How We’re Wired From the Factory…

While I never played baseball beyond farm league, I did engage in beer league softball for an occasional tournament and with an actual team one fall season in my late teens and just barely into my twenties. I won’t elaborate on the primary appeal that had, I’ll stick to the actual game itself. I was never the fastest on any team I played for but I got on base consistently and usually didn’t stop running until I crossed the plate or was thrown out. Like so many other things I had done to that point, I was one of the youngest on those teams and did all I possibly could to produce results that matched or exceeded the older and more experienced (read: skilled) players. Since I had nearly no skill whatsoever, I attempted to compensate with sheer force - like trying to turn every single into a triple by doing anything I could to make someone drop the ball or by hitting a homerun. By the time I could legally participate in the extracurricular activities involved in those leagues, I could bench press close to 300 pounds but for whatever reason I rarely hit the stupid ball out of the infield, which made getting past first base a feat of its own… That was so embarrassing! When the last bunch of guys I attempted playing on a team with were significantly older and way too serious about the actual games, I decided to lay that childhood dream to rest completely.

All that said, I had never really put a lot of time into any sport so it wasn’t all that disheartening to move on. What I had done quite a bit of to that point though was work! And in every kind of work I had done, starting with mowing yards, cutting firewood, or carpentering, working harder than most anyone else around me led to producing comparable results - even when I was younger, smaller, and far less skilled than everyone else I was working with. Interestingly enough, I never cared much about getting a pat on the back or being recognized in front of the group; I felt like the results were enough. And while I struggled to get great results in farm league baseball or beer league softball, that drive and work ethic played a critical part in getting some solid results in just about every job I’ve ever had. But being able to do something well and finding fulfillment in that don’t necessarily go hand in hand…

Earlier, I shared how burnt out I felt the last few months of my final full time position, and looking for a tall bridge of heavy traffic (not really…). I had become pretty good at juggling all the tasks involved in the role and I was able to keep up with a fairly full to-do list. The challenge was that most of those to-do items were more about complying with regulations than getting results. For me at the time, and at any time for that matter, doing a task for the sake of complying just wasn’t something that gave me purpose! During those same few months, I was working as many hours in our own business - completely outside the hours I worked for that company - and don’t remember the slightest bit of fatigue. Looking back on that, it shows me the power of having a clear purpose.

The key for each of us really lies in understanding how we’re wired from the factory so we’ve got a reasonable shot at connecting the things we’re responsible for doing to a purpose that keeps us fulfilled. When I began studying The Model of Human Behavior, I not only learned a framework for why I enjoyed some things so much but others seemed to suck the life out of me, I was able to develop a foundation for connecting nearly anything I take part in directly to a clear purpose that’s meaningful to me - and that’s what we’ll look at in detail next!