ExcerptA Chapter by Margie Warrell"Adapting to change and taking chances are critical to your success. This book will help you with both. Get it, read it, enjoy the results." - Jon Gordon, Best-selling author of The Energy BusStop
Playing Safe: Rethink
Risk. Unlock the Power of Courage. Achieve Outstanding Success By Margie Warrell Chapter
1 Purpose:
for the sake of what? There is no passion to be
found playing small"in settling for a life that is less than the one you are
capable of living. Nelson Mandela You might have
picked up this book because you’re looking for some quick-fix ideas for
reigniting your career, negotiating a better salary, dealing with a difficult
co-worker or simply gaining more recognition for your work. I trust it will
help you with all of that. But to accomplish all you are capable of, there is
nothing more important than answering the perennial burning question, ‘For the
sake of what?’ For the sake of what should you bother to work hard and
take on new challenges that stretch you? To answer this
question you need to reflect not just on what
you want to do in your working life, but who
you want to become through the work you do each day. In an
accelerated age of superficiality and distraction, at a time when so many
people are struggling with an uncertain future and unexpected challenges,
finding purpose in work has become the new ‘mission critical’. Victor Frankl, a
psychiatrist, who was the only member of his family to survive the Nazi
concentration camps, devoted his life to understanding the power of purpose. Frankl
bore witness not only to the murder of his extended family, but to the death of
thousands of men who were unable to survive the barbaric conditions they found
themselves in. However, he also saw men whose will to live enabled them to
fight off despair, defeat death and live to bear witness to the brutality and
deprivation forced upon them. His experiences in World War II and thereafter
led him to believe that the power of the human spirit can only be fully
unleashed when our purpose for living transcends merely surviving. If you have ever
faced a significant crisis in your life you will have experienced the power of
purpose to tap reserves of energy, strength and courage you didn’t know you
had. Your mission was clear. Your goal was compelling. Your focus was laser.
Your potential was tapped. The power of a
focused purpose is similar to the energy of light focused through a magnifying
glass. Diffused light is not of much use, but when its energy is
concentrated"as through a magnifying glass"that same light can set fire to
paper. Focus its energy even more, as with a laser beam, and it has the power
to cut through steel. A clear sense of purpose enables you to focus your
efforts away from distracted busyness to what matters most. Nowhere is this
more important than in your work, and how you employ your skills,
talents and time throughout your life. You have everything it takes to achieve whole new levels of success
in your work and to make a meaningful impact on the lives of everyone affected
by your work, whether directly or indirectly. But doing so requires a
commitment to refusing to give in to the forces of mediocrity that pull so many
people into the ranks of disengagement and resignation. It’s also conditional
on you making a commitment to stop playing safe in what you think, do and say,
knowing every worthwhile endeavor demands an element of risk. And it’s
conditional on you making a stand for greatness, engaging in your work with the
bold belief that what you do with your talents and skills over the course of
your working life matters, and that how you do it matters even more. Ever more people today have the means to live but not the
meaning to live for. Albert Einstein The search for
meaning has been one of the most enduring and compelling themes of humanity
since our origins. Where animals are driven by a purpose to simply survive, we
want more from life than mere survival. Without an answer to the question,
‘Survival for the sake of what?’ we can quickly fall into disengagement,
disillusionment, distraction and a quiet sense of despair. Study after
study done by organisations around the globe tells us that up to 50 per cent of
the workforce doesn’t believe that what they do matters. In fact, it is
estimated that only 30 per cent of workers are actually engaged in their job
and 50 per cent would leave it if they could afford to. That adds up to
millions of people who spend one-third of their adult lives going through the
motions of their job without any belief that what they do matters much beyond
the fact that they get paid for it. Perhaps you are one of them. What you do with your time and talents each day matters.
How you do it matters even more. It’s not just a
lack of meaning in our work, and the rise and rise of employee disengagement
that are at issue here. Many people also live with a nagging doubt about the
lack of meaning in their lives, reflected in the increased rates drug
and alcohol abuse, depression and suicide, and the unprecedented use of antidepressant medications. The
statistics are alarming and point to a crisis of meaning on an unprecedented
scale. Studies have found that
once we earn enough to have our basic needs fulfilled (estimated at about $70,000
per annum), extra money adds only incrementally to our happiness. There is a marked difference between being well off and well
being. Given we are wealthier today than any time in history, it seems the
answer to a more rewarding life cannot be found by chasing more money, but in
finding greater meaning. It is
an epic tragedy that so many people spend so much of their lives disengaged,
disillusioned and desperate to be doing something other than what they are
doing. The stakes could not be higher. In an
accelerated age of shallow superficiality and distraction, people crave
for purpose and a meaningful reason for being. I’m not being glib; I just want to be straight with
you. You’re smart, so you understand that your best thinking got you where you
are today. Reading this book and wondering what it might offer you that you
haven’t already thought of. You also appreciate that if you want to get to the
next level of success, you have to think differently about what you do, how you
do it and why you do it. It’s going to
take some deep reflection and serious soul searching"something many people have
become very good at avoiding. As John Gardener, President of Carnegie
Corporation, wrote in Self-Renewal: The
Individual and the Innovative Society, ‘Human beings have always employed
an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves. We can
keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads
with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much
ground that we never have the time to probe the fearful and wonderful world
within’. Probing the ‘fearful and wonderful world within’ is what’s required to
come out from behind a curtain of comfort. Like me, you’ve
probably experienced when travelling internationally, customs officers often
hit you with a blast of questions just when you’re weary and in dire need of a
strong shot of caffeine. ‘So, what brings you here to today, ma’am?’ ‘What do you do?’ ‘Where are you planning to go on your stay here? ‘Why?’ Although I
generally try to answer as quickly and simply as possible, we should all think
more deeply about these questions in the wider context of our lives. Let me
reframe them for you in a wider context: ‘So, what brings you here today (to reading this book)?’ ‘What matters most to you in your work and life?’ ‘Where would you like to go in the future?’ ‘Why?’ Why indeed. Of course, I
didn’t write this book to convince you to change career, quit your job or start
your own business. Rather, I wrote it to help you
re-evaluate the unique value you have to add in the world, to rethink how you’ve approached risk, so
that you can create more success in your work and add more depth to your life. A quick web
search will yield many dozens of methods, tips and techniques for discovering
your life purpose"some in as little as 20 minutes. (I kid you not.) Ahhh"if
only life’s biggest question could be answered on Wikipedia! While it’s
unlikely that you’ll find a quick-fix way to discover your life purpose, the
abundance of search results reflects the struggle so many people have with
finding a deeper purpose to their lives, and even more so in their work. German
philosopher Frederick Nietzsche once said, ‘He who has a why can endure any
how’. Knowing your why is the first
step to figuring out your how: how
you will achieve the success you want. Without a clear why, it is harder to figure out your how, and tougher still to persevere with it when the going gets
tough. In John F Kennedy’s words: ‘Effort and courage are not enough without
purpose and direction’. You must start with a clear sense of purpose and
direction. Too often we
think that if we could just have the success we wanted, we could be happier, braver,
be the person we really want to be. We wrongly think that only then can we and
afford the luxury of asking ourselves the deeper question of life: Why does what I do matter? But it
actually works in reverse. As illustrated in figure 1.1, only when you know why
what you do matters can you be the courageous person who you need to be to work out how
to reach your goals, and have the
success you want in your career or in your working life. Figure 1.1: begin with why If you were to meet a stranger later today
and they asked you why you did the work you do, what would you tell them? Often
the first answer is a fairly obvious and superficial one. You need the money.
But if they kept asking you “And why do you do that?” eventually they would
drill down to the deeper values, motivations and aspirations in your life. In
the end you're the underlying Why
that drives you has a profound impact on your experience in life, and your
ability to create the success and make the different you truly want. Which is
why it’s important to begin with why. Your why will compel you to take on bigger
challenges that stretch you; to engage with people around you more
meaningfully; and to make an optimal impact on the lives of those you work
with, those you serve and the world at large. Yes, I know this sounds very
largesse … perhaps a bit pie in the sky. But bear with me here, and put any
doubts or cynicism to the side for a moment and give your heart and mind the
opportunity to explore the possibility that there are things you and only you
can do on this earth, and that if you don’t do them, no-one else will (or at
least not in the way you would). Your fears, doubts and cynicism that
have confined your actions up to now and, if left at the helm of your life,
will steer you towards safety, and away from courageous actions needed for you
to create the changes, opportunities and success you aspire to. Human beings have extraordinary potential yet,
as psychologist William James once wrote, most of us live in a ‘very restricted
circle of your potential being’. Research in neurophysiology of the brain is
beginning to show us just how much. Using conservative estimates, researchers
have projected that the human brain has approximately 100 trillion neuron
junctions. This means that our possible mental states exceed the total number
of atoms in the universe. When you have a big enough why to reframe the work you do each day from what you can get to
what you can give, you’ll be able to tap that capacity and with it access your
reserves of energy, passion and courage and so use your talents and skills to
make the difference that only you can make. Then"and only then"will you be able
to step out of your comfort zone more bravely, engage in bigger conversations
and become the person you have it within you to be. A Forbes columnist,
executive life coach, and bestselling author, Margie Warrell draws on her
background in psychology and business to get to the heart of what holds people
back in work, love and life. An adventure traveller and the mother of
four children, Margie is a sought after keynote speaker and media commentator
(Today Show, Fox, CNBC) with clients ranging from NASA to the UN Foundation. Learn more at www.margiewarrell.com © 2013 Margie Warrell |
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Added on April 2, 2013 Last Updated on April 2, 2013 Tags: Margie Warrell, nonfiction, education, reference, self-help, vocational, philosophy, overcome fear, success, motivational, inspirational, how to AuthorMargie WarrellAboutA Forbes columnist, executive life coach, and bestselling author, Margie Warrell draws on her background in psychology and business to get to the heart of what holds people back in work, love and life.. more..Writing
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