If you’ve been reading Further for a while, you know that the key to living a long, happy life is to keep going and growing. You know that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.
This means, in the terminology of personality researcher Dr. Brian Little, pursuing personal projects — self-defining ventures that provide meaning to your life. It could be doing volunteer work, training for a marathon, learning a new language, or taking up a musical instrument.
When it comes to significant shifts in how we make a living, the word “reinvention” often comes up. Nowadays, you’re not only likely to have a dozen jobs over your lifetime, you’ll also likely move into one or more completely new careers.
But disruption? That’s usually viewed as something that happens to us, rather than something we do to ourselves.
Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work, wants you to think differently about personal, proactive disruption. Johnson disrupted herself, leaving her successful career as an equity analyst at Merrill Lynch to become an entrepreneur.
Part of Johnson’s argument is disrupt yourself or be involuntarily disrupted:
- “Disrupting yourself is critical to avoiding stagnation, being overtaken by low-end entrants (i.e., younger, smarter, faster workers), and fast-tracking your personal and career growth.”
The personal growth aspect of that statement merits attention. Johnson uses the metaphor of the S curve to represent the exhilaration we experience when pushing ourselves in new directions, until the point where things get really tough as we approach mastery:
- “This is the fun part of disruption, rapidly scaling to new heights of success and achievement. Eventually, you will plateau and your growth will taper off. Then it’s time to look for new ways to disrupt.”
Disrupting yourself is really just the Further philosophy applied to your economic life. Rather than think of it as a devastating reality thanks to the broader disruption happening in the world of work, why not focus instead on the fact that personal disruption is the key to becoming all that you can be — and experience happiness in the process.
- Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work
- Throw Your Life a Curve
- This 30-Day Plan Is the Secret to Disrupting Yourself
further: health
Calculated Losses
Based on data collected at the NIDDK (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) and the NIH (National Institutes of Health), this weight loss calculator factors in how your metabolism really works to predict how long it’ll take to reach a particular weight loss goal.
Precision Nutrition’s Weight Loss Calculator
Healthy Eating on the Out
After following a disciplined eating routine for all of January, it feels like one week in St. Croix just set me back a mile. That’s because I ate every meal out, and well … the discipline went right out the window.
20 Clever Tips to Eat Healthy When Eating Out
Don’t Call it a Cabbage
“Why is sauerkraut awesome, besides being delicious (in my opinion)? It’s full of probiotics! Probiotics are living organisms, like bacteria or yeast, that are believed to improve health.”
Why You Should Start Eating Sauerkraut
further: wealth
Reframe the Dream
As someone who refers to himself as unemployable, “dream job” seems like a oxymoron. But different strokes and all that, and this Fast Company article has some sage advice for an alternative to constant “grass is greener” job hopping.
How To Turn Your Current Job Into Your Dream Job
Homework
One of the historical benefits of working for yourself has been choosing to work where you want, including at home. This piece makes the case that this will become the norm for the employed as well.
Why the Future of Work Is at Home
Math For the Win
$3,064, huh? Where did that come from? Well, apparently they did the math: You’ll save $3,064 per year with these 5 wicked-smart changes. And you’ll likely be healthier, too.
further: wisdom
Mastering You
You may have heard the idea idea that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to achieve mastery in a certain field. This is equivalent to doing your activity full time for 5 years (10,000 hours = 40 hours/week x 50 weeks/year x 5 years). What if your work was on you?
10,000 Hours of Personal Growth
Should Not
Something I learned a decade ago was one of my most important lessons — “should” is a dirty word. You either want to do something (and there’s lots of reasons that “want” can manifest itself), or you think someone else wants you to.
What You Mean When You Say “I Should”
Thanks!
“I’m starting to believe that “Thank You” is the most under-appreciated and under-used phrase on the planet. It is appropriate in nearly any situation and it is a better response than most of the things we say. Let’s cover 7 common situations when we say all sorts of things, but should say “Thank You” instead.”
Make Your Life Better by Saying Thank You in These 7 Situations
__________
The paradox of going on vacation: you work like crazy to leave, and you work like crazy when you get back. St. Croix was worth it, even though I gained 5 pounds while often not wearing a shirt. Yikes.
Thank you for sharing Further with a friend:
Keep going-
Brian Clark
Further
