Took Out, Gave Back
You know you are leaving, or you are already out, and you cannot picture what comes next. Every job description pulls you back toward the role you are done with. Or you are worn down and cannot tell whether the problem is the work or the place.
Most people can list what they are good at. Almost nobody can say which of those things costs them and which pays them back.
This is a one-page inventory of the last few months of work, sorted by what it took out of you and what it gave back. Your answers save in this browser and nowhere else.
The inventory
- Write down the last five to eight pieces of work you can remember clearly. Projects, weeks, single meetings, anything with a beginning and an end.
- For each one: what did it take out of you? Time, sleep, patience, the weekend. Be specific.
- What did it give back? Money, pride, a person who came back to thank you, a thing you can point at. "Nothing" is an honest answer.
- Did you lose track of time while you were doing it? Yes or no.
Reading it back
Look at the column of what gave back. Look at the yeses on lost track of time. Where they overlap is what you are actually for.
Look at the column of what took the most out. Where that overlaps with what you have been avoiding is what you have been pretending is fine.
The next role is the first column with as little of the second as you can negotiate. You will not get all of it. Knowing which is which is the point.
The closing step
Turn it into one sentence. Then say it out loud. Notice how it feels to say. If it feels like a stretch, that is information too.
How does it feel to say that sentence out loud?
One of these every two weeks
Groundwork is a letter. One situation, one tool, one question I actually want you to answer. Every other Sunday.
Get the letter