"Do what you must" or "Whom I definitely do not want to be in 50 years"

Many of you may have been visited by the seditious thought of “But do I do that, what should I do?”. Are you on the right path? Do you really spend the time allotted to you on the planet for the necessary and significant things? Is it worth doing what you do? How to find your destination and not regret the wasted years? Let us allow ourselves to surrender to philosophy in order to once again comprehend our purpose.

The problem indicated in the title, I'm sure, was visited by more than one generation of talented people. And why necessarily talented? Even just those who want to achieve something in life. Immediately make a reservation, I am writing this text under the impression of the article “You and Your Work”, which has been enduring for more than a week.
Yes, indeed, I would like to be remembered for the work that I do. But do we always do what we need? How to spend your time with maximum benefit? Treatises on project management are full of slogans about the need to improve labor efficiency and other “nonsense” (everyone understands of course that this is not nonsense, but they are afraid to say it out loud). At the same time, efficiency is an external (objective) manifestation, a result divided by the cost of its achievement. And what about the subjective assessment of a man of his labor? What if the subjective costs and the subjective result do not coincide with the external assessments of the work done by the person on the part of other people. And the imbalance here can be both in that, and in other party. For example, some kind of guru might consider his expenses as insignificant, actually doing something incredible from the point of view of others. Or on the contrary, an employee who does not possess outstanding abilities, having done something incredible (from his own point of view) and really overpowered himself with something, jumping above his head, may, having received not very high marks from others, simply lose motivation and desire do something in the future. I am sure that there are ways to avoid this, i.e. to reach a state in which you will be at the same time as efficient as possible both from the internal (subjective) and from the external (objective) point of view.

Self motivation

Here I would like to discuss how a personal (subjective) assessment of the importance and usefulness of work performed by a particular person affects his (self) motivation. We are all engaged in certain projects. Each of us has some personal opinion about the real usefulness of these projects for other people. Surely many of you would prefer to work on a project that they subjectively assess as more useful and important for humanity, perhaps even if they pay more for a less important project (holivar on this topic is possible). I do not mean that you need to work on some important projects for free, I just mean that the real usefulness of the project from the point of view of the participant’s own is a very, very serious motivator, perhaps even more serious than material rewards. This thought was even more firmly established in my head amid the search for a new employee to participate in one of our projects. The specificity of this project is such that it is quite difficult for a new employee to understand his real usefulness and level of significance for other people without having plunged into the project, although in fact they are very high both from the point of view of people already participating in the project and from the point of view of clients ( final product consumers). I think many managers face this problem, because in the best way to present the project to the applicant in the case of complex or specific projects is quite a difficult task. In this case, increasing the level of intrinsic motivation of a new employee becomes a very difficult task for the manager if the employee’s initial level of interest is not enough.
So how to make it so that every day ends with absolute certainty that you have done the most that you could? I believe that for this, first of all, you need to concentrate on two things: 1) what are you doing (what is your job) and 2) for whom are you doing this.
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What are you doing?

If a person knows the answer to this question, then his internal goals are consistent with external ones. In this local context, by internal goals, I mean what each person personally wants to achieve, and by external goals, what results others expect from a person. For example, if the answer to the question “what do you do” is “I earn money”, it is less important what kind of work you are doing to achieve this goal, if only it is well paid (this approach is consistent with your internal goals - you will get good reward, and with external - the project will be made, no matter how strange it may be). If the answer is “I am making a cool product”, then be kind to really meet this goal, do not write govnokod and do not allow it to do to others. A rather serious problem is when a person answers the first question “I do what they ask of me,” because This means that he either has no internal goals, or they strongly differ from external ones, which negatively affects the quality and effectiveness of such an employee.
I want to urge everyone: first of all, do what you like and what is consistent with your internal goals, because only great things can be done. Doing something that you don’t like, out of wanting to achieve only external (“alien”) goals can sometimes be effective in terms of the project and other people evaluating the results of your work, but this can hardly last for a long time (without a high level of self-motivation you just burn out or become lazy), such work will not bring you satisfaction in the long run. I look with horror at the mood of many representatives of the IT industry, expressed in lean individuals, inflated self-esteem and statements like “I’m doing something, the salary is good enough if I go somewhere else”. Have global corporations been created with such sentiments? Did engineers who design the new model of the new Lamborghini, the electronics engineers, who are developing the new Intel processor, have this attitude among the engineers who are designing the next model of Boeing? Just think: in the world every day a great many people create incredible things! Why don't you want to be among them? Are you really ready to waste your life, your abilities, your inner “spark” for nothing, for the sake of [often imaginary] reliability, self-insurance, stability, complete confidence in the future? Are you ready to take the risk and do something incredible right now? What is in your way? Doubt, lack of self-confidence, unwillingness to leave the comfort zone are all imaginary obstacles, all you have to do is change your point of view only to get rid of them.

Returning to the age of 50 at the beginning of the article. It would seem where does 50? It seems to me that 50 years is the age when it is late to start self-realization. At least some achievements need to be achieved earlier. If you speak without embellishment, 50 years old is that age when there is still a lot of strength, and it’s too late to look for them to apply. Late to master a new profession, it is too late to change your attitude towards life. At 50, it makes sense to look at what has been done, to comprehend it and move on, but hardly “fifty” is a good time to start the journey (although all of this is a topic for another holivar, since readers might bring counter-examples , when and at the age of 50 people found themselves, while not achieving anything at an earlier age). Imagine a programmer developer who is 50 years old and who wants to get a new job. To win the competition among other, younger applicants, he must have incredible qualities: to have very rich experience in various fields, to be a guru of some modern technology, to have the skills of a manager or architect, because all other things being equal, preference will probably be given to a younger candidate. Think about it.

Concentration on goal

Suppose you have decided on what you will do or are already doing now. Found some area of ​​activity. But what if you are still not sure that this is really a matter of your life? Here many fall into the trap of doubt. Without a clear confidence in achieving the goal, many people give up, it’s impossible to do everything right, they constantly rush about trying to cling to one or the other. I think that in order to really do something, to make it so that you can understand whether it was worth doing it at all, you need to forget all doubts and fully concentrate on the matter, i.e. just do your job, do your best, do what you have to. When applying for a job in response to the question “what goals do you want to achieve when working with us, what are your plans for the next 5 years?” Many respondents answer with a doubt “well, I will work, see how it goes.” For me, this is not the option that I would like to hear. The correct answer for me would be “I will do my best to get more experience and do my job qualitatively; if it seems to me that this occupation does not suit me, I will immediately say this so that we do not waste each other’s time. ” No need to curry favor with anyone. Tell me frankly (to yourself and others): I will do only what I like and will do it at the limit of my abilities. If you do not like something, tell about it, for example, to your manager, and preferably with arguments.
I ask you, do not waste your life, your time, to do things that you don’t like or that you don’t think important: in 50 years you will definitely regret that you were engaged in them. On the contrary, having found the work to which your soul lies, apply maximum efforts to make it well. Here I would like to return to the second important point: “for whom are you doing this?”.

Who are you doing this for?

When, above, I so categorically urged me to do only what I liked, it might seem to you that I urge you to work “only for yourself” in order to achieve your own goals. But after all work is an activity aimed at meeting the needs of other people (© Wikipedia). You cannot do a good job without caring about the interests and goals of others. When doing something, always think of those for whom you are doing it. It is very important to receive feedback as often as possible: is what you are doing really important and necessary for others, are they getting the result they wanted from you? Those who watched the series " Silicon Valley " (rather stupid, but containing a certain amount of truth in the grotesque form) will surely recall the situation when some of the workers of the company "Hooli" (did not write Russian, because it turns out they stayed at work and received money, but there wasn’t any real work for them and they had to do nothing, which they suffered from psychologically. Do not allow this situation, you can fall into the trap of this imaginary comfort ("now nobody wants anything from me, so I did everything I could and I should have done"). This situation will quickly lead to your personal degradation. Instead, always think "what else can I do?". For example, think about what you will talk about if you suddenly find yourself in a Google or Microsoft interview.

So that the foregoing does not seem just a stream of consciousness, I will outline the main thoughts that I tried to convey:
1) Find the courage to do something in accordance with your internal goals, forgetting for some time about external ones. Find yourself. Find the area in which you like and in which you can express yourself. Do not do what the soul does not. Stock up enough knowledge to take the first step. Drop all doubts and make it. There is a risk here, but it is justified.
2) If you decide to do something, do it as well as possible, at your limits. Divide your time for work ("business") and rest. Do not be mercantile and do not feel sorry for yourself, this approach will pay off handsomely. If additional time is required to complete a task, find it. Petty questions about whether this time will be paid, whether you will receive a bonus for “having worked for more than 8 hours” are secondary to the business that you are doing. The fact that the matter will be done due to the fact that you give him a little more of your time is an order of magnitude more important. When you focus on the business that you like, you can no longer buy, because you decide where the limit of your efforts is, what is the quality level of the work you do, so that you yourself will not be ashamed of yourself for what you have done. If your approach is “how much I was paid, I’m working so much” just quit this job and do something else. If you feel that you can work at least 5% better than you work - change jobs. Find your limit.
3) Always get feedback about the results of your work from other people. Do not be afraid of this connection, whether it is positive or negative. Always use it for your further achievements, regarding it only as a motivator. They told you that you made a piece of shit - great, now you know how not to do it next time, i.e. do not waste your strength in vain. Feedback is the only way to understand where to go next, where to direct your development.

Regarding the question posed in the title of the article, at 50 I do n’t really want to be:
a) a person working without a clear personal goal
b) a person who performs such work for which they pay well, and not one that they like
c) a person who is not sure that the previous years of his life were spent with the greatest possible dedication.
Anticipating questions in the comments, I am now 29 years old, I do what I should and I try to follow as much as possible the approach described in the article. Probably I, like many, could work better. How can this be achieved I propose to discuss in the comments, for the sake of this I raised this topic.

Are you sure that you are doing exactly what you should? Do you make every effort to this? If not, what's stopping you? Are you still looking for yourself? 50 years just around the corner, let's start acting! All good and good luck in self-realization.