Life and Leadership Topics - Dr. Houston and Clint Herndon

When you're happy at work, you can feel more motivated and productive. It's important to be happy with your job. On this week's episode, Clint and Parker discuss "10 Tips to Finding a Job You Love."

(1) Once your income is good enough, don't keep using it as the only standard for taking jobs. Just because you increase your income doesn't mean that it will also increase your happiness. Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University who is also a New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including "So Good They Can't Ignore You," stated, "Sometimes you have to turn down promotions to maintain control." That has been some of the most useful advice.

(2) Find out about potential bosses before you take a job. Leadership expert John Maxwell says you have two choices if you are already working for a difficult boss—find a way to support them—or leave.

(3) Meet your future team before taking a job. Jim Rohn also famously said— "You are the average of the top five people you spend the most time with." And we spend an awful lot of time with our coworkers.

(4) Find ways to apply your life purpose and values to your work. You may only need to change your perspective and not necessarily change your job. Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

(5) Know your strengths and how you can apply them. According to Dr. Tom Stanley, who spent his life researching millionaires, you are also much more likely to increase your income when you do something you love. People who love what they do will naturally persist longer and harder than those who hate what they do.

(6) Maybe you need to change your mindset instead of changing jobs. Yale psychologist, Amy Wrzesniewski, found that people view their work as a job, a career, or a calling. And this can have a huge influence on how you feel about your work.

(7) Does the job take you where you want to go in the long run? Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward. Look ahead to what you want your life to look like in 10, 15, 20 years.

(8) Ask your boss to change part of the job to match your interests. This is a common organizational term called job crafting.

(9) Stop looking for the perfect job. Everything has its trade-offs. You're always going to have pros and cons. So maybe you need to look for an 80% good enough job and stick with that and not keep searching.

(10) Don't be a victim, be the author of your life. It can be easy to blame your boss or organization, but the fact is, you are making a choice to be where you are.

To learn more about this topic, check out Dr. Parker Houston's blog on "Happy at Work - 10 Tips For Finding a Job You Love."

If this episode resonated with you today, please subscribe, share it with a friend and leave us a review. You can find us on Next Peak Podcast. If you want to connect with Dr. Parker Houston, you can find him at LeadYouFirst. Sign up for his weekly blog to receive some research-based tools that will help you transform your work and your life.

Until next week, keep climbing your next peak.

Perfectionists often postpone big things in an attempt to avoid mistakes or embarrassment, but this strategy can often be very detrimental.

Not everything in every area or every decision has to be an A+. In some areas of life, C's are okay. When we are struggling with perfectionism, we tend to let that infiltrate all areas of our life. We often think that everything we do has to be perfect. It creates pressure on our life that not only does our work have to be perfect, but our kids have to be perfect. Our marriage has to be perfect. Our yard has to be perfect. Our house has to be perfect and so on. It seeps into every area of life. However, in all honesty, no one can obtain that. It's not possible. None of us are perfect. We don't have enough resources or enough time. We are not God.

Done is better than perfect! Here are six steps to help you complete your tasks without being perfect:

(1) Just start. Build up the positive momentum.
(2) Your first version is never going to be your best work.
(3) Not everything in every area or every decision has to be an A-plus.
(4) Perfect doesn't even exist.
(5) Get feedback as early as possible.
(6) You gain confidence and self-respect when you finish things. Confidence and self-respect come from completing something.

The idea is that whatever your theory is, whatever your work is, it is imperfect. It may get expanded upon, but you're laying a foundation.

Finish something this week or month that you have been working on too long. Nothing takes up mental bandwidth and causes distress, like an unfinished project you keep working on. Give yourself the gift of completion! Dr. Parker Houston wrote a similar blog called "Perfectionism, The Secret Theif of Dreams."

If this episode resonated with you today, please subscribe, share it with a friend and leave us a review. You can find us on www.nextpeakpodcast.com. If you want to connect with Dr. Parker Houston, you can find him at www.leadyoufirst.com. Sign up for his weekly blog to receive some research-based tools that will help you transform your work and your life.

Until next week, keep climbing your next peak.