Let me guess, you have too many things to do and too little time to do them, right? Getting things done is a hot topic amongst most professional circles. How do we maximize our results given the limited time we have? Easy, Lower your standards.
Perfection is the enemy of good enough. How many hours of your life have you thrown away trying to perfect something? Unless it was a labor of love, you most likely wasted a lot of valuable time. Time you could have spent doing more valuable things, like sleeping.
You have to realize the point of good enough. It’s where you’ve done enough to complete your goal to be able to move on to other things. It’s where any additional time spent yields little or no improvement. It’s where you can shake your hands clean and be content with what you’ve done.
Don’t think that you should settle for mediocre work. On the contrary! Do your best with as little effort as possible. If you have extra time, then go crazy putting on those little touches that make things that much better. But don’t obsess.
I’m a bad employee. I only work to get paid. I’m not driven by some altruistic goal to better the world around me and I don’t think I’m the only one.
It seems only the truly self-centered and pretentious individual believes that he is even part of the answer to Man’s problems. Yet when it comes to work, I’d like to be doing something useful with my limited time. I’d like to do something that will somehow make another human being happier, even if only for a moment and I don’t think I’m the only one.
So let me be clear; a good employee is obsessed with his work, because that is the most important thing in his measly life. However, for the rest of us, we have to work because that’s the system we choose to live in. We must earn our way through life.
I believe there’s a way to be a good employee without sacrificing your values in life. Come to the realization that work is just work and decide to do the best you possibly can at it. Be happy when you wake up and know that what you’re doing counts for something. Know that others really appreciate what you do. Seek to be part of something that you can be proud of.
If you can’t achieve those things, maybe you need to quit your job and find other means of employment.
In that way you can be a good employee who does great work and still have a life beyond your secular obligations. That’s what I want to do and I don’t think I’m the only one.
I found this BBC interview of Steven Johnson about his new book, “Where Good Ideas Come From.” to be quite interesting. He touches on how we as humans innovate, ways for businesses today to be thought leaders and tells us what is key to being more creative…
So, as a self-employed human being striving to develop your talents further, how can you be more creative? Be eclectic.
One way Princeton WordNet definess eclectic is “selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas.”
When it comes to music, art, movies, language, hobbies, reading and so on you should never be so predictable in your choices. When some people do this they say they’re in a rut. They keep doing the same things over and over again.
This is even more true when it comes to our relationships. Never limit yourself to just one race, language or nationality. Of the hundreds of possible cultural combinations (nations, languages, traditions, religion) only one could logically be the original. That means all the rest have developed and progressed by mixing with other types of peoples. Those that have flourished were open societies. So be an open mind and be ready to grow!
All that said, absorb as much as you can from your surroundings, take the best of everything and then do something great!
This powerful quote has proved very true in my personal endeavors to financially support my wife and I.
For a long while, I’ve been researching how to operate a business correctly. I’ve read books from the local library(one of my most valuable resources) as well as online. I’ve tried to learn from my freelance experiences as well as from working with a group of professionals in the last firm where I was employed. I’ve tried to watch others make choices and see how they react.
Of all the things I’ve done to learn, to ask others is the most effective method.