Scott H Young

How much do you enjoy what you do? Not just your work, but all the activities you spend time on. I think genuine enjoyment comes from something other than a payoff. And if you strip away all the little payoffs from what you do, you’re left with the joy it brings you.

Here are some thoughts to consider:

Would you still do it if…

• You did it for free?
• You couldn’t add it to a resume?
• You couldn’t tell your friends you did it?
• You weren’t thanked or appreciated for it?
• Other people didn’t understand why it’s important?
• You couldn’t tell whether you were successful at it?
• You couldn’t use it to reach another goal?
• You couldn’t save your work?
• You can’t get feedback about it?
• Other people told you they didn’t like it?
• You had to undo everything, once you had finished?
• You couldn’t teach anyone else how to do it?
• You had to keep it a secret?
• You had to pay to do it?

I think if you honestly went through the activities you spend time on, few of them could pass all of those tests. And I doubt most people feel their work activities would pass even half of these standards.

Seeking Genuine Enjoyment

The point of my little thought experiment is that genuine enjoyment is relatively rare. It’s difficult to find because the layers of social expectations, money and necessity take a higher priority. As a result, that core of actually enjoying the activity is lost.

I feel it’s important to try to capture as much of that genuine enjoyment as possible. Untainted by the influences of pride, money or social value, this means pursuing the simple enjoyment from activities.

Simple Enjoyment and Quality

I think it’s easy to equate genuine enjoyment with pleasures. If I enjoy eating a pound of chocolate even though it doesn’t help me in any monetary or social way, I don’t feel that is because eating mounds of junk food is some measure of genuine enjoyment.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about arete as an alternative view on the meaning of life. The idea is that arete, which basically means quality or excellence, could be the basis of what to strive for in life. I think the model of arete can also be applied here.

The real goal, I feel, is to look for the area where genuine enjoyment and arete overlap. This is where you are enjoying the activity, because of the activity and not because of the payoff. On top of that, the activity has some form of excellence you are focusing on or trying to bring out.

A Genuine Enjoyment Mini-Manifesto: Doing Things to Do Them

I think it’s easy to become several steps removed from genuine enjoyment. We form plans and goals to reach the point where we can enjoy what we do. As a result, much of our lives are wasted on activities so far removed from genuine enjoyment, we don’t even know what it looks like.

I’d like to propose a counter idea, do things to do them. Your first priority should be to find that nugget of genuine enjoyment in an activity before you commit to it.

You may also want to consider the exception that what you do should have some form of excellence or quality. So a rewording of the mantra might be: “Do things to do them, and do them with arete.”

Applying the Mantra

I’m certainly not perfect in following this rule. I spend time on activities that wouldn’t pass more than a couple of the questions I posed at the start of this essay. Homework assignments I finish because I need to. Articles I squeeze out to fill my established quota. Exercise I do to stay in shape.

But I have been striving to apply the “do things to do them” mantra more. I’ve joined my faculty’s student council not for the resume boosting (I don’t plan on getting a job) or for the networking (if I did, it probably wouldn’t be here) or for the money (the position is volunteer), but for the genuine enjoyment of something new, fun and challenging. I’ve also been trying to apply this rule more in my daily life, trying to look for the genuine enjoyment in things instead of just the payoff.

When you think about it, isn’t a genuine feeling of enjoyment the end motivation for everything you do? Why not cut out the middle-man and do things to do them now, instead of finding that quality later?

It’s nearing the end of the school year. And for many new graduates, the stress of trying to pass final exams will be replaced by an even bigger worry: figuring out what to do after getting their degree.

I’m not graduating yet, but I think this post-grad crisis represents a more general problem all of us will have to face. That problem is finding an exit strategy. Figuring out what to do once you’ve won the major battles. And while winning the war may seem to be the hard part, you only need to turn on the news to see that this isn’t always the case.

What is an Exit Strategy?

It’s important to have a plan after your plan is finished. Your exit strategy doesn’t need to be completely detailed, but it should at least answer the question of, “What now?”

Let’s look at a few goals you could potentially have:

• Earn $100k/year.
• Lose 20lbs.
• Graduate with my MBA.
• Learn Spanish.

All of these are fine, but they leave a huge blank after you reach them. Here are those same goals, with a quick exit-strategy written afterwards:

• Earn $100k/year. Then switch to sustaining my income while working less, to devote more time to my family.
• Lose 20lbs. Then tweak my diet to keep the weight off permanently.
• Graduate with my MBA. Then apply for a promotion at my current job.
• Learn Spanish. Then travel to Spain.

You don’t need a 12-page document outlining your exit strategy. But as long as you know the next step, you will keep yourself moving forward.

Why is an Exit Strategy Crucial?

When you set an ambitious, life-changing goal (getting a degree, radically boosting your income, losing a lot of weight) it’s easy to forget about an exit strategy. However, if you don’t spend the time figuring out the plan after your plan, you can make key mistakes:

Exit Plan Mistake #1 - Getting Caught on the Infinite Treadmill

There is a great quote by Henry Ford that sums up this mistake perfectly. I couldn’t find the original, so I’ll paraphrase:

A reporter asked Henry Ford, after he was one of the wealthiest men in the world, when he would have enough money to be happy. Ford responded, “another three or four million, I think.”

The “infinite treadmill” happens when one goal is replaced by a more ambitious one. You might double your income, but after doing so, feel like you need to double it again. You might drop 25 lbs to get to a healthy weight level, and feel like starving yourself to drop another 25.

The problem here isn’t continually setting bigger and better goals. It’s in forgetting you’re on a treadmill. By all means, if you enjoy your work and want to set an even more ambitious goal, that’s great. But if you allow yourself to get caught on the treadmill, you might end up working harder and harder for the illusion that one day you will get to stop.

Although I’m far from being rich, I’ve set out how I want my focus to shift at different levels of income. This will help me keep things in perspective so I don’t chronically chase a bigger paycheck if other areas of my life are suffering.

Exit Strategy Mistake #2 - Falling Off the Wagon

This happens when you set a goal that isn’t going to last. Going on an extreme diet to lose 25 lbs and then having it all come back three months later. Here, an exit strategy would have been helpful for keeping you on the wagon after you reach your milestone.

Here’s another article I wrote about what to do when you fall off the wagon, and how to climb back on. You can add “have an exit strategy” to that list of tips.

Exit Strategy Mistake #3 - The Empty Celebration

After you finish a big project, you are probably incredibly exited. For a day or two. Then you’re bored again. This is the “empty celebration syndrome” where reaching a big goal has surprisingly few lasting effects on your happiness. Worse, when you’ve finished, you may feel completely empty, as the driving force for getting up in the morning is gone.

Having an exit strategy solves this problem too. If you know what the next challenge is going to be before you finish, you avoid the potential boredom of success.

What Makes a Good Exit Strategy?

Here are a few ideas I’ve tried to incorporate into my own exit strategies:

1. Keep it Short. An exit strategy should describe what to do next, not what to do with the rest of your life.
2. Keep it Specific. Your exit strategy should try to combat one of the three mistakes I mentioned above.
3. Plan it Early. The time to begin the job hunt isn’t the day after you receive your diploma. If you have a rough sketch of your exit plan months or years ahead of time, you can smoothly transition.

What are some of the goals you are working on right now? Does it make sense to plan an exit strategy for them? If so, what would it be?