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21 " A few years ago, I started to read studies showing that people who expressed more extroversion had higher overall wellbeing. This did not surprise me, as all my research has shown that daily social interactions are the single best predictor of happiness....I’ve learned this lesson regarding my own work as I’ve researched this book, and I have become committed to pushing myself out of my [introverted] personality’s comfort zone. "
― Tom Rath , Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute To The World
22 " Instead of following your passion find your greatest contribution. "
23 " The time to be asking tough questions about whether you can make your current job into a sustainable worklife is as early as possible. Start with a very basic question: Who can, does, or will eventually benefit from my efforts? See if you can answer with the names of actual people, not abstract groups....A commonality I have observed, across professions, is that your contributions come into clearest view as you get closer to the beneficiaries of your work. The more you can learn about a person who directly benefits from your time and effort, the more motivation you will have to improve that person's life in the future. "
24 " And all of the self-awareness in the world can quickly go to waste if you fail to keep learning about what the world needs from you and how you can best serve others. "
― Tom Rath , Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without
25 " Even when money and your finances are an acute priority, it literally pays to focus on the value you're bringing to others. When researchers followed a longitudinal sample of 4660 people over nine years, they found that having a sense of purpose in the first year of the study (based on a standard assessment of purpose in life) was associated with higher levels of both income and net worth over time. What's more, even when they controlled for other variables like life satisfaction and socioeconomic status, people with a sense of purpose at at work also had significantly higher incomes at the end of those nine years. "
26 " ...we must find ways to celebrate people's lives and contributions while while they are still alive. We need far more celebrations of life . . . even before people know they are dying. "
27 " . Much as an organization is unlikely to invest millions of dollars in a product that has a small chance of serving many customers, you don’t want to devote thousands of hours of your learning and development time to an area for which there is little demand from your employer or community.This is one of the critiques of the “follow your passion” advice — that it presumes you are at the center of the world, and pursuing your own joy (not service of others) is the objective. I have found that those who leave a lasting mark on the world, in contrast, are always asking what they can give.Exploring specific actions to take, starting with this question, allows you to continually redirect your talents to what's needed most in the social circles close to you. "
28 " A growing body of evidence suggests that the single greatest driver of both achievement and well-being is understanding how your daily efforts enhance the life of others…the defining of a meaningful life are ‘connecting and contributing to something beyond the self'. "
29 " You can begin by connecting your daily efforts to they way they contribute to specific people's lives — connecting what you do with who your work serves....My takeaway from all this research is that people experience a far greater sense of belonging and more sustainable well-being when they connect their efforts in the moment with a larger influence on others. "
30 " Instead of the sterile language of resumes, we need a language for contributions that captures the humanity of what we do—that expresses how we draw on our human talents to make contributions to people, not just to companies. "
31 " Research has also shown that we can deliberately push the boundaries of our personality, and that doing so doesn't take all that long. A review of 207 studies found that interventions designed to change specific personality traits were associated with marked changes that took five to six months, on average, to take hold.In short, there is no good reason to believe you're simply stuck in a role that you've come to realize doesn't suit you. There is also no good reason to hold back from pushing yourself to move into a career you think you'd find more fulfilling but worry you may not have the right personality for. "
― Tom Rath , The Rechargeables: Eat Move Sleep
32 " Once someone tells me their functional position, I, somewhat naïvely, probe a bit deeper. I ask, “So what does that mean a typical day looks like ... what do you spend the most time doing?” This is where I get into the far more interesting and revealing parts of each person’s story.... asking someone to reconstruct yesterday is a better lens into their happiness than simply asking them if they are happy overall. "
33 " From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths. "
― Tom Rath , Strengths Finder 2.0
34 " When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the "You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be" maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are. "
35 " Talent (a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving) × Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base) = Strength (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance) "
36 " Every hour you spend on your rear end ... saps your energy and ruins your health. "
― Tom Rath , Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes
37 " If you want to improve your life and the lives of those around you, you must take action. "
― Tom Rath
38 " You cannot be anything you want to be — but you can be a lot more of who you already are. "
39 " It appears that the epidemic of active disengagement we see in workplaces every day could be a curable disease…if we can help the people around us develop their strengths. "
40 " Instead of celebrating what makes each child unique, most parents push their children to "fit in" so that they don't "stick out." This unwittingly stomps out individuality and encourages conformity, despite these parents' good intentions "
― Tom Rath , How Full Is Your Bucket?