I love Marcus Buckingham’s definition of strengths – something that makes you feel stronger when you’re doing it. A weakness? Something depleting when you do it. Notice both definitions have zippo to do with how competent you are at doing.
OPUS, your labor of love, will strengthen you if it’s authentic. If your work is labor, you’ll be fixated on how long and how much. Why? Because labor depletes by definition. Don’t settle for life as a highly paid laborer. Yeah, it’ll be rewarding as far as money can energize. Will. Not. Last. Long. Fact…
My (work) OPUS is building individuals, teams, and leaders from a lone toward all one. I freakin’ love it. I am paid to do it. My paycheck is not my reward. I care about the money, just not that much. I care most about creating masterpieces that happen to be humans. Gives me extreme juice. Building leaders is one of my signature strengths. Yes, I am good at it. Damn good, in fact. Your strengths, especially your signature ones, will build you stronger. You will desire doing extra reps, not cheat yourself and others by trying to find the short way ‘round. When doing OPUS work you will use lots of energy and walk away feeling more energized, not less. At the end of an OPUS day, you’ll be tired – a good tired. You?
Slow down. Reflect. Write. Maybe it’s time you rinsed your “love to’s,” friend. Passions and purposes, when aligned, equate to a soul on fire, not someone worried about burning out. Remember, hard labor you disdain as you tire. Hard OPUS you sustain as you perspire. You?
Live hard. Love harder…
BUILT TO LEAD 