“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive…”

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

—Howard Thurman, 20th Century African-American author, educator, and civil rights leader.

Image from Unsplash by Jakob Owens

I support a strength-based approach to work performance and life in general.

The work of many individuals, including Marcus Buckingham, has established that the average person works in their area of strength perhaps only 20 – 25% of the time. However, some of the most satisfied and highly-successful people work in their areas of strength and unique abilities 40 – 50% of the time.

Exercise:

How could you design your life and career to shoot for spending 60%, 70% or 80% of your time in your areas of strength?

If you did this, how alive would you be and what difference would you make in your life and the lives of those around you?