The five things that define your work

Ever since I burned the fuck out, I’ve been looking at ways to improve my life. I’ve changed how I think about the future and how I approach purpose.

Then, you know, news hits. I start to feel rudderless again. Get a bit of the ol’ ennui.

That’s when I like to remind myself that I still have choices to make. I can still be deliberate about my life.

5 choices you get to make about your life

In his book We are the economy: the Buddhist way of work, consumption, and money, the German business coach Kai Romhardt argues that we have more ways to live and work deliberately than we realise.

To do so, he spells out the 5 choices we can make to define what we do:

1. Choose an ethical framework. Do I understand the ethical principles that guide me? How do I make ethical decisions?
2. Choose a profession. Have I chosen the right livelihood? Why do I do the work I do? Where does my money come from?
3. Choose an environment. Where do I work? Who can shape me? Who’s allowed to do so? Where does my energy go? Our environment shapes us more than we realise – is mine working for me?
4. Choose how you’re evaluated. What standards of judgement do I agree to? Who can make those judgments? How do I assess myself?
5. Choose a financial framework. How much money do I need? What lifestyle is right for me?

Each choice is a chance to keep things as practical and tangible as possible. The questions push you towards identifying what works, what doesn’t and what you can do about it.

From me, that means a lot of different things.

From an ethical point of view, I’m a vegetarian and I try to shop local (or from Australian-based brands) whenever I can. I don’t love where my money comes from but I try to redirect some of it to worthwhile causes. My environment wasn’t working for me or my family so we sold our house and we’re moving into a much smaller apartment in a place that suits us better.

All those choices came from reflecting on what I want and how I want to live. But it’s not a static thing. You need to stay open to change.

Keep making choices

After writing about staring down the things we avoid, I realised how much inertia I felt about politics (both in Australia and in the world at large). So I reflected on my work and the skills I have and realised, well, I can apply those to politics pretty well.

I found a political party that matches my ethical framework well enough. I signed up. The next members meeting is in a few days. Let’s see what I can do.

It may come to nothing and that’s fine. The point isn’t perfection or making one change and calling it a day. You reflect, make a choice, take action, repeat until you don’t get to make any more choices..

You can make these choices consciously or unconsciously. The former is always better. If you reflect on your choices, you can see how much power you have to define your days. You start recognising the assumptions you make.

Our lives are always changing. Which, you know, exhausting. But those changes mean we can renew our lives whenever we want to.

The 30-second action plan

1. Grab a notebook. Or open your note app of choice.
2. Run through the 5 flavours of choice you get to make. Don’t spend too much time on it – you’re just brain-dumping things to get them out of your head and onto paper.
3. Book a time with yourself to go through things in more detail. Reflect on what’s working and what isn’t. Find someone to talk about it all, if you can. It helps to bounce things around.
4. Identify one or two concrete actions you can take. Keep them realistic and tangible; if you can, keep them local. Prioritise connecting with people that you like.