What motivates you to excel?
Is it something intrinsic, or an external influence? To answer my own question, it simply takes interesting projects to motivate me to do good work. The trouble comes when there is no real work available.
Things have been very quiet in the Angus world. In consequence, things have been very quiet on this blog. With 2 genetic defects recently discovered in the Angus breed, the breeders have postponed their usual sales as they scramble to test their animals. Add a recession as the cherry on top and you have one very quiet company.
June and July are typically quiet months for this business anyhow. What makes it unbearable is the side projects drying up. Every summer and every quiet period between breeders’ sales, I have made a mad dash to work on or finish up a side project. They have varied from posting the sale books online efficiently to improving our web sites en masse to solving the Photo department’s cataloging issues to building prototype web apps to campaigning for improved Angus Journal and Angus e-Classifieds sites.
With no side projects to focus my energy on, the boredom is driving me up the wall. I like identifying high-level problems and solving them. There are plenty of problems left to solve, I just keep running into a wall of red tape and No! answers. My nose hurts and the last wall nearly broke my glasses. 
Since there aren’t any interesting projects going on, I’ll share a few good links instead:
- For recent graduates and anyone looking for an unconventional road to changing careers, try Recession Proof Your Career, by Charlie Hoehn [via I Will Teach You To Be Rich].
- If you’re looking for deep, thoughtful writing, try any of Paul Graham’s essays. Pick one at random. You won’t be disappointed.
- Inspiration and instructions on how to live simple.
Bad Day?
Ever have one of those days where nothing goes right?
It’s been a while since I’ve experienced one this bad. You know what I’m referring to: FTP account refuses to connect, the network connection to the local Mac servers are down, the Internet connection is down and every other possible connection the computer tries to make is refused. Half my programs crash and I’m forced to restart my computer not once, but twice in the same hour. And yes, my FTP connection, Internet connection and Mac server connections are all on separate network lines. I have never seen all three down at the same time.
Today, it seems like everything I touch turns to crap. I completely updated one website, spent a couple of hours on it, in fact…only to discover it needs a complete rebuild because it was a takeover site and is not up to snuff with our coding standards. I updated another site, only to find an irreversible error on a few key pages, rendering the entire site useless and also needing rebuilt from the ground up. Granted, most of the sites we manage are small. An average site will take me 4-5 hours to rebuild, unless the design is extravagant. But still, I wish I didn’t have to rebuild it at all!
Reboot your brain
On days like this, when I feel like I have lost my flow, I have to stop. No, really. I mean it. Just stop. Some of the more woo-woo types out there would call it “centering oneself.” Whatever you prefer to call it is fine with me. To regain my focus and find my lost confidence, I pick up something to read. I clear my screen except for the article I’m reading. No other open windows, no other open programs. Nothing else to tempt me away or compete for my attention.
Sometimes I choose an inspirational read, sometimes it’s anything not related to work. I choose a long article or a few that will last approximately 45 minutes to an hour to read and I set aside everything else. When I’m done reading, I feel a bit more relaxed, mentally refreshed and ready to start again. It’s a wonderfully non-self-destructive way to cope with stress.
How do you reboot your brain?
More on Critical Thinking
Here is a company who values critical thinking over any other skill one has to offer. Take a look at Bain & Company’s description of an ideal candidate (emphasis mine):
We are looking for people with exceptional analytical skills. Where did you go to school? What did you study? These are important questions, but we’re even more concerned about your ability to think. Can you break down problems into smaller parts and then focus on gathering the right information to hit each issue? Are you comfortable being challenged regularly by new industries and new situations?
Try out their practice cases and exercise your critical thinking skills. It reminds me of a complex brain teaser puzzle couched in a real-life situation.
Food for thought
No matter what your job, skills or position in life, critical thinking is a useful and arguably necessary trait that everyone should develop. However, much like common sense or kindness, few people believe they need more of it or need to practice having it. For those of you who enjoy moving forward in your goals, learning to think for yourself and come to your own conclusions will help you when it comes to making tough decisions…because seriously, why let others dictate your career path, friends or passions? Why let advertisers define who and what you are, when you are more than capable?
