How To Fully-charge your Work and Your Life?

There is nothing wrong with working on important individual milestones, as long as you understand that they may not be memories you will treasure 25 years from now.

-Tom Rath

This article is a summary of Tom Rath's "Are You Fully Charged?".

Are You Fully Charged shows you the three keys to arriving at work and life with a battery that’s brimming with happiness and motivation, which are energy, interactions and meaning, and how to implement them in your day.

"When you are fully charged, you get more done. You have better interactions. Your mind is sharp, and your body is strong. On days when you are fully charged, you experience high levels of engagement and well-being. This charge carries forward, creating an upward cycle for those you care about."

Create Meaning for Yourself

"Meaning does not happen to you—you create it. One of the most important elements of building a great career and life is attaching what you do each day to a broader mission. Until you understand how your efforts contribute to the world, you are simply going through the motions each day."

The three keys to living a life fully charged are meaning, interaction, and energy. He defines them as follows:

• Meaning: focusing on benefiting someone else rather than oneself;

• Interactions: valuing moments spent with others and focusing on the positive;

• Energy: choosing to eat, move, and sleep so that you are mentally and physically healthy.

Although all three are equally important, the one that speaks the most and therefore the one we need to focus on here is meaning. Since we spend much of our waking life at work, it is crucial to find meaning there or nothing else we do will allow us to be our best.

Some of us were raised believing that we can accomplish anything as long as we try hard enough.

Why spend your life trying to be what you’re not instead of being more of who you are naturally? Why not figure out what your natural and inherent strengths are and develop those for the benefit of yourself and others? It’s the difference between going with the flow or against it: the first energizes you while the second enervates you.

If you’re not sure what those strengths are, ask yourself these questions:

• What would I be happy to keep doing even if I never got paid for it?

• What are people always asking me for help with?

• What absorbs me so completely that I always lose track of time?

Start noticing when you’re energized and when you’re exhausted. What are you doing (and/or who are you with) when you’ve got that positive charge?