Finding the love

What do you love doing? For as the philosophers have put it so clearly over the years,

It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it

Bananarama (and others)

It was a theme underlined by the strengths advocate Marcus Buckingham at the recent WBECS Pre-Summit. The content of his slot was taken almost exclusively from his latest work, Love + Work. No bad thing at all as it’s a beautiful, human book.

It’s hard to be surprised that this is my favourite of his so far. Baring his soul more than in previous writing, Buckingham talks of love, of devils, and of Wyrds. According to this ancient concept, each of us is born with a distinct spirit, which is unique to us, and which guides us to love some things and loathe others. We learn and grow most when we’re in touch with this spirit and honour where it leads us.

And how do we honour this? By finding what we love doing – our red threads. These are our strengths, not necessarily what we excel at, but what fulfils and makes us grow – what, in short, strengthens us. It’s an important distinction. For unknown reasons, I happen to be a great proofreader, but does it fulfil me? Do the hours mysteriously fly by in a flow state when I’m proofreading? Most assuredly not…

The other significant aspect to draw attention to is not that we have to find these red threads and do them to the exclusion of all else. It would be amazing if we could, but that’s not what that place called the real world typically allows. We just need to find what we enjoy doing in amongst what we do. It’s a crucial refinement of Steve Jobs’ famous line that the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

According to Buckingham, our threshold is 20% of the time. In other words, if we can see our red threads in at least 20% of what we do, day in day out, then we’re good. It’s when we drop below this threshold that we start to look at burnout, disengagement, and all the rest.

One of the backdrops to this is Buckingham’s research into healthcare burnout. Why should people who have such purposeful, meaningful work – fully in touch with their ‘why’ in Sinek methodology – suffer burnout in such high numbers? The findings show that those who are able to find and practise their red threads in work 20% or more of every day are the ones thriving. And he argues that this figure shows up repeatedly across the board, whatever our profession.

How to start looking for these red threads? Buckingham explains that what captures our attention isn’t random. It’s part of a pattern. And so, to find our loves, our pattern of attention is where to begin. These things that we love are threefold – instinctive, individual, and unexplainable.

When we pull on these red threads, life feels easier and more natural. Time rushes by unnoticed. These threads are the source of our Wyrd, our uniqueness, felt and then expressed. They naturally draw us in, and we willingly devote time to developing these strengths. In essence then, passion fuels practice fuels performance.

In this, our motivation is intrinsic – we do these red threads for the love of doing them without thought of salary or adulation or reward. It ties into what an acting teacher once asked me, Do you love yourself in art or the art in you?

In our REALM model of self-awareness and direction, all this comes under Excellent. If we find our red threads, and weave them into what we do so that we get to use and grow them every day, then work becomes a whole lot less like work.

We can’t finish, though, without Buckingham’s reminder,

Remember the massive extent of your uniqueness

How very true. And so I ask again, what are your unique loves?

Julian

I help people lead their own way forward

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