- 1st Law Newsletter
- Posts
- The Reward for Good Work (058)
Welcome back to the 1st Law Newsletter - Friday Edition.
In this email:
The Reward for Good Work
How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything
Effective Work Group Size
P.S. I am sending this from a new platform. If it goes to spam or the text is too small/ large or you have any other qualms, please email me back and let me know what’s wrong. I will fix it for the next edition. Thank you :)
The Reward for Good Work
“This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
The reward for doing good work is more work. When you can do something well, you will be known for it and be asked to do that thing repeatedly. Thus, you may need to complete the same type of task indefinitely. In order to be successful, and ultimately happy, you must enjoy what this task is. Only then will it cease to be work and become like play. Think deeply about what you are good at and what you love doing. Strive to work in the intersection of these subjects. I sometimes refer to the three circles exercise:
Draw a Venn diagram with 3 circles. Label the three circles:
- What I am good at/ can be the best at.
- What I love to do.
- Skills that can produce income.
The overlap is where you will find success.
I personally enjoy coming up with topics, doing research and writing this newsletter. I may not do it too well yet, but I know that if I stick with it, I can be great. Until then, the only thing to do once I finish one newsletter is write another. Reflect on the work that you do every day and ask yourself this valuable question: would you be happy to do the same type of work for the rest of your career?
How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything
“Competence is how good you are when there is something to gain. Character is how good you are when there is nothing to gain. People will reward you for competence. But people will only love you for your character.”
How you do anything is how you do everything. We’ve all heard it before, and while I do believe in its truth, it is not globally applicable. For example, working like your livelihood depends on it can be difficult on a definite salary. When your performance is decoupled from your income, motivation and discipline often wane. While this can become a problem by allowing yourself to slack when you should be focused, I believe this saying is more applicable to the things you do for yourself. Do you brush your teeth everyday? Do you commit to reading everyday like you told yourself you would? Do you let dishes pile up in the sink? The things that are easy to skip or to cut corners on in your personal life are much more indicative of your overall demeanor and life philosophy.
This is something I am working on. I find it hard to stay motivated and work hard day in and day out, and I skip certain daily tasks often. However, to manage this I have created a habit tracker that I fill out everyday. This allows me to visualize the aspects of my life I am ignoring. Let me know if you want to see it.
Do you feel the same? How do you manage the ebbs and flows of hard work and motivation?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
While you remain small, decisions can be made faster, and the group can stay united behind a specific cause, opinion, or battle. Once groups grow too large, the dynamic and aligned nature of the groups decision making must be changed. Differing opinions creep in, and a democratic approach is probably adopted. This is okay, but it would be better if everybody just agreed from the start. This can be applied to many aspects of life: Friendships, nights out with friends, trips, businesses, sports teams. If everybody is on the same page, making decisions becomes a breeze and everyone is happy with the actions taken.
Stay as small as possible for as long as possible if you want to make decisions quickly.
Thanks for reading!
Lucas