How to harness true inner direction and ignore ego-driven goals

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Ego driven goals

In a previous post, I mentioned how a person’s occupation can be a job, career, or calling. In summary, I said that a job is something you do for money, a career offers recognition and progress, and a calling involves a strong sense of purpose, it lights you up. Read more about the three types here:  https://northstarlabs.co.uk/jobs-careers-callings/. 

Within these three roles, it’s important to understand the underlying motivation. Psychologists refer to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation about why we are driven towards such work.

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Book Review: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

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The world observed Holocaust Memorial Day this week. A day chosen, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

As the world reflects on this savage event in history, I recalled “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. It is one of my all time favourite books, a deeply personal and profound exploration of the human experience of suffering and the search for purpose and meaning in life.

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From Abatoir to Free fall, the power of your Why

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the power of your Why

University of Bedfordshire, 1994

The power of your Why

It’s my first semester at University when I stumble across a noticeboard advert for a charity parachute jump.

Signing up for it would have meant eating into about a month’s worth of my meagre living allowance. So I had to find a way to scrape the money together.

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Listening to signals

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Easter 2005. Tignes, France.

It’s April 2005 and I’m skiing with friends in the French Alps. I’ve just left my steady job at a software company to stumble into entrepreneurship. There wasn’t any great plan or well thought out strategy, I had a few irons in fires here and there, but mostly I was just bursting with desire to do it.

I had two ambitions when I was younger. The first was to go to University, and the second was to run my own business. I didn’t care what the business was, it could be making lampposts or bottle tops, I just wanted to run it.

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If not now, when?

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January, 1984. Calcot, Reading. 

I’m 8 years old walking home from school with my friend Jamie. 

We’re walking along a pathway that cuts through our housing estate. The sort of path that passes by everyone’s back fence. 

There is an open bit of scrubland along the path and I find a Tesco bag in the long grass.

I couldn’t tell you why I was looking, just the curious mind of a young boy idly walking home from school I guess – but inside the Tesco bag is something wrapped in a blood stained sheet.

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Confessions of a recovering workaholic

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I’m now in my third week of taking time out. I’ve carved out two and a half days of my working week to do other stuff.

There has been the odd small encroachment when “work” has bled into my “discovery” time, but overall, I’ve stuck to it and I’m loving it. Thanks to my amazing team for giving me the freedom to do it.

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Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

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This awesome lecture from Randy Pausch has clocked up quite a few views on Youtube (13 million at the time of writing). It’s over an hour long but well worth it. Some nuggets that I love from the late Randy Pausch, who is delivering this lecture with 10 tumours in his liver and a life … Read more