A speaker argues that asking why you do your work reveals its purpose, where joy actually lives. Productivity soars when you find meaning in what you're already doing, not by chasing passion alone.
Find joy in your work. I find it makes it so much easier to be productive if I am enjoying it or if I can figure out where the joy is in what I am doing in a particular day or even a particular hour. You know, like, I appreciate sometimes there's a certain amount of toil that we go through, but I try to minimize that by asking what's the why of it, and the why of it is often where I find the joy. Now, sometimes you get advice, right? I often hear advice from successful people saying to follow your passions and do what you love and I would encourage you to instead love what you do. If you can look at where you are and find joy in it, find its meaning, its purpose, find the place where you can create mastery for yourself and be able to call your shots, that's going to be the place where you're able to create the most value for yourself, for your employer, etc. And that's going to be what moves you forward. By doing that, if you find joy in your work, you'll find that you start to do what you love as well, and that is going to make you joyful.
