Forrest Gump told us “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
I believe Forrest is right – especially in these tumultuous times. Each morning we wake up, flip on our news source, and are hit with yet another stream of ‘stuff that happened.’ And we need to process that information, drink our morning joe, and somehow integrate all we just read or heard into our day and interaction with others.
Despite that onslaught of info, I still believe, you can choose which chocolate you want to choose. Or how information you receive affects you and the others around you.
You just need to pay attention.
In the last 10 years technology has created change in how you:
- Share information with co-workers (Cloud services)
- Watch television (NetFlix & Hulu)
- Find out what you need to know (Alexa & Google Home)
- Shop for anything (Amazon, Zappos & every online store)
- Call a taxi (Uber & Lyft)
- Read books and newspapers (Kindle & Online Services)
You may work, travel, shop, and be entertained by use of digital means, but what hasn’t changed is WHY you do these things.
And that is what you have to pay attention to.
When you understand your Why – and the Why of others around you – the other stuff you hear or read is filtered differently.
Keeping the why in front of you allows your mind to focus on doing the activity for that purpose – and not allow the outside distraction and noise to get in your way of doing things.
Let’s look at Why you work.
Work is not necessarily your job (although for the first reason it would be). You can be paid for it or not. Work, as defined here, is the reason you get out of bed and put your feet on the floor.
- Financial security
- Connection to others
- Drive to be our personal best
- Give meaning to our lives
Within each reason to work, there are a multitude of personal reasons why you want to work for that purpose. Yours may be very different from mine. But that doesn’t matter.
What brings meaning to your work day is knowing your own why. And not allowing outside distractions, new technology, or the latest gizmo or gadget to get in the way of your why!
You’ve got to pay attention to your why every day.
Take a few minutes to jot down your why for work, for watching entertainment, for shopping, and so on. You’ll find that you’ll immediately know which ‘chocolate’ to choose to make that activity meaningful and satisfying in your life.
And then you can pass the box on to someone else! Don’t let the choices get it your way. Keep your why in front of you!
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