Michael Bungay Stanier has been in my inbox for years now. As an insecure coach, I am compelled to learn from the best. He is one of those. His napkin-sized book, Find Your Great Work, gives me an idea, which is its mission.
I am particularly partial to the maps 4 – 6: Choices. The book is a quick look at 12 exercises that help you find work that matters. After discovering your great work–work that lights you up, you have a better chance of feeling engaged, empowered & in the flow–all the buzz works for finding the meaning in your work. Map 4 takes you through the challenge of creating space, in your life, to do your great work. There is a whirlwind around all of us that pulls us in a dozen different directions. You need to “get clear on what you’re willing to give up and what you’re not by deciding what’s negotiable and what isn’t.” (pg 64)
The map has you define everything that is going on in your life as non-negotiable, feels non-negotiable–but maybe not, and negotiable. One key to this exercise is knowing that we have a choice for just about everything. We might not exercise it. Don’t like your boss? You have a choice whether you stay in your job or not. Staying might be non-negotiable, or it might feel like it is, and it isn’t. Running through these hard choices can help us understand why we are where we are, if we want to change, accepting what we can’t and changing what we can.
Once you have your list, you will need to consider:
- “What has become clear? What are you seeing as more important than you realized? Less important?
- Are you giving due time and space to the things you say are non-negotiable? Are they the first things you book in and hold as you allocate your time and energy?
- What do the non-negotiable items bring you? And at what cost? What are you holding on to here?
- If you had to move 3 items from ‘non-negotiable’ to ‘feels like non-negotiable’ what would they be? How
does that free things up? - Knowing now what’s really important, what can you start to say No to?” (pg 68)
This is one of the exercises in the book which punches way above its weight class because
Even though we might find ourselves in situations we wouldn’t pick.
Even though we carry with us all the uncertainty and history of who we are and where we come from.
Things only get interesting when you take full responsibility for the choices you make.
Finding Your Great Work, Michael Bungay Stanier, page 16