I’ve been asked to speak about my experience interviewing the extraordinary people I write about in Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner this week at Clemson University. The event is their annual Hunter Lecture that focuses on topics of personal relevance and social significance. I am honored and excited by the opportunity especially because the audience will largely be students preparing themselves for adult life in our turbulent world. And I do mean turbulent.
Every week I ride the rapids splashing through the work places of American companies trying to navigate our ornery recession. A few of them do it well, but most do not. Today American business sits on a trillion in cash in their bank accounts because they are clueless on how to create value with new offerings that would help them grow (Federal Reserve). It’s disgraceful really. We live in a time when everything we buy or use has to be re-thought, re-designed and re-invented to create a sustainable future. Companies that are aggressively doing that are growing (check out GE, Nike, FedEx). Companies that are dabbling in 21st century business ideas are swimming in circles, and companies that are waiting for good times to return are terminal. Life or death in business is a choice. Courage is in short supply. Waiting, blaming and hand wringing are rampant.
But one thing nearly all companies have in common today is they have successfully burned out their work force. Businesses are mostly run by their numbers instead of imagination. And the quickest way to stay productive and profitable in the myopic short term is to fire two people and give the survivor their responsibilities. Our digital tools keep everyone working late at night and on weekends. Most, and I do mean most, people I know return emails between 9 and 11:00 at night and often on Sunday. Most are always thinking about work rendering us preoccupied zombies. We still look human, but our minds have been commandeered by the goals and urgencies of some frantic business manager who’s own mind only thinks in PowerPoint. It’s no wonder most companies struggle. Their workforce is too exhausted to think creatively and too stressed to even want to collaborate. Too many work places have become hostile to human effectiveness. Frankly it’s stupid, and it angers me.
So what am I telling these Clemson students? Don’t separate your life from your career. People who are happiest live so that their meaningful careers, their preferred lifestyle and their most important relationships are all harmonized. The concept of life balance is flawed. Life cannot be lived on a teeter-totter running from one end to the other in a constant race of ups and downs. It’s not about balance; it’s about harmony. In a life of harmony work schedules flex to support our relationships and lifestyle in a sustainable rhythm. All of us need time completely off the grid and away from work. It’s essential to renew our minds and regenerate our energy.
I know. You probably agree. But how? We live in a time of scary economic insecurity, so we tell ourselves I’ll sell my life for money only for a little time, just until we get through this economic crunch. But it seems that most of us never stop. Once economic fear grips our thinking and our habits, our expectations are corrupted in self-exhausting patterns that keep us too drained to create new plans for a new life.
What I am telling my new young friends at Clemson is that our best life begins when we choose to live from our values rather than our fears. We know what our real values are when we reflect on what we are grateful for. Our gratitude illuminates what really matters to us. Then we need to ask ourselves, Am I investing in the things that make me grateful like the people I most love, the experiences that I cherish, the learning that most enriches me and work that’s packed with personal meaning? Now is the time to begin to create that life. After all, what if this is the new normal? What if our current economic challenges are mostly permanent? I hope they are not, but if they are, all of us need to recalibrate and invest ourselves in a future we deeply desire.
The how we do this has many considerations so I’ve made videos of the most frequently asked questions of how to live our dream life no matter what and arranged them into 30 emails. If you want them (they are FREE) all you have to do is CLICK HERE and request them. You’ll receive one each day for 30 days. And no, this isn’t some gimmick to sell anything now or later. I am just heartsick seeing so many people suffer from a malignant loss of self as we work so hard just to stay in the same place. Maybe it’s time to get off the treadmill. Maybe it’s time to live.
I sense a paralytic fear among those who work for the man, toil for the dollar, and retreat into safe harbors (drugs, alcohol, the couch) from the reality of their denial that they are not living life with joy and bliss. They don’t know what to do next, so they do nothing. They wait for something to change without realizing that they are the agents of change.
When the populace of any society is paralyzed and doesn’t know what to do next, a climate is formed when those with any idea (even nefarious ones) will gain an audience quickly.
I am deeply concerned now with those who seek control of others and who might be serving the needs of those who are desperate, who have lost their way and who suffer from the malaise of inaction. It is time for all of us who suffer from what Will refers to as a malignant loss of self to adopt a motto of “Under the Influence of Me”… and begin the life that makes us jump out of bed in the morning with vim, vigor, and vitality.
Sorry, but I have a problem when someone say not to separate your life from your career. My life is not my work or my career. There are too many other issues to pour our lives into other than just a career. A business will survive whether you are there or not and so will a career. But what about family, kids, etc. Not to mention your overall health and well being, mentally and otherwise. Besides that, you cannot have true harmony without balance. Harmony means everything fits together and we know that throughout our lives, somethings do not blend. You cannot mix oil and water, but each has a specific purpose, so if I can give the necessary time to each factor and learn to balance the responsibility of those things, then I can have harmony. Harmony is not just blending things together, but also using them for the purpose for which they exist. My life does not consist of my career. My life centers around my family and my God given purpose. A career can enhance those factors, but it cannot and should not define a person or their life. You define your career, it does not define you, and it should never be preemminent in your life. If the career goes away through a bad economy or retirement ( old age) what will you have left to stand on. Don’t build your hopes or dreams on the sand, because when the storms of life come, as sure they will, what your built and what you put your trust in will be tested. A career will not stand that test. This recent recession has proved that as we now see that are several careers that are no longer useful and will never recover. Many are now gearing themselves for career changes because their chosen field has folded due to technology and the economy. I hope you give those students more than that.
I resemble your “Teadmill” description, it seems that not everyone is on this treadmill, some are slackers and others are picking up the slack. I wake up every morning deciding to be a “Parentified Citizen” where I compensate for the worlds needs with my own soul. I have lost touch with who I am, except “The Compensator” I feel like a “Supper Hero ” when I achieve a noticeable diffrence. I am however getting burnt and when exausted, bitter. I see so many answers to all the “Problems” it is just that others dont…..Over achiever is something to be, I wish sometimes I could just be.
Thanks for reading, I feel better now.
Greg, The Compensator
I am currently living exactly what you have described! I work for a company that in all aspsects is haning on by a thread. Management has completely lost its’ view of the hard working employee! Yes, you can send a dozen emails on how “thankful” you are that we work so hard, but I hate to break it to you, but ACTIONS speak louder than words! I am burned out from this and I now hate my job. I have been thinking non-stop what my next step is. I would really like to be in business for myself and the more I work for the corperate pricks out there, it just proves me correct. Your words are very motivating, SO Motivating that I am going to copy and paste this particular article in an email and send it through the office! Thanks so much!