Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day

by Todd Henry

There are four key areas where you want to consider implementing stretch goals: business/work (developing skills or context for your work), mental (developing your intellectual capacity and ability to process complex information), relational (cultivating and growing your relationships), and personal/spiritual (physical health, emotional growth, self-awareness, or personal skill development).

Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and Founding Father, understood the importance of short-arc goals to his long-arc objectives. In his autobiography, he records a practice that he used in order to help him determine which daily battles needed to be won in order to make effective progress. He asked two questions daily: The Morning Question: What Good shall I do this day? The Evening Question: What Good have I done today? In the morning, he set a course of action that determined how he would engage the day and what specific, small battle he needed to win. In the evening, he examined his daily progress.

You cannot pursue greatness and comfort at the same time.

The stories we believe about how the world works often play a critical role in helping us interpret the meaning of events. They provide a framework—a worldview—through which we filter our experiences. As such, the stories we tell ourselves—and tell about ourselves—can be either motivating, contributive forces or limiting, destructive forces as we strive to unleash our best work.

However, I believe firmly that one path toward unlocking our latent abilities is returning to a simple practice that came so naturally to us as children: We need to rekindle our ability to emulate the positive attributes of those we admire in others, and apply those same attributes to our life and work. When we are conscious of the qualities we want to emulate, they become points of traction to help us coordinate our daily activities around a set of principles rather than reacting spontaneously to circumstances throughout the day.

This “intimidation” that you and I feel can be complex, but it often stems from a dynamic that’s been brilliantly dubbed “the Resistance” by Steven Pressfield in The War of Art. He defines it as the singular, oppressive force that stands between where you currently are and the great work that you know you should be doing.

Make a list of five people you admire. Are there any qualities they exhibit that intimidate you? Make a list of these qualities, and consider any overlap between them. Do you notice any patterns? If so, how would you begin to cultivate those qualities in your own life?

Typically, these points of resonance are thematic, not specific in nature. It’s more about the deeper theme their words or actions point to and not just what was said. Their words struck something within you that is primal to your motivation. However, this takes some time to decipher and apply. The best method of excavating these points of resonance and unlocking the deeper pattern behind them is to make a physical note each time you experience them. Carry a notebook with you, and jot down the context, the person who was speaking or what you responded to, and any general thoughts you had at the moment. What did it inspire in you, what did it cause you to aspire to, or what did it immediately make you think about in your own work? Over time, as you pay attention to your little intuitive nudges and responses to experiences throughout your day-to-day life, you will begin to notice patterns. You will become more deeply attuned to the qualities and attributes that cause you to come alive and feel motivated to tackle your own work.

Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes,

Instead of falling back on a set of passive values, you must transform them into a code of ethics—a set of operating instructions for your daily activity. This “code of ethics” is a series of words that concretely defines how you will engage in your work. It defines ahead of time how you will make decisions, interact with others, and make choices when things get difficult.

The key counterpoint to ego is adaptability. This means cultivating the willingness to confidently bend to your environment while still maintaining a strong sense of self and purpose.

in making rules to govern group behavior we often unwittingly remove the need for personal accountability.

Rather than striving for control, we should instead be striving for influence.

Unfairness is an unfortunate aspect of organizational work. It’s typical that the best idea doesn’t win and that those who contribute the most value are underrecognized while those who coast on the efforts of others are overvalued. However, when you allow the behavior of others to control your sense of engagement, you are abdicating control of your own work. There’s a high cost to protecting your ego in this way.

Jim Collins called this dynamic “hubris born of success” in his excellent book How the Mighty Fall.

If you approach work with the mind-set of “What can I offer?” instead of “What can I get?” it can powerfully alter the very substance of your engagement. The careers expert Jodi Glickman told me that she uses the acronym GIFT (Generosity, Initiative, Forward momentum, Transparency) to challenge people to seek ways of adding unexpected value in the workplace.

Now the real question: How much time do you spend doing those things—the true work that really adds value—on a daily basis? Because that work—that you alone are capable of—is your voice.

“Shadow pursuits” are activities that capture our attention and give us a sense of accomplishment, but serve as a substitute for the real work that we know we should be doing.

He secured a New York agent for his illustration work, and whenever he finished a project, he always seemed to have two more waiting.

Abumrad shared in detail how Radiolab found its voice in an article on Transom, a public radio website.

It was like being lost in the dark and then an arrow appears. A pointing arrow; placed there by your future self, that says, ‘Follow me.’”

Take a few minutes to make an inventory of your most important work, and then spend some time considering each project. Are there hunches you have about the direction of these projects that you’re ignoring because you’re afraid of where they might lead, or of what they might cost you? It’s often easy to ignore prompts and instincts because of a fear of the effort involved to act on them. Have you been ignoring any intuitive nudges? If so, what are you going to do about it?

Ideas that seem obvious to you may be incredibly profound to others, but you may be inclined not to share them because of a fear that they will be perceived as too shallow.

There are two common mistakes that lead to decreased effectiveness and regret: avoidance and squashing conflict.

Having clarity around true expectations is essential to a healthy, functioning work life. However, assumptions will fill the void if you are not intentional about seeking (and giving) a clear understanding of your true demands.

During his experiences in multiple concentration camps, Frankl recorded observations of other captives and their varying methods of dealing with the atrocities thrust upon them. He noted that the captives who seemed to fare best were those who tended to ascribe a sense of meaning to their suffering. In other words, they had constructed a narrative that helped them understand not just what was happening, but also why it was happening, and how their ability to suffer well mattered in the deeper scheme of events.