Thursday, August 9, 2012

Malcolm Gladwell: Key to success

Everyone has thought of how to be happier in life.  Happiness comes from finding meaning from their life.  You can go about searching for meaning of your life, but that could be an incredibly open ended endeavor.  Instead you should do something that gives meaning to your life.  Do something that makes you feel productive.  Practice a craft that you can become better at.  Pursue an idea that you are excited about.  It does not matter what it is.  As long as it gives you meaning, you are on the right path.

Essentially that is what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in the following clip:



Second part of his talk is more interesting.  Gladwell describes his view on success.  Success is rarely planned and executed to the plan.  Success is what happens along the way as you do something that makes you feel happy.  There are times when big success happens, and there are times when not so big success happens.  But it does not really matter.  It's because you have received your reward already.  Your reward was doing something that gives you meaning to your life.

What Gladwell is talking about is the idea of autonomy, mastery and purpose by Daniel Pink.  If you are pursuing your own goal and feel that you are getting better at it, you are getting satisfaction of knowing that you are productive.  That is the biggest reward there can be.  Emotionally and psychologically it will be the greatest reward that keeps you going.

We can now ask this question in different way.  Are we feeling productive?  Are we getting better at what we are doing?  Is this something that gives meaning to my life?

If we are not answering yes to these questions, then we are not tapping into our true potential.  It's time to choose success.  It's time to be more productive and get better at what we do.

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