Be Selfish and Change the World

I want to talk a little bit today about being selfish in regards to career development. See, we are basically trained at an early age to focus on external factors to motivate us. So it starts when we're focusing in our grades. Then we got to go to a good school, get a good job. We get in that job, and we want to have a certain job title. We seek promotions and raises. Maybe eventually we measure our success by our number of direct reports or the size of the budget we manage. But all of these things are external motivators, and eventually those fall short. We hit the end of where external motivators really do it for us, and we become burned out, unfulfilled, and unsatisfied. I know, I've been there. And if you feel this way, you're not alone. According to a 2020 Conference Board report, only 33% of U.S. workers are satisfied. And globally, Gallup found the same thing. It was even worse. 85% of employees are disengaged. Being selfish is the idea that we look inward and understand ourselves, to find what we want and how we can implement those desires for ourselves. I use the analogy of tides, like ocean tides and a boat being on the ocean. The boat is carried around by the tides, just drifting along. And if it wants to steady itself against the tides, it has to throw at an anchor. Well, in this analogy, the tides are all the external factors that go toward supporting career development. The boat is you. You're kind of adrift, going along with whatever the tide direction goes. And so when you start being selfish, it's you throwing an anchor out, taking some action. Now, here in Alaska, we have really big tide swings, some of the biggest in the world. We can have big negative tides and big positive tides. And so if you are going to anchor up and protect yourself from drifting with the tides, you need a big anchor. Sometimes, you know, we'll throw out an anchor and it'll kind of slow us down a little bit, but it won't hold against the tides. When you are selfish, it's you putting into practice things that you think are going to fulfill you. And that's like throwing out your anchor. Sometimes you don't know if that anchor is big enough. You know, if you're in a little riverboat and you have a little river anchor have. And you throw that out in an Alaskan tide, it's not going to hold. It might slow you down a little bit. Sometimes the tides are just really big. You know, when we have those big tidal shifts, even a. Even a weighty anchor isn't going to hold you against the tide. That's not too different than what happens in our career. You know, you might throw out a little anchor and say, well, this is kind of a direction I want to start moving in my career. And then along comes a big promotion opportunity or advancement or a raise, something that sets you adrift again and you're back floating with the tides. That's what being selfish is about. Learning about ourselves, putting into practice, throwing out our anchor, seeing if it sticks, and seeing if that's even where we want to anchor up. Sometimes it's okay to pull up our anchor and drift around a little bit more and see if a different bay would be a good place to stay. Being selfish, though, is the way that you can become more fulfilled at work. It's the way you can become more engaged in what you do. It is good for you personally, it is good for your long term career development. I believe it is good for businesses and organizations because you will be more engaged and more committed to long, long term career development. And I believe that when we start becoming more fulfilled and engaged at work because we're internally motivated, it will actually improve our relationships around us, with our coworkers, with our friends and with our family. So being selfish might actually be the way you can change the world.