self awareness + self management = productivity

The greatest gift from the industrial age is the freedom expressed in aligning your abilities with your purpose. This is a new choice that has only been available to the recent few previous generations. Prior to 1900, the overwhelming majority followed their family’s line of work – if they were lucky. Your farmed, because your family farmed. You were a craftsman, because your family had a history of being craftsmen. There was little choice to no choice of aligning your abilities with your purpose. Today, we find ourselves in an unprecedented change in our human condition. We have a choice, but with that choice comes the responsibility of self awareness and self management.

Do you know your strengths, weaknesses, and values well enough to align your abilities with your purpose in life and work? This is your responsibility for personal growth. Personal productivity is the result of doing what you do best, most of the time. Corporations can dilute productivity with bureaucracy that keeps people from doing what they do best. A hospital studying the productivity of nurses realized that the nurses were only nursing half the time. This same hospital quickly improved the nurse productivity by hiring clerks. Do what you do best, it’s the choice you have.