Sparking Purpose #10
Inspiring people to lead more fulfilling careers and satisfied lives
Happy Sunday, and Happy summer! Yesterday evening, many people in Spain celebrated the summer solstice and the shortest night of the year, even though technically this came a few days earlier. Traditionally in Spain, we celebrate it with big bonfires in what is known as la Noche de San Juan. I am using the opportunity to tune into what the change of cycle might mean for me. As I am growing older, I am finding it nourishing and helpful to step into nature’s rhythm a bit more. I hope the start of summer also marks a good moment of reset for you—and that you are closer to a well deserved vacation.
“When they say you're ridiculous, you know you're onto something.” — Abby Wambach
Create an identity that’s unbreaking
This podcast with Abby Wambach, six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, touches on the big topic of identity, as she shares how she navigated retirement from professional soccer. It got me thinking a lot about how hard but how important it is to build your sense of self around immovable things, so that we don’t lose ourselves when our circumstances or jobs change. As she points out, when navigating a transition, it is important to honestly ask ourselves (1) Did I like that identity? and (2) What did it serve me? Listen to the episode here (44 mins).
“I had to figure out a way to not just shed that identity but to also create a new identity that was unbreaking. I actually realized that winning world cups never gave me actual confidence. It was the everyday dedication that gave me confidence. I can actually use that form of dedication to bring me self-esteem […] and build a new identity as just ‘person’, as ‘human being here on planet earth.’”
“I’ve promised myself to not build an identity for myself that can ever be taken from me away again or that I would ever lose again.”
“People might be surprised by this but I work out for one hour every day, and it is something that I loathe. I hate it. But I know that it gives me self-esteem. And so those are the non-negotiables for me. What are those little things that make you feel good about yourself? Don’t wait for the motivation to come. Figure out what those things that build your self esteem are, and do them like they’re your job.”
Email and vacation: take your rest as seriously as your work
German automaker Daimler has implemented a policy where employees’ emails automatically delete while on vacation, letting the sender know the recipient is on vacation and that they can send an email to someone else or wait until the person gets back to work. While you might not want to go to that extreme, there are compelling reasons why you should consider fully unplugging while on vacation. 1. Being constantly connected hurts productivity; 2. A digital detox is good for your relationships (according to a survey, 49% say too much email has resulted in reduced personal or family time); 3. Disconnecting restores energy and protects against burnout. Patrice Ford Lyn, CEO of Catapult Change, encourages us to take your rest and rejuvenation as seriously and intentionally as you take your work. “We talk about deep work to get work done, but we need vacation to do the deep work of rest.” Read the full article here (4 mins)
The transformative power of sabbaticals
In recent years, the number of employers offering sabbaticals has grown exponentially. In addition, many more workers are taking their own unpaid sabbaticals. An HBR study of professionals who took a sabbatical found that people largely experienced significant, positive changes in their work and life. The study identifies 3 sabbatical types. 1. People who take “working holidays” to work on a passion project and who end up largely returning to their former jobs. 2. People who, pulled by wanderlust, want an adventure and a soul reset. This experience entails shedding others’ expectations and, afterwards, no longer feeling compelled to fit into a specific idea of success, failure and self-worth. Most return to the same profession but not the same work. 3. Questers, who have the most dramatic transformations. Exhausted and burned out, the sabbatical becomes a last resort. Questers start slow, with extended time to heal, but as they gain perspective and grow, they pursue non-routine work — certification, gig work, or opportunities to “prototype,” “craft,” and “hypothesis-test” potentially better careers. Questers rarely go back to their old jobs: sabbaticals serendipitously unfold from recovery to exploration, leading them to a really radical new self. (e.g. a consultant who became an artist, and a teacher who became a life coach.). Read the full article here. (4 mins)
Don’t erase the idiosyncrasies that make you extraordinary
In this super short piece, Ozan Varol reflects on what has made Bruce Springsteen extraordinary. After pointing out that Springsteen doubled down on his unique ability to write song lyrics, he draws the following lesson: “Stop aiming for the same obvious target as everyone else. Figure out your first principles as a person—the Lego blocks of your talents, interests, and preferences—and paint the target around them. Your first principles are often the qualities you suppress the most—because they make you weird or different from other people. At some point in your life, you were probably shamed for embodying those qualities, so you learned to conceal them. But here’s the thing: We notice things because of contrast. Something stands out because it’s different from what surrounds it. If you blend into the background—if you show no idiosyncrasy, no fingerprints, no contrast, no anomaly—you become invisible. You become the background. It’s only by embracing, rather than erasing, your idiosyncrasies that you can become extraordinary.” Read it here. Ozan Varol (1 min)