We are all told to remain passionate about what we are doing, in order to achieve our goals. But that could be just a wrong advice, rather bullshit advice as per Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert.
Atomic ideas from his book “How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big“. Note: edits and emphasis are all mine.
…Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I was willing to try. When it started to look as if it might be a success, my passion for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden ticket. In hindsight, it looks as if the projects I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success.
Success caused passion more than passion caused success.
Passion can also be a simple marker for talent. We humans tend to enjoy doing things we are good at, while not enjoying things we suck at.
From what I found, “Follow your passion” is terrible advice… My advice is to abandon the passion mindset which asks “What does this job offer me? Am I happy with this job? Is it giving me everything I want?” .
Instead, ask:
“What am I offering the world? How valuable am I? Am I really not that valuable? If I’m not that valuable, then I shouldn’t expect things in my working life. How can I get better?”
If being passionate is a bullshit advice, then what’s the right way to go about goal setting?
Scott Adams, instead suggests 👇
Energy is good. Passion is bullshit.
The way I approach the problem of multiple priorities is by focusing on just one main metric: my energy. I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all of the other priorities.
One of the most important tricks for maximizing your productivity involves matching your mental state to the task.
That is, it all comes down to managing energy (of course, Scott Adams is a huge proponent of systems thinking rather than goal thinking and managing energy is a feature, needed to drive system thinking over a long period of time).
One of the most important tricks for maximising your productivity involves matching your mental state to the task.
Scott Adams suggests three specific ways, from which you can look at your energy levels:
Activities. What’s exciting and what’s draining? Define a time for such activities - for instance, Scott is a creator in the morning, in the afternoon he’s a copier. Mindless tasks go later in the day for him
Space. Identify physical space which matches with the task you want to perform. Your brain needs the connection (for eg. : can you deep work sitting in the bed? A bad idea!)
Time. The more you can adjust your work day to your internal clock, the better it is.
When you get your energy metric right, you will be excited to wake up and the quality of your work will be better. You will also be able to complete your work faster.
How do I maximize my energy?
Eat right
Exercise
Avoid unnecessary stress
Get enough sleep
Last, but not the least. A Dilbert joke keeping in the mind the recession and inflation :)
Have a great weekend!
-ashish.