“So, what do you do?” It’s a common icebreaker when we meet someone in a social situation. Regardless of the reason for the question, most of us can answer the question at different levels. We can answer the general question with some kind of job title or category (accountant, barista) and the listener can infer what is involved in that job. Some job titles are a bit vague (I’ve had a few of those), but if the listener is curious about what that looks like, we can talk about the kinds of work tasks we do on a regular basis. There are also life tasks that we engage in. Laundry, driving, pickleball.
Your “whats” are important. These are your concrete interface with the world. Quite often “what” we do is a result of the situations we find ourselves in. When we take on a certain job, there are many “whats” or tasks involved in that job. The list can be quite long. Some might be more enjoyable, some more onerous. It’s usually part of the package.
While most of us know what we do, I doubt most of us have ever made a complete catalogue. Quite likely we do a lot of them on auto-pilot. Moreover, we have not always thought about how the various “whats” (tasks) fit with the bigger picture in our lives. Some might deserve more celebration than we currently give them. Others have quite possibly passed their “sell by” date. Time to let them go.
“Whats” frequently work better when they are attached to a reason behind them. A couple of questions to ponder:
- What tasks line up well or don’t line up well with your hows?
- What tasks don’t line up well with your Why?
We’ll talk about these more in the next post.
Puzzle Pieces Coaching 