When Following Your Passion Can Distract You From The Present Moment

“How can I be a greater contribution to society, my family, and my work?” People have had a lot of time to reflect on that question during the pandemic and as a result of new conversations about race. Talk about questions that will lead to disruption!?

One of our guardrails on the S Curve journey is learning how to Step Back to Grow. Looking at how you can make a difference is a huge way to take that on. I spoke with Tom Rath on episode 147 of my Disrupt Yourself Podcast. Tom has sold over 10 million books, is the New York Times bestselling author of How Full is Your Bucket, and has Amazon's top-selling nonfiction book of all time, StrengthsFinder 2.0.

At the age of 16, Tom was diagnosed with a rare and catastrophic genetic condition, one that would lead to cancer in multiple organs, lowering his overall life expectancy. That means he doesn’t have the luxury of someday. It gave him a sense of urgency to make the best use of his time. His writing reflects that desire — including his books Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute to the World along with the autobiographical, It's Not About You.

Understanding his mortality, a condition we all share, has helped Tom focus on the things, big or small, that can contribute to today that will continue in his absence. He often asks, “What are the things I can do today that somebody might read tomorrow or that my kids might benefit from a week from now or a year from now?”

While many thought leaders focus on individuals “finding their passion,” Tom believes that we must shift the focus outward to find work worth doing. “If you start with your passion, it assumes that you're the center of the world. And I've learned it's a lot more productive to start with what the world around you needs.”

“Contribution is the sum of what grows when you are gone,” something Tom said that sticks with me to this day.

This doesn’t mean suffering to serve. Rather, find the match between the needs around you and your unique set of skills and experience. Or, as theologian Fredrick Buechner described a calling as, “The places where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Tom has found that people tend to contribute in teams through one of three major ways—create, relate, and operate. “In create, people have to initiate and get things started, and they have to challenge one another to say, are we doing the right things?” Tom said.

Next is relate, one of the most under-appreciated skills. It helps get the people within an organization to connect to the mission, stay engaged, and energized to do their best. Tom says this role looks at each individual and asks, “What does each person on this team need in order to thrive and be productive?” This role also helps sell a mission to the world or expand a client base.

The third big category is operate. This is looking at keeping things organized, getting things done, and making sure everything runs smoothly. Tom noted, “While we're doing that, how do we stay adaptive and respond quickly when the environment changes, and then finally, how do we scale and make sure that we can reach more people over time?”

During his research, Tom also found that what people contributed often depended on the team they were serving on and what that team's needs were. So, how exactly you contribute will likely flex depending on the context.

So, where should you start with growing your personal contributions? Tom’s book Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute to the World has the Contribify inventory, which is available online. It asks a number of questions and develops a short profile of who you are and what you have done, providing new insight into what type of contribution you prefer to make based on your life experiences.?

In what areas of your life are looking to make a greater contribution? What will grow when you are gone? How can you explore your strengths and match them with what the world needs? And how will you continue to practice stepping back to grow?