.
Stay Focused!
Alan Cohen, the author of Why Your Life Sucks And What You Can Do About It (awesome and hilarious book in the event you have not read it), writes:
“Imagine two lawyers in a courtroom inside your head. One is arguing for your possibilities and you achieving your goals. The other is arguing for your limits and why you don’t deserve what you want. Who will win?
The lawyer whom you pay the most.
The way you pay these lawyers, however, is not with money; it is with your attention.”
* * *
Brian Johnson expands on Alan’s concept of the Two Lawyers in Our Mind in his Philosopher’s Note by reminding us of the Tale of Two Wolves in Marci Schimoff’s Happy for No Reason:
The Two Wolves
“One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside of people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all. One is Unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow, self-pity, resentment, and inferiority.
The other is Happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth, and compassion.’
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf wins?’
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.’”
So, what are you focusing on? Whatever it is, it merits 100% of your focus. Do you want that to be thoughts of who you could be? Your goals and ambitions? And how you will achieve them? Ultimately, how you will spread your Love and make the world a better place?
Or do you want to continue focusing on your fears? Your past failures? Your regrets? And how nothing you do matters? Or how it won’t work out anyway?
THE CHOICE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE. BUT THE RESULT IS GUARANTEED.
Your Life is 100% guaranteed to follow your thoughts. As we have discussed before, God is THE Creator, but He has entrusted you and me with the power to create, as well. And we create with our thoughts.
Want to explode into the life of which you have always dreamed? It is 100% guaranteed to happen if you dwell on nothing but those thoughts.
If you instead wish to stay mired in a failed relationship, a business failure, a poor childhood, or any other negative portion of your past, simply allow your mind to concentrate on those things. You are 100% guaranteed to repeat them.
THE CHOICE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE. BUT THE RESULT IS GUARANTEED.
SO FOCUS.
Pay attention to whatever it is you are doing. Love and feel how alive you are when you are 100% focused and completely engaged in it. Complete it. Then, and only then, move your energy and mind 100% to the next item.
The Ultimate Bouncer: Let Him Work For You!
Alan Cohen quarterbacks us on the game-winning drive with this analogy: “Your real enemies are the self-defeating thoughts, paltry expectations, and beliefs that you must live at less than full throttle. You will experience as much pain as you are willing to accept. You do have control over how much you hurt. Pain happens; suffering is optional. You can choose thoughts that bring you relief rather than imprisonment. To find your freedom, stand at the doorway of your mind and monitor your thoughts. Notice which ones lift you and which ones drag you down. Then, like a bouncer at an exclusive party, admit only those on the invitation list and send the others back where they came from. Fate is not a net cast over you by capricious fortune; it is a garden you cultivate by the thoughts you attend to. Shift your attention and you will shift your life.”
Brian Johnson’s reflection on the above: “LOVE that image of a bouncer at the doorway of your mind! How AWESOME is that? 🙂 We talk about this All. The. Time. For good reason: It’s the key to your happiness. So, get your big bad bouncer self rockin’ that velvet thought rope, will ya?! Challenge your negative thoughts. Don’t let them crash your party.
“So get your big bad bouncer self rockin’ that velvet thought rope, will ya?!” – Brian Johnson, Chief Philosopher
“So get your big bad bouncer self rockin’ that velvet thought rope, will ya?!”
Did the Chief Philosopher really just write that?!?
Oh, yeah, he did!! How do you not love “Bri”? If you don’t follow his work, you are letting the best things in life pass you by! Brian Johnson is The Badass of Goodness.
A few more Alan Cohen quotes that I love in closing:
“Your life is not what the stars, numbers, genetics, environment, politics, or economic conditions make it; it is what you make it. External variables influence, but internal variables determine.”
“Your true strength resides in holding your power in the midst of those who have abdicated theirs.”
“When you fall in love with yourself, you will be irresistible to everyone else. When you find your beloved inside you, you will find your beloved beside you.”
“When you fall in love with yourself, you will be irresistible to everyone else. When you find your beloved inside you, you will find your beloved beside you.” – Alan Cohen
Quotations above by Alan Cohen. Find him at www.AlanCohen.com
The Prefixed Life 