The best advice I got in 2016

I hope you all have enjoyed a joyful and productive week leading up to the Christmas holiday. It’s been a super busy last week or so for us at STRIVR.

Last week we spent two long days on a set in Burbank, California, shooting for a massive upcoming project we’re pumped about, and this week has been largely spent in post-production on an enterprise pilot that will roll out in early January and should be just the start of our work with that company, which we’re fired up to partner with.

(ICYMI: Here’s more on the enterprise work we’re going to be doing a ton of in 2017.)

It was during the post-production work this week that I had a moment to reflect (I have a lot of those in the last two weeks of the year, which is why I love this time), and I thought about the best piece of advice or lesson I’ve received in 2016.

It came to me in the middle of eight straight hours of researching construction tools and their use cases and writing product descriptions. Boom lifts, scissor lifts, backhoes, trench rollers, pipe benders, pipe threaders, pipe fusion machines, skid steer track loaders, water buffaloes, concrete vibrators, concrete grinders, compressors, rammers, welders … I knew nothing about any of these 72 hours ago.

The process was tedious and mundane, and around hour seven of that kind of thing you might ask yourself a question: Why am I doing this?

And that is the best piece of advice I’ve received this year.

To be happy, fulfilled and your most productive, you have to understand?—?at your core?—?why you do what you do.

This is not a practical definition— “well, uh, I need to make money, sooooo, this pays the bills?” It is a high-level, emotional connection between you and the purpose you serve.

Teachers might do it to help develop the future generations that will build and lead our world. Coaches might do it to help young people learn the habits and skills to be successful. Journalists might do it to share information and stories that change peoples’ lives. Entertainers or YouTubers of bloggers might do it to bring people joy and give them an outlet to connect with those they love. Insurance agents might do it to be the friend who helps others navigate the inevitable difficult times in life. A bank lender might do it to help people realize their personal dreams.

I learned this concept from Simon Sinek and reading his fantastic book, “Start With Why,” which has many applications for companies, business leaders and individuals who want to understand more deeply a sense of purpose.

I learned this year what it feels like to know deeply, when you’re really being honest with yourself, that you can’t answer that question.

For me, it had nothing to do with success in my previous job or the company I worked for or the people I worked with. It was simply the inability to answer internally: Why am I doing this?

And then I also learned what it feels like when you can.

In that seventh straight hour of researching construction tools the other day, I asked myself that same question.

I was able to answer it this way: Because this is going to help make (person I can’t name) the best (job I can’t name?—?sorry!) he can be for (organization I can’t name?—?yet!). This is going to help make his son, who’s fresh into the business, the best he can be. It’s gonna help make his colleagues the best they can be. And all together, they are going to make their company the best in their industry. A small part of that, hopefully, will be because they worked with STRIVR.

I’ll sober up here, because I don’t want to romanticize this concept further than I already have?—?those 8+ hours were still a bit monotonous, still something to grind through. But when you can answer that question, you then see that task as one step in the larger process and you begin to find satisfaction in taking care of the little details along the journey to what you’re building.

And so that is the one lesson I’ll take from 2016 and something I hope helps others in the community here who might feel a little unsatisfied or unfulfilled or unhappy or just lost or none of those but still know there's a level of potential they're not reaching yet.

Why do you do what you do?

When you can clearly answer that, you will enjoy your work more than you ever have.

And if ultimately you just can’t, then go forward and make a change without fear of the unknown.

Merry Christmas!

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