A Work, Not A Job
Consider this. When you scour the pages of history and discover the people who powerfully affected their world, you find it was people who did more than fulfill a job description well. In fact, many were folks who labored for a cause completely separate from their livelihood.
They were fulfilling a calling not just drawing a paycheck. They were doing a work, not just a job. A job is basically a source of income, whereas a work is a calling, a vocation. Consider some of the other distinctions between a job and a work …
Jobs are about what we can get. A work is about what we can give (and who we are). With a job, you basically trade your time and skills for money. Accomplishing a work is more about making a contribution to our world.
Jobs come and go, but work ties a life together. You may have 6-8 jobs before you reach midlife. Your work, however, should be the single, common thread that runs through each of your jobs. It is the central mission you are accomplishing with your life.
Jobs enable us to be consumers, but work enables us to be contributors. A work can be defined as the most important contribution someone will accomplish before they die. Pursuing a work ignites the passion inside of a person. It harnesses their gifts and causes them to think (and act) long after the job is over.
A job is often motivated by competition; a work is usually motivated by compassion. This represents the primary difference between being driven and being called. One pushes, the other pulls.
When people do a job, they walk the mile they are compelled to walk. When they do a work, they walk the second mile, above the call of duty. In other words, we do a job because we have to, but we do a work because we want to.
A job is about selling a product. A work is about solving a problem. A work is motivated inwardly, which means that motives are purified and collaboration can be intensified. For this reason, a work tends to pull like-minded people forward together.
Jobs are about making a living. Work is about leaving a legacy. A work is almost always bigger than a job. It is rarely reduced to a job description that someone else asks you to complete. On the other hand, a job can certainly be a place where a person discovers and pursues a work. Ideally, it should be exactly that--a venue for a vision.
It doesn’t always happen that way, of course. Sometimes a person’s calling or work has little to do with the job he or she is holding down at the moment. The job is just a source of much-needed income, though that income may help make the work possible.
In the long run, it’s our prayer to help you find and do your calling—not just get a job.
Five Decisions to Help You Find Your Future
Values: These come first, because they’re the moral compass.
Vision: This usually comes next because it is your blueprint for life.
Virtues: This is next, since it reveals your best tool to influence and serve.
Venue: This follows because now you’re ready to find a suitable context.
Vehicles: Finally, you can choose the actions necessary to reach the goal.
We want to help you think through five critical decisions. Everyone ends up making these decisions, by default or design. But if they’re made on purpose—and in the right order—they can become a kind of compass to help you steer a course in life.
DECISION #1: WHAT ARE MY VALUES?
This decision is priority one because values keep a person on course as he or she pursues their vision. When people fail to determine their values before they pursue their vision, they may compromise the person they want to become. The end will justify the means. They might reach great goals, but at the expense of their moral integrity.
Answering questions like these will help you determine your values:
· What do you want to be remembered for?
· What qualities in other people do you most admire?
· What statement will be written about you in your obituary?
· What are four to six words that most describe the person you wish to be?
Just as all of us have an IQ (intelligence quotient) and an EQ (emotional intelligence), we also have a certain amount of moral intelligence—a sense of right and wrong. But our culture today struggles with ethical issues and there are no set of absolute morals or values embraced by everyone.
The good news, however, is that character can be taught and learned. We all know that humans are born “lingual,” meaning we have the capacity to learn and speak a language. According to social scientists, we are also born with the capacity to be moral. However, just as humans learn language only after being around people who use it, we can develop good morals and character only if we are exposed to these things. This means we must clarify our own values.
DECISION #2: WHAT VISION DO I WANT TO PURSUE?
Vision is your big-picture goal or mental picture of a better tomorrow. This issue is second only to values, because a vision furnishes incentive for every other decision. Once you embrace a dream for your future, your incentive to finish college, do an internship, or learn new skills is high.
One of the most common problems is not that people don’t have a vision, but that they have 17 of them. They can become paralyzed by so many ideas.
To help you focus on a central vision, ponder these questions:
· What do you see yourself doing in five years? How about ten years?
· What do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?
· If you had no fear of failure, what would you attempt to do?
· Of all the goals you considered for yourself, which is most important?
DECISION #3: WHAT IS MY VIRTUE?
We often think of virtue in terms of morality, but it also means strength. You must ask yourself: What primary strengths do I possess, and how could I use them to improve the world?
Each of us has a set of strengths. Usually, we possess a primary strength that enables us to add value to a team or an organization as well as work toward fulfilling our personal vision. A strength is a combination of talents, gifts, knowledge, and acquired skills. Using our strengths on a given task leads to consistent performance. Matching our primary strength to our daily work can almost feel like magic. When we’re working out of our strength, we usually love what we’re doing, we’re good at it, and we’re able to bring value to others.
Finding and playing to our strengths is a key to satisfaction in so many areas of life, especially where career is involved. The problem is, most people don’t stop to consider this when they’re making plans.
When the Gallup organization sought to find out why so few Americans love their jobs, they stumbled onto an interesting insight. Knowing that no job is perfect, that every job has a few components that aren’t energizing, they decided that an ideal job was one that allowed the worker to play to his or her strengths at least 75% of the time. Then they polled large numbers of American workers to find out how close their jobs came to that ideal. What they discovered was pitiful. Only 20% of the workers they polled said that their strengths “are in play every day” in their jobs.
This helps explain why so few people truly flourish in their work. Most people are living out someone else’s life—badly. They fail to thrive because they’re trying to follow a pattern laid out by someone else. They never discover what they’re wired to do, and they never go where they’re really supposed to go…because they never stop to ask, what are my virtues, and how can I arrange my life to make the best use of them?
To help you identify your primary strength answer these questions:
· What do I do best?
· What do others tell me about my strengths?
· What do I enjoy doing the most?
· What have I done in the past that really got results?
Hopefully you will find some overlap in your responses to the questions above and pinpoint one significant activity or ability. This strength should guide your choices.
DECISION #4: WHAT’S THE BEST VENUE FOR ME?
This question is about the location or context in which you will use your virtues and pursue your visions. It’s about where you will live and work. Venue can make or break a career.
For instance, a student may find that teaching is her strength and may choose to use that virtue in teaching younger children, but the specific venues for this could vary. She could do this in a suburban school, in an urban neighborhood with underprivileged kids, at a Boys and Girls club, a church youth group, or a kids’ camp. She may choose to do it in the town where she grew up or across the country.
According to Time magazine, young adults aged 18-29 move around a lot. 25% of them have had 3 addresses in the last 5 years. 22% have had 4 or more addresses in the last 5 years. The environment may be as important as what the mission is of the organization. It’s quite possible for us to be clear about a vision and a virtue and still feel out of place if the venue isn’t right.
Here are some venue questions:
· In what context do my skills and strengths fit best?
· With what group of people do I feel most at home?
· Are there environments that allow me to be at my best?
· Where do my personality and my style seem to flourish?
DECISION #5: WHAT VEHICLES WILL I EMPLOY TO HELP ME REACH MY GOAL?
A vehicle is simply a means to reach a destination. Just as a car is a vehicle that carries you to a physical address, a well-chosen action can carry you toward your goal in life. Vehicles are the day-to-day choices and activities that will enable a person to fulfill his or her vision. Vehicles have everything to do with the daily grind. They are, essentially, items on a to-do list. And they can only be chosen wisely after values, vision, virtue, and venue have been decided.
The analogy to actual transportation is clear. A car is a vehicle that can transport you to a location if there are roads. Jeeps are better if there are no roads. Neither works very well if you must cross the ocean. In life, vehicles can get you to a place you want to be, but you can only select the appropriate one after you know where you want to go.
Here are some questions you should be asking regarding vehicles:
· Once you know your vision, what are the wisest actions to take to fulfill it?
· On your “to do” list, what are the top, most productive priorities?
· What are possible activities that are tempting but less productive?
· What are the next steps you should take to move toward your goal?
Often, the vehicles are the elements that are forgotten when executing a personal vision. For many, it is easy to come up with a lofty goal and even to find the right context for their talents.
Actually reaching the goal may be another matter entirely. Vehicles insure that the lofty vision gets translated into practical action. If you execute a good list of vehicles, chances are good you will ultimately fulfill your vision.
It is our goal to enable you to do well—to navigate your way into adulthood and successfully enter a career. At the same time, we also want to help you do good. It’s about more than just making money or getting ahead to insure your own success. We believe a satisfying and successful life is one that positively influences others and improves the world in some way—to lead the way in some area and leave behind a positive legacy.
A SATISFYING AND SUCCESSFUL LIFE IS ONE THAT POSITIVELY INFLUENCES OTHERS AND IMPROVES THE WORLD IN SOME WAY
This material has been adapted from the following book … Elmore, Dr. Tim, Generation iY (pp. 160-168).
They were fulfilling a calling not just drawing a paycheck. They were doing a work, not just a job. A job is basically a source of income, whereas a work is a calling, a vocation. Consider some of the other distinctions between a job and a work …
Jobs are about what we can get. A work is about what we can give (and who we are). With a job, you basically trade your time and skills for money. Accomplishing a work is more about making a contribution to our world.
Jobs come and go, but work ties a life together. You may have 6-8 jobs before you reach midlife. Your work, however, should be the single, common thread that runs through each of your jobs. It is the central mission you are accomplishing with your life.
Jobs enable us to be consumers, but work enables us to be contributors. A work can be defined as the most important contribution someone will accomplish before they die. Pursuing a work ignites the passion inside of a person. It harnesses their gifts and causes them to think (and act) long after the job is over.
A job is often motivated by competition; a work is usually motivated by compassion. This represents the primary difference between being driven and being called. One pushes, the other pulls.
When people do a job, they walk the mile they are compelled to walk. When they do a work, they walk the second mile, above the call of duty. In other words, we do a job because we have to, but we do a work because we want to.
A job is about selling a product. A work is about solving a problem. A work is motivated inwardly, which means that motives are purified and collaboration can be intensified. For this reason, a work tends to pull like-minded people forward together.
Jobs are about making a living. Work is about leaving a legacy. A work is almost always bigger than a job. It is rarely reduced to a job description that someone else asks you to complete. On the other hand, a job can certainly be a place where a person discovers and pursues a work. Ideally, it should be exactly that--a venue for a vision.
It doesn’t always happen that way, of course. Sometimes a person’s calling or work has little to do with the job he or she is holding down at the moment. The job is just a source of much-needed income, though that income may help make the work possible.
In the long run, it’s our prayer to help you find and do your calling—not just get a job.
Five Decisions to Help You Find Your Future
Values: These come first, because they’re the moral compass.
Vision: This usually comes next because it is your blueprint for life.
Virtues: This is next, since it reveals your best tool to influence and serve.
Venue: This follows because now you’re ready to find a suitable context.
Vehicles: Finally, you can choose the actions necessary to reach the goal.
We want to help you think through five critical decisions. Everyone ends up making these decisions, by default or design. But if they’re made on purpose—and in the right order—they can become a kind of compass to help you steer a course in life.
DECISION #1: WHAT ARE MY VALUES?
This decision is priority one because values keep a person on course as he or she pursues their vision. When people fail to determine their values before they pursue their vision, they may compromise the person they want to become. The end will justify the means. They might reach great goals, but at the expense of their moral integrity.
Answering questions like these will help you determine your values:
· What do you want to be remembered for?
· What qualities in other people do you most admire?
· What statement will be written about you in your obituary?
· What are four to six words that most describe the person you wish to be?
Just as all of us have an IQ (intelligence quotient) and an EQ (emotional intelligence), we also have a certain amount of moral intelligence—a sense of right and wrong. But our culture today struggles with ethical issues and there are no set of absolute morals or values embraced by everyone.
The good news, however, is that character can be taught and learned. We all know that humans are born “lingual,” meaning we have the capacity to learn and speak a language. According to social scientists, we are also born with the capacity to be moral. However, just as humans learn language only after being around people who use it, we can develop good morals and character only if we are exposed to these things. This means we must clarify our own values.
DECISION #2: WHAT VISION DO I WANT TO PURSUE?
Vision is your big-picture goal or mental picture of a better tomorrow. This issue is second only to values, because a vision furnishes incentive for every other decision. Once you embrace a dream for your future, your incentive to finish college, do an internship, or learn new skills is high.
One of the most common problems is not that people don’t have a vision, but that they have 17 of them. They can become paralyzed by so many ideas.
To help you focus on a central vision, ponder these questions:
· What do you see yourself doing in five years? How about ten years?
· What do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?
· If you had no fear of failure, what would you attempt to do?
· Of all the goals you considered for yourself, which is most important?
DECISION #3: WHAT IS MY VIRTUE?
We often think of virtue in terms of morality, but it also means strength. You must ask yourself: What primary strengths do I possess, and how could I use them to improve the world?
Each of us has a set of strengths. Usually, we possess a primary strength that enables us to add value to a team or an organization as well as work toward fulfilling our personal vision. A strength is a combination of talents, gifts, knowledge, and acquired skills. Using our strengths on a given task leads to consistent performance. Matching our primary strength to our daily work can almost feel like magic. When we’re working out of our strength, we usually love what we’re doing, we’re good at it, and we’re able to bring value to others.
Finding and playing to our strengths is a key to satisfaction in so many areas of life, especially where career is involved. The problem is, most people don’t stop to consider this when they’re making plans.
When the Gallup organization sought to find out why so few Americans love their jobs, they stumbled onto an interesting insight. Knowing that no job is perfect, that every job has a few components that aren’t energizing, they decided that an ideal job was one that allowed the worker to play to his or her strengths at least 75% of the time. Then they polled large numbers of American workers to find out how close their jobs came to that ideal. What they discovered was pitiful. Only 20% of the workers they polled said that their strengths “are in play every day” in their jobs.
This helps explain why so few people truly flourish in their work. Most people are living out someone else’s life—badly. They fail to thrive because they’re trying to follow a pattern laid out by someone else. They never discover what they’re wired to do, and they never go where they’re really supposed to go…because they never stop to ask, what are my virtues, and how can I arrange my life to make the best use of them?
To help you identify your primary strength answer these questions:
· What do I do best?
· What do others tell me about my strengths?
· What do I enjoy doing the most?
· What have I done in the past that really got results?
Hopefully you will find some overlap in your responses to the questions above and pinpoint one significant activity or ability. This strength should guide your choices.
DECISION #4: WHAT’S THE BEST VENUE FOR ME?
This question is about the location or context in which you will use your virtues and pursue your visions. It’s about where you will live and work. Venue can make or break a career.
For instance, a student may find that teaching is her strength and may choose to use that virtue in teaching younger children, but the specific venues for this could vary. She could do this in a suburban school, in an urban neighborhood with underprivileged kids, at a Boys and Girls club, a church youth group, or a kids’ camp. She may choose to do it in the town where she grew up or across the country.
According to Time magazine, young adults aged 18-29 move around a lot. 25% of them have had 3 addresses in the last 5 years. 22% have had 4 or more addresses in the last 5 years. The environment may be as important as what the mission is of the organization. It’s quite possible for us to be clear about a vision and a virtue and still feel out of place if the venue isn’t right.
Here are some venue questions:
· In what context do my skills and strengths fit best?
· With what group of people do I feel most at home?
· Are there environments that allow me to be at my best?
· Where do my personality and my style seem to flourish?
DECISION #5: WHAT VEHICLES WILL I EMPLOY TO HELP ME REACH MY GOAL?
A vehicle is simply a means to reach a destination. Just as a car is a vehicle that carries you to a physical address, a well-chosen action can carry you toward your goal in life. Vehicles are the day-to-day choices and activities that will enable a person to fulfill his or her vision. Vehicles have everything to do with the daily grind. They are, essentially, items on a to-do list. And they can only be chosen wisely after values, vision, virtue, and venue have been decided.
The analogy to actual transportation is clear. A car is a vehicle that can transport you to a location if there are roads. Jeeps are better if there are no roads. Neither works very well if you must cross the ocean. In life, vehicles can get you to a place you want to be, but you can only select the appropriate one after you know where you want to go.
Here are some questions you should be asking regarding vehicles:
· Once you know your vision, what are the wisest actions to take to fulfill it?
· On your “to do” list, what are the top, most productive priorities?
· What are possible activities that are tempting but less productive?
· What are the next steps you should take to move toward your goal?
Often, the vehicles are the elements that are forgotten when executing a personal vision. For many, it is easy to come up with a lofty goal and even to find the right context for their talents.
Actually reaching the goal may be another matter entirely. Vehicles insure that the lofty vision gets translated into practical action. If you execute a good list of vehicles, chances are good you will ultimately fulfill your vision.
It is our goal to enable you to do well—to navigate your way into adulthood and successfully enter a career. At the same time, we also want to help you do good. It’s about more than just making money or getting ahead to insure your own success. We believe a satisfying and successful life is one that positively influences others and improves the world in some way—to lead the way in some area and leave behind a positive legacy.
A SATISFYING AND SUCCESSFUL LIFE IS ONE THAT POSITIVELY INFLUENCES OTHERS AND IMPROVES THE WORLD IN SOME WAY
This material has been adapted from the following book … Elmore, Dr. Tim, Generation iY (pp. 160-168).