Last month I spoke to a group of leaders in transition. I shared a finding from a seminal Mayo Clinic study on physician and nurse burnout that Clifton StrengthsFinder guru Marcus Buckingham (not Daniel Pink— oops, LGW attendees!) references.
Workers who spend at least 20% of their workday doing tasks they love have a drastically lower risk of burnout. Counterintuitively, loving more than 20% of that workday does not significantly increase your resilience. As Buckingham puts it: “40 looks like 20, 60 looks like 20.”
So, we don’t need an entire career (or life) built on passion projects to stay resilient. We just need enough fulfilling moments to meet that 20% threshold!
Buckingham introduces the concept of “red threads” – those activities that inherently bring us joy, focus and resilience at work:
You can identify a red thread by three distinct markers:
Anticipation: You look forward to the activity before it begins.
Absorption: You lose track of time while doing it.
Renewal: You feel energized and want to do it again afterward.
While Buckingham’s interest is work and workplaces, I want to extrapolate his construct to your life, too.
What a relief! We don’t have to experience transcendent days—and then feel like failures—because our waking hours are mostly spent on mundane life tasks. Not bliss moments.
“You don’t need to ‘do only what you love.’ Instead, you need only to find specific loves—red threads—within what you do.”
How about using that extra hour you gained today in this way:
Consider your current role, or long-time career. Note moments when time seems (or seemed) to fly by, you are (or were) excited to start a task, and can’t (or couldn’t) wait to get back to it?
Identify 3 distinct threads you want to carry over into your next chapter—whether through your leisure time, volunteering, or an encore career role?
Commit to one step you could take today, this week, or this month to bring one of those threads into your life, and your next chapter plan, and do it!
I always love it when you share what resonates. (Really, I do!)
P.S. Check out my sources: Buckingham’s book: Love + Work, LI post on Red Threads (with video); and Diary of a CEO podcast appearance.
One red thread of mine is helping people I care about tap great things in themselves they can’t yet see. If you’re feeling challenged or inspired by my Musing, let’s talk! (I’ll be gentle, I promise!)
A Surprising Happiness Finding
Next
Next