For all of life’s ‘opportunities,’ think of three words; money, skill, joy. Three guides to help decide what to take on. And when to stop.
Let’s rewind to the closing presentation at this year’s Self Publishing Show in London, where crime novelist Rachel McClean tackled the problem of burnout.
Anyone heading a small business or creative endeavor feels that drive to do everything. Miss no opportunity, do more, do it better, do it faster; keep adding, drop nothing.
It’s a recipe for creative and personal burnout, as McClean confessed.
Stepping back from running a publishing house, McClean now prioritizes projects according to these three questions:
- Will it make me money?
- Is it within my skillset?
- Will it bring me joy?
When burnout is real and the result is misery, this kind of hard-headed analysis is something we all need.
McClean’s approach is this; plot any new project on a Venn diagram. Label each of three circles money, skill, joy.
Money
Will this new project bring me financial reward? How much? Do I need it? What will it enable me to do? On the flip-side, how much will it cost in both time and monetary outlay? Is that income stream worth chasing?
Skill
What skills does it demand to implement it? Business, creative, personal? And how much time will the project eat up? Can I implement this new project successfully – considering time, cost and quality – with the skills that I have? Do I need to build new skills? Is it a skillset I even want to acquire? Can I pay someone else to bring their skills? Is it viable to do so?
Joy
How much ‘joy,’ be it personal growth, satisfaction or actual smiles and laughter will it create? For ourselves and the people around us? This is the most important. Why burden ourselves with projects that bring us no joy? That is the souless life of a corporate drone in a gray office cube. Life is short. Joy is at a premium. Yet so many of us put our health and wellbeing way down the list below joyless activities that bring only anxiety and stress. Why do these things when they bring no joy? Who are we doing them for? Focus on joy.
A new union
The intersection of those three factors on the diagram (the ‘union’) is a more or less objective guide. If the new thing generates money, using the skills available, and creates joy, by all means say yes. If not, nothing is mandatory. Some opportunities you can pass. You don’t need to do it all.
A timely revelation
Coming at the end of a conference filled with ‘opportunities,’ ‘must-haves,’ ‘essential-this,’
emerging-that,’ McClean offered a revelation.
Not all of us have the privilege of making such decisions. But many of us who do make them poorly, often without thinking at all.
McClean reminded us of the choices we have the power to make, not ruled by money, tempered by skill, in search of joy.