This morning Anita Bruzzese posted about a game her family played in the car recently, instigated by her young son, called, "Which would you rather?" The basic idea is that two alternate scenarios are posed and you choose between the two.
Some of the questions were predictably silly, but others were more serious and forced her to pause and ponder before answering. Looking at the experience, she was surprised at how much she learned about herself over the course of the game.
That got me thinking what a great self-exploration tool this could be. Simply pick two things from opposite sides of any spectrum, and ask yourself which you would rather have.
For example...
- Which would I rather have, work with a lot of flexibility or work that offers a solid structure?
- Which would I rather have, work that lets me focus deeply on one thing or work that lets me get my fingers into a broad range of things?
- Which would I rather have, work where I have a lot of quiet time to myself, or work where there is a lot of stimulus and interaction with others?"
It's not done there, though. When you pick one, follow it up with one of the most powerful questions I know..."Why?" What is it about that that is preferable? How does that make things more interesting, more energizing, easier, etc.? Why does that fit with who you are? Asking why lets you dig below the surface to really understand the preference.
The beauty of this is how simple it is to. No muss, no fuss. No soulful navel gazing. Just brainstorm a list of opposites relating to just about any aspect of work (or life in general, for that matter). Pick the one in each pair that resonates most with you and hey presto! You have a bite-sized, focused, and personally relevant piece of information about yourself that you can dig into. And once you have that focus, it's easier to go deeper.
To get an even broader, more diverse range of pairs to evaluate, try getting a small group of people together and have each of them come up with ten. And if you want to turn the self-exploration into a getting-to-know-you experiment, have everyone e-mail their answers to the others.
Have some suggestions for "which would you rather" ideas to consider? Post them in a comment. I'd love to hear them.
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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst
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