In today's episode, we discuss the difficulty of finding your personal purpose, and the tension we can all feel when we can't put our finger on our purpose.
In today's episode, we discuss the difficulty of finding your personal purpose, and the tension we can all feel when we can't put our finger on our purpose.
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Thank you. It feels like you're focusing in on the short term and anything larger, anything with a sufficient degree of perspective is kind of cannibalizing on that clarity. In today's episode, I want to talk a little bit more about seeking your purpose as a developer and demystify it a little bit, give you some practical ways to uncover something that's kind of hidden inside of you. But hopefully we can avoid the kind of motivational speaker tropes as we go down this path together. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. You're listening to Developer Tea. And we've already talked a little bit about the purpose of this show. So I want to dive straight in and give you some practical advice. And this is the first of three things that we're going to talk about today in ways, practical ways that you can kind of dig up some of that internal purpose that may otherwise be eluding you. And the theme of these three things you'll notice is that you have to look at the evidence of your own behaviors rather than trying to, you know, cobble together some kind of formulation that you think approximates what you value. Instead, look at your own behaviors. And the first behavior that I want you to pay attention to the most is look at the periods of your life where big change occurred. And bonus. If you can ask other people to give you insight into how you acted, what they noticed about you during the periods of change, that's going to give you a better view from the outside looking in of the things that you might value that you don't even realize that you value. So what kind of changes are we talking about? Well, it doesn't just have to be work changes. You can think back to times when you were even when you were much younger. If you moved, if your family had to pick up and move from one state or one country to another. There's some other more obvious life events that occur like moving out of your parents' home or even more difficult transitions like going through a breakup or some serious loss in your life. These are the kinds of kind of stressful transitions, periods where you have to make a lot of decisions that you can investigate. Other ones might be having a child or, of course, switching jobs. And what you want to pay attention to when you look at these transition periods is what were the types of criteria that you used to make decisions? And how did you respond to stress? How did you recover from difficult scenarios? What were the kinds of people that you wanted to spend your time with? And if you were taken away from your work. Or if you were taken away from an environment, was there a sense that you wanted to return to it? These are the kinds of things that might point to the values that you hold. Of course, this isn't a fail proof thing. Just because you used a particular criteria when you were stressed doesn't mean that that's indicative of your deep held values. But it can certainly be instructive. We're going to talk about two more practical ways to dig up your values. Try to find or at least approximate, get closer to that purpose that's kind of hidden inside. Right after we talk about today's sponsor, Git Prime. Git Prime is promoting a new book called 20 Patterns to Watch For in Engineering Teams. It's a digital book, but they'll also send you a printed copy. If you come through. Through the podcast link, which is gitprime.com slash 20 patterns. That's a gitprime as in gitprime.com slash 20 patterns to get the book. If you've ever noticed how a really high functioning engineering manager works. They're the people on the team that are often the best at debugging issues. And it's not just simple issues or even issues just in code. It's also problems at the team level. The great engineering manager is actually a systems manager. They're able to see into systems and find the things that are affecting those systems. And systems managers know how to look for patterns. They know how to evaluate a situation that is similar to one that they've seen in the past. And they understand that similar systems tend to have similar patterns. So that's what this book is about. It's outlining 20 patterns. That you should be on the lookout for in your team. This helps you actually use data to understand your team a little bit better. And to bring out some of those problems so that you are building it for the long term. You're taking the most advantage of the talent that's on your team. And you're setting yourself up for that long term success. Go and check it out. gitprime.com slash 20 patterns. Thanks again to GitPrime for sponsoring today's episode. So we're talking about very. Straightforward practical ways. That you can start to uncover. Your passions and your purpose. As a developer. This is difficult to do because. It's a soft thing. It's not easy to nail down. Not everyone is able to immediately put their finger on it. And even once you do feel like you have a pretty good sense of what your purpose or your passion is. It may change in some way. You may feel like it's been challenged. You may even feel like. You didn't really. Get there all the way. That you accepted something. As your purpose in your career. That you don't really actually identify with. And I want to be the first to tell you. That it's okay. That it's okay that you're not certain. About everything that you want in your career. And it's also. Imperative that you continue this work. Finding your purpose. Finding your passion. Finding the things that you care about. Refining your values as an engineer. These are all. Things. That are ongoing. You don't ever arrive. You don't ever finish. This internal work that you're doing. So we've already covered the first practical. Kind of piece of advice. That is to pay attention. Pay close attention. To the big transitions in your life. The second technique is actually kind of an exercise. Write down a list. Of two to three things. That you're very good at. That you also enjoy. And then also a list of two to three things. That you're very good at. But that you don't enjoy. These are things that you may be doing. In your job now. These are things that you might have done. In a previous job. That either you really enjoy. You want to keep on doing them. You're good at them. And you seem to enjoy them. Or things that you're good at. But you don't really want to do them again. You want to leave them in the past. You don't really want to participate. In that particular area. In those particular strengths anymore. And here's the reality. It's easy to get caught up. In this kind of trap of excellence. We try to trick ourselves. That if we're really good at something. And other people appreciate us doing it. That that's the reward. That we're looking for. That we're looking for the cultural meaning. In our work. Simply being. That the work was valuable. In some way. But this can be really confusing. And it can be really exhausting. Because the work itself. Is not really rewarding. And so most of the time. When you're actually working. You may not really be enjoying it. Try to separate. Your enjoyment of the activity that you do. From the enjoyment of the success. Of that activity. This is harder to do for some people. Than it is for others. Some people get more fulfillment. Out of the appreciation that they receive. From others. But this is a complex problem for everyone. Because it's not always immediately apparent. Why we enjoy doing it. We may feel some pressure. To do only the things. That we're really good at doing. And discard everything else. Okay. The third and final practical. Piece of advice that I have for you. Is that when you can't. Nail down your purpose. You can start. With imprecise measurements. We've all heard about. The difference between. Accuracy and precision. Accuracy. Is correctness. Imagine that your purpose. Is the bullseye. And your hope. Is that you. Can get all of the darts. Landing directly on that bullseye. Now it's possible. That you can hone in. On a very specific point. That is not the bullseye. In fact it may be. Totally off. The dartboard altogether. This is a picture. Of being very precise. But totally inaccurate. What you care about more. When you're talking about purpose. Is accuracy. Rather than precision. Or perhaps a better way to say it is. Accuracy and then precision. You care about getting the darts. On the board first. And then refining. Those down towards the bullseye. When you think about your purpose. It's okay to be. Somewhat vague. But it's less okay. To be wrong. If you're having difficulty. With finding. Those things that ring true. To you about your purpose. You can start. With a broader question. This idea is that you're not throwing. The dart on the opposite wall. From the dartboard. You're trying to get those. Those kind of concepts. Honed in at least to the general direction. So you might ask questions. Like what things do I not. Value. What is the opposite. Of my purpose. What is something that I would never. Be able to call my purpose. Often it's easier to answer questions. About your values. By defining what they are not. And this is true for many questions. That we face in our careers. It's easier to ask the opposite question. Or what you might call. The white space question. The inverse question. And what you're doing. Is you're identifying the walls. That you don't want to throw. Those darts onto. Eventually you can start to identify. The place that you do. Want to throw the dart. But this is not easy to do. It's not as easy as just. Looking for the dartboard. It's more like if you were blindfolded. And dizzy. The truth is. It might feel that way. For a long time. These concepts. The idea of purpose. And passion. And values. They all sound. Fluffy. They sound difficult to define. They may even sound fake to you. It may not really ring true. To you. For a long time in your career. Let me be the first person to tell you. That that's pretty normal. That it's okay to not really know. And it's okay that. You have only a vague idea. Or no idea at all. About what your purpose is. My hope is to. Encourage you. To find. Ways. Of exploring this question. Of looking at your career. As an opportunity. For deeper fulfillment. As an engineer. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Developer Tea. A huge thank you. To today's awesome sponsor. Get Prime. Head over to getprime.com. Slash. 20 patterns. That's gitprime.com. Slash. Two zero patterns. To learn about the patterns of a great engineering team. Thank you so much for listening. To today's episode. If you enjoyed this episode. If it was useful to you. If you feel like you took something positive away from this. I encourage you to subscribe. And whatever podcasting app you're currently using. And another thing that we don't often ask for. But I'm going to ask for today. Is leave a review in iTunes. This is hugely helpful. To spread the show on iTunes. But also. It's incredibly helpful for other developers. As they search for shows on iTunes. They can read your review. And decide whether or not. They think developer tea is for them. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time. Enjoy your tea.