” Do what you love” is for amateurs.
“Love what you do” is the mantra for professionals.
Category: personal growth
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This week I checked myself during a conversation where I let my own pride, fear and stubbornness get in the way of hearing the opinion of someone else.
My fear of doing something uncomfortable. My pride of asking for help. My stubbornness in thinking that my way is the only correct path forward.
I accept my own mind swirling down the dark path, check it and move on with accepting that another path is just as good.
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Yesterday, one member of my badminton group reinjured his knee which was already hurting from a skiing accident. He wanted to play yesterday because he loved the sport and thought he could still play and take it easy. Unfortunately, we pushed him pretty hard on court, and he collapsed in pain when he twisted his knee again. I hope he does recover 100% soon.
When we are young, we often think we are invulnerable. Our bodies will of course recover. We might also over estimate our ability to have micro control over our bodies.
If we take a long view of our life, making a decision to take a 3 to 4 week break to nurse back an injury seems like the obvious right choice. Have a framework to make decision to optimize for the long term, will make decisions easier.
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Recently I have been running dry on my personal motivation on important projects such as transcribing Impactful Engineer.
I have not been able to diagnose what the root cause is. Some possible reasons could be
- Transcription is not what motivates me and hence I’m putting it off
- The overall project and goals is not current aligned with my current mindset
- I am juggling too many things in my life
- Other stress that is de-motivating my focus with Impactful Engineer
- Most likely: I have limited motivation and just need a reboot
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This week I practiced what Lyn Campbell recommended during our interview on Impactful Engineer (read here). I asked for feedback from someone I work with. I asked her how she thinks I can improve in meetings.
She generously took the time to give me the following feedback
- During one of our meetings about a previous mentorship program, she said that even though what I suggested was correct, I was too directive and came off as telling what was wrong and what I thought need to be fixed for a mentoring program. Even though my feedback was correct, but because I was very harsh in my delivery, my intention of helping the program may have put the people in a defense mode. Instead I should be much softer in how I phrase my suggestions and perhaps start the sentence with “What if we.. What do you think if we did ..”
It was difficult to listen to harsh feedback, but it was so right on. It’s consistent feedback that I got from my lovely wife about how I am also with my personal relationships.
After this feedback from work, I realize I have obvious behavior changes I need to make. I also wanted to point out that it was hard to hear this type of feedback, but it’s also much needed advice for both at work and in my personal life.
Tony Tam 