Milestone

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Golly gee, nothing like a milestone to get me to stop and look back. And really, not only glance back, but truly, look back at the sea of sand from the beach parking lot. Look back in the sense of I am sifting the sand looking for thegold shavings I lost.

I have been looking back at how I got to where I am asking questions. Questions about everything. Everything has been up for questioning. Not because everything can go. But because the treasures is not going to make itself apparent. The treasures I have forgotten are not simply missing, they are lost and not easily found.

Everything can be questioned because everything has value and sometimes the only way to get the most value from life’s things is to question all the things.

When I set something off limits to questioning, I tell myself it has no more value. When I stop questioning things, I stop contributing value to them.

How are you contributing value to things in your life? What are you devaluing by not questioning? What can you add value to by questioning?

Questioning,

–JT

Plateaus

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I have been thinking a lot about plateaus. A plateau on a graph, not the geological formation. The geological formation, though beautiful at times and impressive in size and shape, does not resonate with me in same way as a plateau on a graph.

The plateau on a graph has an upward slope into it. Then it levels off for a little bit. Then it rises again. However, if my x axis is time and my y axis is growth, then when my growth line pauses and becomes parallel to the x axis, I have plateaued.

Time does not stop because I have stopped growing. Time will drag me along no matter what I do.

The best reference I can find is the Golden Gate Bridge, a giant undertaking and enormous structure. A structure taking from January 1933 to April 1937 to build, four years of someone’s life was spent building it. However, the story of the bridge started in 1916.

A project almost twenty years in the making. After it was built, the instigator of it all. The engineer who fought and struggled to bring it to fruition, he passed away in 1938.

He spent from 1916 to 1933 working to bring the project to life and only enjoyed the bridge for a little over a year before passing away.

When the engineer encountered the opportunity of building the Golden Gate Bridge, it was all he worked on for the rest of his life. He worked on a project of significance, but it was all he did for his life. It marks the San Francisco Bay area, but it also defined his life, and he was barely there to enjoy it.

What are you working to do? When do you step back to enjoy the work you are doing? When do you stop to enjoy life around you? How are you growing with time? Is the work you are doing now the work you want to define the rest of your life? Who is helping you find where to go next?

X & Y,

–JT

Leveling Up

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I was listening to a podcast recently and they mentioned in passing about, ‘leveling up.’ The podcast was about growth and advancement and developing. It was really about their specific process, but they made this passing comment about leveling up. I took the passing comment and ran with it.

My brain took the passing comment and my creative juices flowed with the idea to make it an intentional part of growth.

My brain made it a qualifier for growth. Where am I at now? What situation am I in? What does it look like to ‘level up’ past where I am now? How do I start moving my life towards leveling up?

My brain took ‘leveling up’ and made it into a way to get past hurdles. My brain gamified life. I donot love the idea of gamifying life, but I do love the way I am able to look at the future with a more concrete perspective. I am able to see where I am at and how to get to the next level. I can create a clearer plan on what it looks like to be a better version of me. My belongings are tools to augment who I am and make me better. Make my family better. Make my community better. I have to look at the usefulness of things and the job they do rather than pick up the fun stuff I want or desire.

The ‘leveling up’ life has a great potential to grow and mature. I am more inspired to be better when I feel like I am putting milestones into my life to grow past and develop through.

What does leveling up look like for you? What are you keeping around you that is not helping you be better at being you? How can you help someone else level up?

Leveling Up,

–JT

Next Up

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My life has been a good journey. Not the best journey by a long shot, but a good journey none the less. I have enjoyed many parts. I think I have done some parts well, some parts not so well, and some parts I would like to go back and redo. However, my story has been a pretty good one.

Though, I am pretty focused on continuing to move forward in my journey, moving on to what comes next. Not so much in the sense of always looking for a job or pushing my career along or my life status to the next logical level. Simply, I get too caught up in the next thing coming. I get too lost in what comes next.

I do not often enough stop to smell the roses so to speak. I do not pay attention to the story I am living. I get focused on the next major event and I get lost in the details of what comes next and annoyed by the thing I am currently doing. So annoyed that I lose sight of the great parts of the path I am traveling.

I too easily get lost in how the next thing is coming and I need to be preparing for it.

The next thing is coming and I need to be ready.

The next thing is coming and the landing point is not yet prepared and I better get ready.

I lose sight of the current point I am in and miss the voyage to get to the next place. When I arrive, I am already planning the next event or destination. I am already planning what comes next.

I too easily get lost in the next bit and I do not often enough enjoy the journey to the last bit. I do not often enough enjoy what has come and gone. I do not easily enough celebrate a good life event.

Too easily I am engulfed by preparing for the destination and I miss how good the scenery is right next to me.

What is the scenery around you? What are the little things you are missing today because you are too focused on the next bit? Are you too focused on your goals?

Stopping to smell the roses,

–JT

Content

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Great marketing is great. It shows up in the right spot. It is seen by everyone in the target market and it usually even memorable. The issue with great marketing is, it will be replaced by more great marketing.

Content.jpg

The best marketing is great content. Great content causes changes. Great content causes differences in people. Great content makes you better at being you. Great content inspires you to walk out your front door and do something. Great content inspires you to contribute to something much, much, larger than yourself.

Similarly, good ideas work. Good ideas put a smile on your face and make you think about getting how effective the idea can be. Good ideas get some people to do some things sometimes. When you share a good idea, people nod their heads, agree, and will generally agree someone should do something about your idea. A good idea will get people to think about the possibilities and never get out of their recliner. What is the difference between a good idea and a bad idea a la mode with whip cream and a blueberry on top?

A great idea does more than get people out of their recliner.
A great idea inspires people to live beyond their capacity.
A good idea puts a bandage on a paper cut.
A great idea makes the impossible, possible.

Where do you spend your time? How many good ideas have you thrown out lately? What is stopping you from working on great ideas? How can you eliminate/mitigate these road blocks?

Aiming for great,

–JT

New Skills

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I like to work hard. It is very rewarding to see what I have been able to create or where I have gotten with hard work. I appreciate other people who work hard. Hard work can take me far in life. I think in some regards, a healthy work ethic can really take anyone far in life.

The issue comes when what I have done to get to where I am at is not going to take me to where I want to go. To get to where I am at has taken hard work and diligence. X tasks and focusing on Y actions. However, Z tasks and N actions are required to succeed where I am at now and move to where I want to go. It is a little mundane to think about how I got to where I am. And process and reprocess the fundamentals of getting to where I am headed. The guiding principles that got me here seem to be the same, but the way they play out from here are most definitely different.

I have heard about the symptoms I need to change, but I have not figured out the core of what needs to change. I do know I can try different things until I find the right thing. Continuing to try new things will help me figure out how to succeed. Feedback from other will help me succeed. Trying to act the same way over and over again and expecting different results will lead to lunacy. Troubleshooting, hard work, and community seem to be the best tools I have at the moment in figuring out how to do get better at what I do.

Where in your life are you trying to figure out something new? Who do you have around you to help you figure out how to do it better? How can you try to succeed in a different way?

Trying,

–JT

Public Opinion

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I recently was struck by a very public conversation I have been hearing about. It is is in regards to a million and one details and has strings stretching farther than I could imagine, no matter how creative I think I am.

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The most critical part of the conversation to me now is the publicity of it all. Both sides of the coin have always been very private groups. Never divulging too much more than they need. For this conversation, they have been hyper public. They have been leveraging public opinion against each other. Making points. Swaying intermediaries and everyone of course weighs in on the whole thing because everyone has an opinion and everyone else needs to give theirs too.

No one is stopping to ask if this conversation needs to be public. I have been more and more adopting a policy of dealing with things in the moment. This is practically a good policy for me right now, not necessarily permanent. If someone goes off the rails, it is better for me to wave a flag in the moment than wait. I know if I wait, I will never speak up.

I would never bring one of these situations up in a public forum to be discussed in the public court of opinion. I would betray my counterparts in these moments if I take private matters public. Private matters should be private for a reason. Nobody is better when I force a private matter into the public when it obviously belongs private. Personally, I would be immensely hurt if someone made my private matters public, hence I would never do that. What good can come from forcing private matters into the public? Do we really need so many extra opinions in conversations designed for private offices?

How do you deal with things? Do private matters come up too often in public? Do you deal with issues in a timely fashion? Does your reaction scale to the action?

Privately,

–JT

Revolution Eyes

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Other peoples’ issues are easy to fix. Formulaic really. I can answer them and help decipher the next step almost too easily. Actually, too easily indeed. I can not, however, deal with my own issues very well.

I generally feel like I look at my own issues and see nothing but haze, fog, and confusion. It is almost as if I am at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and I cannot see my own hand in front of my face. Truly, unnerving to say the least.

I recently unearthed a tool to use for these situations. Detatchment. Not a way to live life. Simply, a way to stop, take a breath, reassess, and then move forward. I have been using this tool more and more. I struggle with getting too connected. I am too willing to get emotionally tied up in the outcome of my work. I will get tied up not only mentally but more dangerously emotionally. I will lock into the outcome as if my life depended on it.

99.99 % of the time…
…my life does not depend on the outcome.

All it takes is a breath. Really, almost a few moments. Count to five then look at my problem again through new eyes. Revolution–eyesed. [#pungroan].

After taking these moments, I am able to comprehend my issue, step away from the problem, assess the facts (as best as I can see them. I am still only one person.) And I can move forward with confidence and clarity as to what will make the best outcome. Most importantly, I can talk myself down off a ledge and not make an angry mistake.

What happens when you get too tied into the outcome of your problems? How can you better engage your problems? How can you better interface with people who are causing you problems?

Detatching,

–JT

Herky–Jerky

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I was reflecting on learning to drive the other day and it was so vivid. Sitting in the big white suburban, we had at the time, in the evening after dusk. Slowly getting buckled into the driver seat. Not for the first time. I had buckled myself into this seat plenty of times. However, never before did I have the keys in hand, mother in the passenger seat, and any intention of driving anywhere.

So I started it up, pressed my foot deep into the brake, shifted into ‘Drive’ and exchanged the brake for gas.

Then immediately SLAMMED back on the brake. Heart pumping. Hands shaking.
And again, exchanged the brake for the gas, was surprised by forward momentum and hopped back on the brake. After a few more exchanges like this I became accustomed to the feeling of initiating acceleration. Within twenty minutes, I felt like a pro.

According to the movies, most everyone’s first driving experience is something like this. Jerky-Jerky where the surprise of initiating acceleration is jolting enough to bring the whole operation to an immediate stop. And eventually, I learned the degrees of separation between where I tilt my foot for 10 miles an hour versus 20 miles an hour versus 30 miles an hour.

How much different is learning anything in life? I try something new, a reaction occurs, and I slam the brakes on the reaction. Examine the reaction, process the net result, assess how to do it again, and try again.

Since then, I have had an innumerable quantity of successful drives with no significant details to be reported. I have also had a few opportunities to interface with local authorities on behalf of my bad driving. And there has been a couple times my experience as a driver has kept me alive as I was dodging pets, wildlife, and navigating icy terrain.

Ultimately, learning to play an instrument or teaching myself any skill worthwhile will have many of these same moments. When I do it right, nothing of note, simply continuing to do it right and hone my skill. When I do it wrong someone will point out my error and I will learn from my mistake and potentially pay a price, preferably not too high. And there will even be a few times my experience will save me from crashing and burning.

Learning something new will have these moments of doing it right and doing it wrong. I will never experience any of successes or failures if I do not get past the herky–jerky of it all. Getting past the first few times will pave the way for a million times more.

Is there something new you are trying to work through? What is the uncomfortable herky–jerky of what you are doing? What is the next step to get through the herky–jerky for you?

Herky–Jerky,

–JT

Passions

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I often have to interact with people who are interested in getting involved in volunteering or partnering with me. My goal in the interaction is to help them find a place they can partner with us and be able to gain life and enjoy what they do. A place where they are not bogged down by the details but instead inspired to do what they do outside of their time spend volunteering.

Part of this process has revolved around what they are passionate about. “What do they love to do?” is the question I would ask them. And time after time, they would have no idea. People would either gravitate towards low hanging fruit they knew could be valuable to us or they would just spin around about how they have never known what they love to do and they have never had something they feel like they are naturally good at doing or inherently passionate about.

I have had a minor revelation in all of this. I realized it almost does not matter what they are passionate about, almost being the key word there. If they are passionate about something I want to know. But, given they do not know what they love to do I need ask a new question, “What could you be passionate about?” or maybe even, “What have they not tried that they want to try?”

I realized passions often do not start with some revelation or origin story tightly knit to my life. My passions started with a decision to try something and finding out I loved doing it. My passions and interests came from trying something knew and realizing I really enjoyed it. I have also tried many things I have not enjoyed. But those were the moments I found out I was trying the wrong thing and needed to try something else. The moments I have found out I do not enjoy doing something were blips in the story of finding what I can be passionate about.

Now I need to lead people down a road where I help them try new things and gain inside into themselves and see a place where they can be passionate and find life in what they do because they have decided to make this a place to play. 

What could you try? What could you be passionate about? What could new thing could you do?

Passionately,

–JT

Pedestals

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Putting people on pedestals is dangerous. It is dangerous to put them there. It is dangerous to be put there. It is lonely up there.

Way up high in the stratosphere sitting on top of the roman style pedestal.

There are no friends or neighbors.

Just the person.

Alone.

No one to talk to them.

They oversee everyone below them. They look down. They never have someone to look them in the eye to keep them accountable. They are unapproachable. They do not talk. They dictate. They demand. They push. They are above reproach and if nothing else, they are dominant.

I am not on a pedestal, that I know of, and we will all need help if I ever am placed on one.
However, I put people on pedestals at times. I recently had a breakthrough in putting people on pedestals. They were left in unhealthy situations where more was demanded from them as they sat on their pedestals than they were ever going to be able to deliver.

The hardest part about being on a pedestal is the way people are left to be nigh unto perfect on their pedestal. They will always fail when they are up there. They will never be perfect. However, when I bring them down, I can all of a sudden, I can make a friend. A colleague. A peer. A teammate. A human to work along side.

When I pull people from the pedestals in my mind, they are able to be more human than I ever thought.

Who do you put on a pedestal? How can you humanize them? How can you give them a new chance to succeed, as a human?

Humanizing,

—JT

Diligence

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Stumbling into success is not the way things happen. Stumbling into success like winning the lottery, it is rare. It is unreliable. It is not a sure thing. It is not the way to accomplish much. In order to reach my goals, I cannot expect I am going to win the lottery. 

I have to do the work I have to put in the time and learn my craft. I do not get to rocket up into history. Very few have ever rocketed into the history books without doing the work first, and most of them who have ‘made it’ without doing the work are called, ‘One hit wonders.’ In order to do something of value and of worth, I have to do the work required of me. I have to learn how to be a professional or an expert at what I do. 

The hardest part about doing the work is I have to do the work. I do not get to circumvent the process. The work must be done monthly, weekly, and, truly the best practice is to do the work, daily or more. I must be trying and pushing forward every day. Doing the work takes effort from me when I do not think I have any more effort.

Doing the work requires I am constantly trying to take the next step and get to the next level. Doing the work requires me to decide over and over again I believe what I am doing is the right thing and I have to believe I can succeed. I may not be excellent today. I may not be excellent tomorrow, but it will happen. It will take time and more than time . But it will happen.

What work do you need to be doing? How have you been doing at deciding the work you are doing is worth it? What is the next piece of work you are doing to provide meaning to others?

Working,

—JT

Tomorrow

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I have had a routine I have developed naturally. I did not do it intentionally, I wish I was smart enough to start it on purpose, but alas, I was not. However, my routine is incredibly important and I can attribute quite a bit of success to what my routine. My routine is part of each evening. It is the last thing I do each day. 

At the end of every day, I prep for the next day. It takes me maybe twenty minutes or less but it makes all the difference in setting myself up for success. I get my clothes to wear at the gym ready, I prep my bag to take to work, I pack my breakfast, pack my lunch, and I pack my gym bag with clothes to wear to work. My routine is moderately mundane, but it is also a decision I make every night. Every night I decide how the next day will start. 

Every day I decide how the next day is going to start. It does not take anything extra from me. I am out of function for the most part. I am in routine, almost automated, setting the next day up for success. 

Making this decision every night allows me to wake up and not even think about starting the next day. I roll out of bed, put the clothes on I set aside. pick up my gym bag, backpack, and food. Then I roll out to start the day. 

At this point, I have done nothing but ride the rails I laid the night before. I am more successful for it. I have been able to stay disciplined and productive each morning. I have reaped from this forethought for months, if not more than a year now. 

Succeeding today started last night and succeeding tomorrow starts tonight. Laying these tracks each night before bed has allowed me to start every morning coasting into discipline and progress towards my goals. Coasting on these tracks every morning sets the tone for every day. 

What tracks do you need to lay today to coast on tomorrow? How can you better set the tone for each day?

Coasting,

–JT

Naturally Wrong

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I recently realized how deep my preconceived notions colors my interactions with other people. I have a knack for learning people. I don’t necessarily learn all people, but I do learn people close to me whom I think of as friends. I learn coworkers and people I greatly respect. I learn their nuances and schedules and routines. I cannot keep track of everything but I keep track of what I can. Most importantly, I do not do any of this intentionally. My head naturally keeps track of it all. I do not understand why my head does it, it just does. A natural part of my personality. 

This is great for me because I know when and how I should best communicate with people and what is going to work best in order to connect with them. 

The major drawback of my tendency to track people is the baggage it creates. If my brain is a cargo ship cruising across the ocean of life, the people my mind tracks get a shipping container in aboard the SS Manning’s Mind. As I have more experiences with a person, I slowly fill their container with information. In the moment, the information is useful and accurate. Long term, not always the case. 

Long term, I end up applying static information to dynamic people. Long term, the people in my mind do not get to grow or change. The information now colors how I see them, what I think about them, and how I interact with them. 

Every time I open their shipping container, I see everything in the container colored by static information. Information in dire need of an update. 

These preconceived notions keep me from allowing people to grow. 

These containers are in a terrible need of some spring cleaning.

What is a natural skill you have? What are some benefits of this skill? What are some drawbacks? How are you compensating for the drawbacks of what you do naturally?

Reconceiving,

–JT

On Changing The World

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The Relevant Podcast was one of the staple podcasts I originally listened to when I started listening to more podcasts. I do not listen to them much anymore, but I am still subscribed to them to see who they have on as a guest, what they’re talking about, and generally keep up to date on whether or not I want to listen to the current episode.

On one of their more recent episodes, they interviewed Seth Godin and talked to him about several things. The one thing that stuck out to me most was his discussion about how we can make the world a better place. He was not focused on everyone starting their own movement or everyone trying to conquer and control the world. He was focused on the simplest of things. He was focused on trying to positively affect a few people around you. Every day, have a positive influence on four or five people each day. 

How simple. 

I do not need to start a movement or create my own non-profit or travel to the deepest darkest parts of North Korea to change the world. I need to have a positive influence on a handful of people every day. Some days might be the same people over and over again. Other days might be a completely new group of people.

If I tried to improve or positively affect four or five people a day, how much better would the world be?

What is a reasonable number of people you can positively affect each day? How can you positively influence people each day?

Affecting,

–JT

Specializing

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I have not talked about my health progress and goals of the last year much anywhere, but suffice to say I have been living healthier, exercising, and eating right. Specifically, in reference to eating right, I try to ask myself, “Is this worth it?” If the food is outside of my goal lifestyle, is it worth it? An exception being, special events and celebrations with friends. These events are places where I will generally let myself go a little outside of the normal boundaries and goals.

When I get together with friends, I want to eat pretty much whatever I want. I want to be able to relax and not think about it. Which is great. Truly the right reason to break from the norm is to celebrate and socialize and be good company in good company. 

Though, there is a bit of a downfall to this mentality. Special events come more and more frequently. After a while, Saturday becomes a special event on its own merit. Eventually, Sunday joins his brother Saturday and is special as well. A little while later, I am sitting on a bench in the locker room thinking about the last eight weekends wondering why every weekend is special. What happens when everything is special? 

Special starts to lose its glamour. 

Special starts to become much more of a norm and much less of a treat.

Suddenly, nothing is special. 

I find myself needing to raise the bar on what I am calling special in my diet. And in other areas I am finding I need to lower the bar. Truly, I am finding I need to reexamine what I call special and start setting it apart from the other areas of my life. I need to make it truly special. Dinner with my wife might happen four, five, or six nights a week, but do I actually make that moment special? Do I actually set those moments apart and treat them like they are actually more important than the two hundred some odd tweets I have not had time to read from today? 

What is your definition of special? What sets the special moments apart from the mundane for you? Where have you gone astray in your ability to set apart these moments?

Specializing,

–JT

Upside Down & Inside Out

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I am sure you have probably seen the Upside Down And Inside Out video by our old friends OK GO. It is a fun video. They obviously had a blast making it and I cannot help but to smile as I watch it!

There is absolutely no reason not to go watch it.

On my second time through the video, I was grinning so much. I was having fun, watching them, have fun. More accurately, I was watching them do something I want to do. They were doing stuff they had probably been dreaming of doing. Who know how long it took them sitting around flinging ideas around before they united on this idea. Then they would have to start calling around and trying to get an airline to agree to let them use their plane to do all this. 

Finally, they get to go have a great time as a group of friends zipping around in Zero G. All because they tried. All because they keep doing something they love do they get the perk of doing something so cool. I get to watch them do something I would love to do because they do what they love to do. They put their work out there. It did not start as four guys in Zero G. It started in some garage somewhere and it probably did not sound this good.

Only now does it sound as fun as it does because they kept trying and improving. Trying and improving. They get to do what they do because they keep doing what they do. I am sure there are plenty of crummy parts, where they do not want to do this anymore. But I know when I look back on my life and the fun times. I do not think about all the hard times in the midst of the fun times. I think about how much fun I had when I was having fun.

What is something you only dream of doing? What are the steps between you and doing what you dream of doing? How do you make the next step towards your dream? How are you going to feel if a year from now, you still have not taken the next step towards your dream?

Trying,

–JT

Ideas

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Ideas come to me pretty regularly. Some of them pretty good and others…not so good. I love new ideas. They bring me life, energy, and I really enjoy coming up with them. Honestly, coming up with more and more ideas is probably something I could do for hours every day and never think twice about it. Getting to dream and picture a new idea or future or opportunity is second nature to me. I have little investment as to whether or not they are even good ideas. Most of the time, I want to come up with ideas and nothing more.

The rub comes in when I have to go beyond the idea. When I have to carry out the idea. At first it is not so bad. Nothing wrong with getting an idea started. It is good and healthy to get an idea started. Everyone appreciates a new idea. Early on, the new idea is getting going and changing and developing so much. The idea is morphing as it emerges from the cocoon, a beautiful butterfly. 

Emergent, the the butterfly will take off and start flying. Though, it is still dependent on me. I am the brains of the butterfly and I have to work to fly. Flap down and flap up.

Then again, I have to flap down and flap up.

Over and over again.

Flap down.

Flap up.

Flap

Down

Flap 

Up

I do not have the patience anymore. By now my idea is less of a butterfly and more of a moth. Grey. Disgusting. Fluttering around the light on my porch in the middle of summer. 

My idea is stale and now I am struggling even to show up for my idea. 

Flap down, flap up.

My ideas are great until I have to bring them to fruition. However, what kind of world would it be if I gave up on my ideas? I may have been great at coming up with them, but what is the point if I never do anything with them? My part is coming up with ideas but does that release me from fruition? Do I no longer have to take part in the execution?

How are you involved in new ideas and projects? What is your part of the project process? What kind of world would it be if you gave up on your part of ideation process? What would your life be like if you never fulfilled your part of the idea?

Carrying on,

–JT

Wear Out Your Welcome

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Recently, more and more, I have begun to notice some people wearing out their welcomes. Not in the sense of staying at my home too long. They aren’t leaving their laundry all over my floor or leaving their dirty dishes all over the place. The toilet seat has not been left up too many times and nobody is trying to use my soap. 

Still, though, they have worn out their welcome. They have filled my head with too many of their words. They have worn my ears down with the sounds of their voice. They give their opinion when they are not involved in conversations. They are over involved and under requested. They input into every open moment. They have not earned the right nor have they been given the right to be vocal. Yet still, they continue to wear out their welcome. 

Every word becomes a little less valuable than the last. And still they wear on. 

They speak more than the others around them and they do not know that they are more than their fair share. No measure is taken of their input compared to everyone else’s yet still, they wear on. 

They have worn out their welcome in the ears of their listeners, their voice has become shrill, and their words are legos under bare feet. 

What are your words worth? How much more than your peers do you contribute to conversations? Are you an equal contributor to conversation? How often you wait for others to speak first?

Listening,

–JT

Job To Be Done

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One of the podcasts I listen to is hosted by Horace Dediu. He is an analyst and all around a really interesting person full of great discussions and observations revolving around “[Apple and the]…success and failure in the evolving story of mobile computing and related industries….” A frequent theme of the show is the discussion of what the job-to-be-done is of a specific item, tool, company, or corporation. The jobs-to-be-done comes from the Clay Christensen Institute and they have a great definition for what it means to discuss the “jobs-to-be-done framework.”

My favorite part about the jobs-to-be-done definition is in reference to how you hire a product when you purchase it. The transactional nature of hiring paints, in me, a beautiful picture. I can see myself walking into a grocery store looking to hire some eggs and take them home with me or looking to hire some new headphones because my old ones broke. As I look for new headphones, I go to my favorite review site and see who they suggest to hire. I read the user reviews on Amazon, the reviews and comparisons on my favorite site, and of course price compare across a few different e-retailers as well as a brick-and-mortar or two, if I can. When I make the ultimate decision on my headphones, I hire them. (This process is so different from a 21st century employer going to LinkedIn and vetting their applicants or googling their applicants.) 

I on the other have a job to be done as well. Not the job to be done because I am hired to do it, but the job to be done as I am intrinsically inspired to do. I must do the job I am inspired to do and do it well. I have a job to do because of the talents I have, skills I have, and the way I am designed. I am fortunate to have been hired to do this job not only in life but also for a career. I am so thankful my job-to-be-done is what I get to do every day. 

I have found the intersection of what I like to do and what the world needs from someone like me. The jobs-to-be-done framework inspires me to look at the world as a marketplace. The interactions between people, businesses, cars, technology, and nature. Looking at all of these parts I have watched them and observationally studied them. I have watched for the things that did not make sense. The things that did not quite fit together. The parts and pieces that did not quite belong and I began pushing at these pieces. Poking them. Questioning them. Analyzing how they work and trying to relate to them. The more I watched, analyzed, and related the more I began to see what in me has sprang up and became more excited about my observations. My observations began to show me who I am. My ability to relate to my observations cued me into what I breathes life into me. I noticed the things that mattered to me and helped me see how I fit into the world. 

What is your job-to-be-done? What parts of the world around you strike you as odd? How do you relate to these parts of the world?

Observing the odd,

–JT