Business owners and people in general look all they have to do in a day and think that answer to their problems lies in just having more time. You can ask all you want but the reality is that you aren’t going to get it. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. What makes some people more productive than others? It start with knowing and understanding your Soul Purpose.
At the base of productivity is having greater personal clarity. When you have that clarity about not only what it is that you should be doing but also how you should be doing it, you are able to accomplish things that keep your career/life moving forward.
We ignore ourselves when we look at productivity. We address the symptoms of our inefficiencies at work without really addressing/curing the root cause. It’s not a good idea to do this with regards to our health and the same is true for productivity.
If you are struggling with productivity or feel like you are letting the day get away from you more often than not, don’t start implementing strategies to fix productivity without looking at yourself in more depth.
Having greater clarity of your Soul’s Purpose will allow you to then have greater clarity on what you should be doing and how you should be doing it.
Understanding Soul Purpose gives you greater clarity in the following areas of your career:
- Are you in a career where you are passionate and deliver value to the best of you ability?
- Are you engaging in your chosen field in a way that plays to your strengths? (Are you the kind of detailed person that will put the correct cover sheet on the TPS reports?)
- Should you jump on that business opportunity or promotion?
- Should you travel a lot?
- Are you suited for leadership?
- What continuing education should you engage in? For example, Is a master’s degree going to further my career or am I doing it just say that I did it?
- What kind of team environment is best for you? Some people thrive in group settings other are completely drained by it?
These are some questions that you can answer about yourself in a more concise manner when you really understand your Soul Purpose. Knowing what kind of activities you should be doing and how you should do them is going to put you in a position to maximize productivity.
I always thought of myself as an analyzer, someone who could pore through data. I would accept these types of projects and then couldn’t figure out why I procrastinated on them so much. I later realized that I actually hate analyzing and doing detail work but for some reason had created a story about myself that I liked it and it just simply wasn’t true. It turns out I am somewhere in the middle of obtaining facts. I like to have just the right amount of info to make a decision. No more, no less.
In the end, you can see how engaging in this activity slowed my productivity way down because it wasn’t something I was fully engaged in even though overall, I loved my job. I thought the problem was not enough time when it was really not enough passion.
Sometimes we worry only about time when what we should really be worrying about is how we are spending that time, now and in the future.
If you want to be more productive in your careers, start with Soul Purpose as your base. Don’t build your career on a shaky platform. Many have tried this and failed. Once you gain that personal clarity, you will be able to better assess where, what and how you should be sharing your talents. Once you get there, greater productivity naturally follows.
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