The Four Tenets of a Fulfilled, Impactful Career

Americans are workers, further proof of this statement is confirmed by recent reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics where, on average, employees work 47 hours per week. In some industries, it peaks at over 60 hours per week.

But, with simple multiplication, you can surmise that over the course of 30 years, the total time spent at work is more than 70,000 hours, equaling more time than you spend with family, sleeping, and engaged in your hobbies. However, despite these numbers, it pales in comparison to Elon Musk, Tesla and Space X acclaim, who worked over 100 hours a week for more than 15 years.

However, we are living in an age where the traditional model of work has been resigned and reshaped to mean something totally different from what it was 30 years ago when I started my first job at the local grocery store Piggly Wiggly. Especially from what it was when my parents earned their first wages literally by the sweat of their brow as a field hand for their sharecropper parents.

Employees today are looking for more than a paycheck as work is not a grind, but rather, a venue in which individuals can deploy their skills in such a way that contributes to making the world a better place. With this in mind, I would like to share with you four tenants to help guide you throughout your career.

Be True to Yourself

In general, people wish you well and often make the following statement encouraging you to do things in your best interest – “If I was you I would (fill in the blank here”. If you are a talkative person, you may hear that you need to listen more. Conversely, if you are an active listener, you may hear you need to talk more. The lesson here is that whatever you are, be more of that, because that is an indicator that you have natural innate abilities that need to be capitalized on.

You need to know your sweet spots, areas in which you are able to highlight your abilities. Coach Wooten, highly successful basketball coach at UCLA, observed his players during practice, taking note of the areas on the court in which they made the majority of their shots. Based on this data, he created designed plays so players can take these shots during actual games, informing them that these spots were the only locations they could shoot. You see, he knew who his players were and put them in situations where they could be successful.

I am reminded of the now famous Saturday Night Live skit where we find comedian Will Ferrell, playing the role of a musician in a recording studio, where he is giving the producer more cow bell. While this is his only contribution to the other highly talented artists, he is fully committed to adding value where he can, while remaining aligned with who he is. I encourage you to find your “cow bell” moments.

Be Curious

“Curiosity killed the cat”, I am sure you have heard this statement before. While it may have taken one if not all the nine lives of the friendly feline, curiosity has the opposite effect on people, particularly in the work environment.

The older we get, generally speaking, the more and more we lose touch with the basic element that helped to make our childhood so memorable. This attribute is curiosity. Think back to your earlier years when you parents told you not to do something, what was the first thing that you immediately did, yes, that is right, you did the complete opposite. You had to experience that thing for yourself to help you make an informed decision about the action/behavior that your parents warned you about.

In a professional capacity, some examples of curiosity consist of understanding how your peers do their work, what kind of mindset is involved in the decision-making process from a managerial perspective, and how do your peers deal with challenges. Be curious, seek answers to these questions.

Be an Influencer

One of my closest friends has mastered the art as he has able to build lasting connections at every organization he has worked. This stems from his unrelenting desire to produce quality work, getting to know his coworkers on a personal level, and modeling the key behaviors of an effective leader (e.g., listening to others, encouraging peers through challenging times, and mentoring). You can achieve the same and more if you are intentional about developing others in tandem with your own personal growth. Keep this in mind as you focus on increasing your ability to influence others – “Anybody who helps somebody influences a lot of bodies” – John Maxwell

Be a Learner

Learning is fun, even though some of us may have been traumatized over the course of our K-12 educational experience, possibly even extending into higher education, given the pressure to maintain a high GPA to get accepted into your chosen school.

During our academic years, we focused on one type of learning called Just in Case, meaning, you learned a lot of concepts/principles to prepare you for an assignment or your chosen career field. This type of learning was beneficial because it enabled you to demonstrate competency. However, if you are not applying this information frequently on your job, a large percentage of this knowledge is not being utilized or leveraged.

Now that you are employed, you need to switch gears and implement the Just in Time learning approach. The purpose of Just in Time Learning focuses on gaining access to new ideas, principles, and solutions right when you need it to solve problems faster and smarter.

I hope that you find these tenets to be useful and you circle back from time to time to track your status in each of these areas. Whether you have recently integrated into the workforce or you have jumped tracks into a new field, I want to encourage you to build on your higher education experience, taking full advantage of all the amenities that accompany the term “career”