The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

Highlights, Notes, and Reflections

"Sensible people reinvent themselves every ten years." ~ Charles Handy

Your Portfolio

"By 2020, 40-50% of the American workforce will be freelancers."

It amazes me how you can drop in quote from a book to a google search and get dozens of more articles on the topic on Google. I wonder if there is a way to highlight text and then have it google search to bring up tons more resources for a deeper dive? Ideally, condensed or curated content!

I am taking a closer look at how authors like Jeff structure their books. I am finding common threads with similar books.

Part 1: Preparation

Part 2: Action**

Part 3: Completion

If I were to break my own work into 3 parts, it would look like this:

The art of living skillfully.

Cornerstone 1: Our start & end dates are predefined. If you remove the dimension of time, your life is but a single point in time.

Cornerstone 2: Trust in the perfection of the moment. What's happening right now is exactly as it should be. Where you are is where you should be. What you are doing is what needs to be done. There's no value in beating yourself up for what might have been when you trust in the perfection of the moment.

Cornerstone 3: Our full potential. The point of life is to fulfill our potential. To achieve this, we do the work, and the work is the reward. You discover that your full potential will never be realized because like the universe, it constantly expanding.

These 3 cornerstone's can be reflected in the graphical triangle of contentment. We travel along the axis and contained within the triangle is time and experience - or wisdom.

The more wisdom we acquire, the more we experience life at the top of the triangle (self-actualization).

Motivation

When your motivation to persist needs a push, read this:

Fortune favors the motivated. When you have a conviction and are willing to do the work, the universe will support your ambition.

Because I learn by doing, I jumped to the back of the book to see how I could start to apply it.

Answering your calling is accepting your role in a story that is bigger than yourself.

7 Signs you've found your calling

  1. It's familiar. Your calling is not waiting for you, it's the cumulative result of where you've been and where your heading. Remove time, and it's one.
  2. People identify you as it.
  3. It's an ongoing challenge and there's always room for improvement.
  4. You have faith and there's a draw of adventure into the unknown.
  5. It requires a lifetime of ongoing effort, and the work itself is rewarding.
  6. It doesn't compete with your other priorities but rather complements them.
  7. It's a purpose greater than yourself. Others are drawn to it because it's not about you.

Next steps

Plot on your life on a timeline

You can use AuthorDock to identify the major milestones in your life. Look for patterns. Personally - I've been writing most my life. Mostly in the form of journals - a form of self therapy. In looking back, there's a recurring theme:

LGN

Look good naked - I've always placed a high value on health. To Look Good Naked - eat clean. a clean machine. To operate in this life most efficiently, you must take care of your body. Living extraordinary requires that your machine/computer (your body) functions in it’s peak range. You have dialed in the ‘right mix’ of fuel, exercise, and mindful methods.

FF

Financial freedom - Or to make a million dollars. Seems like the focus of my first 40+ years has been on earning money. But I realized it's not what you earn, but what you keep. How does one define financial security? No debts? Freedom to do as you wish? I like Paul's definition of success: Doing more of what you want and less of what you don't. Pretty simple.

CANI

Constant and never ending improvement. To live (& love) a little better everyday. Progress in my journey (this lifetime, one of many lifetimes) is determined by my ability to get better everyday:

To be financially free - 50 RIGs. Freedom is doing what you want to do when you want to do it. Having your primary source of income derived from recurring income generators is key. You deserve 3 day weeks. You live in the most beautiful place on earth - and Fridays are reserved for you to engage in life outside work.

▲ - Past. Present. Future. Better Everyday. Enlightenment.

Design your own apprenticeship (DYOA)

Part of the hero's journey involves guidance from elders. Those who've gone before are happy to offer advice to help you avoid the same mistakes. 50 Interviews provides a powerful means to connect with new mentors who can make all the difference.

More tips here

Practice within the margins

Make small changes to move you towards your life's work. A little bit of effort each day will produce huge changes down the line. Allow yourself to spend time on your passion actions. Pay attention to where you are drawn and let yourself go there and work till the point of exhaustion. Our skills reveal our calling. That being the things we are naturally better at than others. I refrain from saying 'naturally gifted' because I don't believe any skill is truly mastered without sustained effort. It's working to the point of exhaustion that gets us there.

What is revealed in the things we do to the point of exhaustion? Our calling is what we want to put the majority of our time into, that others might find obsessive.

Pivot Points

What do your greatest setbacks reveal? Pivot points. Times in your life when your path took an unexpected detour. It's about seeing the less likely path and trusting in the perfection of the moment. Everything is unfolding as it should (even when it doesn't feel like it). What jacks us up is when we fail to see the blessing in disguise and take everything (and perhaps everyone) in our life for granted.

Recognizing clarity

Reflect on the moments of clarity in your life and the experiences that triggered them.

Work your calling

The power of deduction. Plan out the next year. Identify the time you must carve our for obligations (work, family, home). Then highlight the time remaining to dedicate to your calling.

Allocate the remaining time to your call by scheduling time as you would anything else on your calendar. It's not equally important, it's more important! But we do have to make room to fulfill life's obligations, or those obligations will pull you away from your calling.

This is about responsibility. We have an obligation to fulfill our commitments, to be there for our friends and family, and to perform the work that pays for you to pursue your passions.

Integrating your 'paid' work with your 'passion' work is the dream. I operated under the illusion that once the passion becomes my job, it loses it's passion. It's a mistake of being obligated to do something vs. doing it on my own terms. This is a key distinction and a limiting belief. The truth is, millions of people do work they love and would do it in spite of being paid to do it! In fact, these are often some of the wealthiest (and happiest) people in our society. My dad earns hundreds of dollars per hour to do work he loves. Even if you stopped paying him, he would do the work. He's discovered a secret of working your calling: The reward is the work itself.

It's not about you

A true calling is about a purpose greater than yourself. Others will support the purpose, not you. When it becomes about you, you will lose others. Build your tribe w/others who get 'lit up' about the objective and want to support you. Not everyone will be inspired and that's ok. But it's why it's so important to share your work! Don't keep it bottled up. A seed without water and sun dies. You can water it, but the sunshine comes from others. Think of others as the bees who pollinate your flower, or the birds that drop seeds to spread your idea.

A purpose greater than yourself

Why your story matters.

Perhaps the most impactful part of the book is when Jeff brings his own story into the fold, in the chapter entitled 'Your Magnum Opus.' He discovered what I too discovered in 50 Interviews. That's it's not about you. Ultimately, this is also what you discover after going through the Landmark curriculum for living - one you complete the final training (SELP), you discover that on a mission, you become part of a greater purpose.

The very things you try to avoid are what you need the most to make this story matter.

He explains that a calling is not about doing something good in the world, it's about becoming someone good and letting that goodness impact the world around you.

Instead of waiting for the end of your life to appreciate it, take stock now - you are on an epic journey.

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