Principle: To counter aimlessness, you must define your battles wisely, and build your life around winning them.
Success in emptying yourself of your best work each day depends on your ability to define the right battles, and do the small but critical tasks that will help you progress toward your true objectives rather than just the ones that others expect you to strive for.
Defining Your Through Line
Have you ever thought about what’s truly important to you? What battle would you be willing to fight anytime for any reason? What triggers your primal instinct to act?
Your through line is the theme of your life and work. It’s your thesis statement. It’s the “delta,” or the change, that you wish to see in the world through your efforts. Unfortunately, the complexity of the modern workplace can squelch our sense of mission and cause us to drift. We grow numb to the prompts and cues that once lit a fire inside of us.
Identifying a through line around which to devote your focus, time, and energy is a journey, not a onetime task. The process requires persistence and a good deal of self-awareness, both of which can be challenging to muster when you are already managing the complexity of expectations, objectives, and relationships that comprise an average workday.
If you want to lay your head down each night satisfied with how you spent your day, it’s important that you draw the right battle lines, and stand on principle in how you engage your work. You must have a clear understanding of what’s important to you, and refuse to compromise in those places that require swift and immediate action. You will eventually come to regret the times when you compromised your contribution for the sake of acceptance by others.
Welcome to the Battle
Priorities are difficult. When you choose one thing to focus on, you automatically choose not to focus on others. This is why some people fall into aimlessness: they don’t like the discomfort of having to say no to very good things that aren’t the most important things. They’d rather be mediocre at a lot of things than take a real swing at things they care about and risk failure.
Remember, you cannot fight on every front. You must choose your battles wisely, and win them every time. Small victories will increase your level of confidence and mastery, but consistent failure due to setting the bar too high will lead to frustration and continued aimlessness.
To avoid aimlessness, you have to stand for something. Don’t allow aimlessness to rob you of years of your life. You will ultimately be remembered for–and your body of work will be built upon–the battles you chose to spend your time fighting. Act with urgency and diligence today to define your through line and your battles, then carefully allocate your focus, time, and energy on things that matter to you. There are battles that only you are equipped to fight. Run to the battle.
* Source: Die Empty by Todd Henry