Smarter, Faster, Better

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

For us to be smarter, faster, and better in our work or profession, Charles Duhigg says, you have to see your job as a choice not a chore.  Charles Duhigg is the author of the best-selling book, “The Power of Habit” and he followed it up with another excellent book entitled, “Smarter, Faster, Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business.”  The first book was about replacing bad habits with good ones.  His second is about motivation.

A strong motivation is what makes us smarter, faster and better according to Charles.  And key to motivation is having that sense of choice or freedom.  He says, “The choices that are most powerful in generating motivation are decisions that do two things: They convince

us we’re in control and they endow our actions with larger meaning.”  I agree with him, having freedom is an essential part of what makes us humans.  Animals and plants don’t have freedom.  They are driven by instincts.  But we humans are driven by rationality.  We have an intellect and will that make us know things and makes us choose things.  If we don’t have that freedom in anything that we do, it lowers our motivation, like seeing our profession as a kind of slavery that we are forced to do because we have a family to feed.  In my seminar on “Loving Your Profession:  How to Inject Life into your Daily Job”, one of the things I point out there is to see your job (whatever is your job) as a choice and not as a need.  It makes a world of difference when you see it that way.

Charles Duhigg says you need to put a sense of choice and meaning into your job to increase your motivation, no matter how small are those maybe.  While working for example, have a sense of choice in: (1) Where to work (office, conference room, coffee shop, etc.), (2) How long to focus on a particular problem (work intensely for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 50 minutes?), (3) What to do while working (listen to music, have a cup of coffee, drink a cup of tea, etc.)

Putting meaning into our work is another factor that lifts our motivation.  It is seeing the benefits of doing our task, even if we were ordered by our boss to carry it out.  Being told to do a certain task by a superior might go against one’s sense of freedom.  Some people don’t want that and start their own business and be their own boss.  The key to this paradox of obeying and still having a sense of freedom is looking at the benefits of obeying.  U.S. Armed Forces are trained to have this mentality when obeying commanding officers.  They reframe the orders they receive as something that will lead them to being a better soldier, getting promoted, make the war strategy work, win the war on terrorism, and make the world a better and safer place.  Applying this principle in our jobs means seeing the meaning between what you do and how it benefits you and the others.  Examples of the benefits of our job are: it feeds our family, increases our skill level, service to society and putting our talent into good use.