Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day

I want to know that if I lay my head down tonight and don’t wake up tomorrow, I have emptied myself of whatever creativity is lingering inside, with minimal regrets about how I spent my focus, time, and energy. This doesn’t happen by accident; it takes intentional and sustained effort.

If you approach work with the mind-set of “What can I offer?” instead of “What can I get?” it can powerfully alter the very substance of your engagement.

Making is actually doing the work. It’s creating value of any kind, including executing tasks, making sales calls, designing, writing, engaging with your direct reports, and tackling your objectives. Making is what typically comes to mind when you think of work, because it is what you’re doing when you deliver the most tangible value.

Are there issues that drive others to come to you for help, and that you seem uniquely equipped to handle, even if it’s at personal cost to you?

The most fulfilled people I’ve encountered in the marketplace approach their work, in any context, with the question “What can I add?” rather than “What can I get?” They choose worthy battles, then engage in them with everything they have.

Is there a place in your life where you are overcomplicating your work out of a desire to make what you produce appear more valuable? Is this subtle form of ego protection causing you to forfeit more valuable solutions?

Fear of harm. We make seemingly wise, but subversive pacts with ourselves to provide ourselves with what feels like safety, but in doing so we miss the whole point of life. The safety we seek is most often an illusion anyway, because true safety is rarely a viable option. Are you gravitating toward the safest option at the expense of growth?

Where are your “open loops”? These are the unfinished projects, the halfhearted efforts, or the unreconciled relationships. They are the projects that you’re afraid to say no to, but deep down you know that you can’t commit to. These must be either acted upon and made a priority, or immediately closed and put aside.

Great work requires suffering for something beyond yourself. It’s created when you bend your life around a mission and spend yourself on something you deem worthy of your best effort. What is your worthwhile cause?