As I’ve gotten older (yep, happening every day), I’ve become less concerned with achievement.
I don’t mean to say that I have suddenly become all zen and now just sit around in a state of lazy bliss (I mean, it’s tempting), but my daily happiness is less tied to whether or not I reach some outcome or another and is more tied to whether I am doing something I view as pleasant as well as generally valuable.
To take an easy example: my yard will never be ‘finished’.
There is no outcome that I’m moving towards with my yard, other than generally nicer, fuller, and more native. My ‘work’ in the yard is always small incremental actions for a small part of the yard. A new flower bed there, or replacing an invasive species here, or moving the compost pile. But even more important than even those small things, is just getting out in the yard for a few hours a week. While I like nice gardens, it’s more important to understand that I like gardening. The success is spending time on the process. That’s what is enjoyable (installing a patio in 95 degrees notwithstanding!)
The same can be true of virtually all aspects of life. You might want an outcome of playing the piano better, but if you enjoy just playing, then the ‘getting better’ will happen just because you take time to play often. It is the practicing - the process - that is the success. You will be happy playing the piano regardless of whether you get to do it in Carnegie Hall.
I like to write, but for years I didn’t. It felt overwhelming to write something other people might want to read. But I realized that if I like to write, it is the writing itself that is the goal. If people also want to read it, great, and I can learn to write better and acquire more readers over time. The important part, however, is putting my bum in a chair and just….writing. (Hey look at me doing just that!)
The first half of my career was more about achieving outcomes. It was getting the promotion, or the salary raise, or publishing a report, or influencing policy, or having a budget or project or team to manage. None of these things are bad goals to have, and are typical when building a career and a resume. All fine.
And just to be clear, I don’t regret any of the things I achieved, and I’m proud of what I and my colleagues contributed, but at this stage of my career how I do things has become more important than specifically what I achieve.
Today, most of my work goals are more concerned with whether a certain project will help me grow, be interesting, and have purpose. Will it give me energy (as opposed to sapping my energy) and will my colleagues or clients be fun to work with? Will I feel valued (financially and intellectually), and can I take time to eat lunch?
I obviously want to do good work and be of service (actually I guess that might not be obvious, but this is definitely part of happy work), but I don’t need to be the lead or for the project to be the Most Influential Project Ever.
If I am happy doing the work, then the work itself usually has better outcomes anyway.
This still requires effort, but it is more about the effort that makes sense today rather than only what it will accomplish tomorrow.
A lot of the conversation in the media about work at the moment is concerned with disinvestment - quitting, or quiet quitting.
I hope we can change the conversation to better ways of investing instead. We need to discover and be able to commit to what we enjoy doing, not just achieving or getting.
As is so often said, it’s not about the destination, really.... The journey really IS the thing....