Thoughts on Work

When looking to change jobs many of us have a lot of hesitation in considering opportunities outside of our domain. I too was having a similar reluctance until I happened to read Seth Godin’s blog post (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/vwgME2z2bXI/what-are-you-good-at.html) on the difference between process and content. According to him, domain knowledge is content, which is important but can be learned; process, which is a set of “soft” skills and experiences are more valuable and harder to learn. Therefore we need to communicate our “process abilities” and become great in the processes we are already good at.

Another interesting post (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/K26DzSxVD9Y/creativity-and-stretching-the-sweatshirt.html) states that people who don’t consider themselves as the creative type, will appear as creative to most people as long as they observe creative things others have done and keep up with the state of the art.

Another post (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/-wvOE4Ut_Ok/in-the-mood.html) talks about how the missing piece in achieving something is not the knowledge; instead the problem is that we are not “in the mood” to do what is needed. I think this is yet another reminder on the importance of having the right attitude. And now that we are on the topic, Charles Swindoll’s quote is quite relevant: “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”  (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/charles_r._swindoll/)