PASSION, AND AN EPIDEMIC
Tags: Inspiration, Leadership, passion, Seth Godin
While I am pressed for time… I am compelled to write this post in spite of a very full schedule today.
I am about 75% of the way through Seth Godin’s new book; Tribes, which I’d highly recommend to anyone that’s in search of a fresh perspective on leadership… specifically business leadership, in our modern culture. FYI, Seth has written several best-seller books like
The Dip, All Marketers Are Liars, Purple Cow and Unleashing The Idea Virus to name a few.
In today’s reading… Seth reflected upon a recent 2 week vacation, at which his close-by friend noticed that he was checking his email on his Blackberry. The friend gasped… “I can’t believe you’re on vacation, and you’re checking your email.”
It was unfathomable for this friend that Seth would have any interest in his normal day-to-day life, while taking his 2 week vacation. In turn, Seth was even more amazed that this friend could only enjoy 2 weeks of his life a year, and that the other 50 weeks were miserable, or mundane at best.
As I read this… it was consistent with so many people that I’ve met. Where is the passion anymore? Where is the energy for positively affecting people’s lives, adding value, doing something worthwhile, and being a part of something bigger than ourselves?
If you can relate to Seth’s friend on that vacation… if you look at work as a necessary-evil, then I’d highly recommend that you either perform a self-examination on your character and values… or simply move on if it’s actually that bad. Do this for yourself, your family, friends, co-workers, clients, church members, customers, and everyone around you. Life is too short. Both you “and” your co-workers deserve so much more… and so much better.
Don’t get me wrong. I am an advocate of a healthy work-life-balance… and there are most certainly cases in which workaholics don’t know how to take a break. But there’s an irrefutable epidemic of dispassionate, uninspiring and self-centered individuals that infect their workplaces with mediocrity, and that are likely to never be happy or successful… regardless of where they are. And to add insult to injury… these people will typically see themselves as victims, and in no way responsible for the quality of their lives. It will always be someone else’s fault. In their eyes… there’s nothing to fix, only someone to blame.
My encouragement. Be a THERMOSTAT, not a THERMOMETER. A THERMOMETER is nothing more than an indicator of it’s environment… while a THERMOSTAT affects change in it’s environment. Put differently, a THERMOMETER complains about it… a THERMOSTAT does something about it.
Do something that’s worthwhile, that fits your strengths and purpose in life. Be a positive agent of change. Do something to inspire us, and that’s worth noticing. Do something that will benefit someone other than yourself.
When you’re passionate about what you do for a living… your vacation is a merely time of rest, family and friends… not a prison break.