Here is my question for you: What exactly are you getting paid to do? For the answer, omit your job title, omit your constellation of job tasks, omit your team’s larger mission. What exactly are you getting paid to do? Meaning, above all else, what result are you responsible for creating? If you are in sales, then the answer might be “selling cars.” If you are in medicine, the answer might be “delivering babies.” If you are an architect, the answer might be “designing homes.” Try to identify that one thing, or those few things. (It shouldn’t be more than a few things.) Really dig into this and figure it out, if you haven’t done so already. Do you have it crystal clear? Good. Now, use the lens of that one thing to judge everything you actually do on a daily basis. Here’s my bet on what you will find. The one thing you get paid to do is constantly under attack by other things you could do, or things that others give you to do. I bring this up because the days that are the most frantic and frenetic are usually the days I feel least positive about. Ever have days like those? Busy is not necessarily effective, and effective is what we get paid to be. So, sometimes a reset is in order. A reset that helps us restore focus.
First day of the rest of your life or all downhill from here
"Every day is better than the next." I missed it the first time I heard this line in the movie, "There's Something About Mary." This time, I got it. After laughing I realized something. I have spent years of my life on the wrong side of the equation. "Every day is...