How to figure out what inspires you.

I looked at my coworker and I said "Oorah".  It was the best word I could think of to describe the moment. We had just both poured ourselves into the task at hand as if our lives depended on it.  We were laying out dowels for caissons.  Against all odds, we had found control points from over 50 feet away and transferred them into a future elevator core to determine where to stab eight #10 bar twenty two feet long each.  We had done this while a concrete truck was about to get hard, which would cost us not only the concrete in the truck, but also the entire caisson we had already poured half of.

The moment was a lot like the feeling you get when you win a little league game in a tournament with the teammates you fought beside all season long.  It's the feeling you get when you know you just accomplished something important.  You did something meaningful.  At the time you may not even know why it is meaningful, but that doesn't matter, because you knew it was.

43 years ago my grandpa served as a Lieutenant Cornel leading a squadron of F-100 fighter jets in the Vietnam war.  My grandpa, and the other pilots who flew with him, knew they had done something bigger than themselves fighting together in that war.  They knew what they had done together was meaningful and it kept the group coming back to support one another for over 43 years. 

The two common elements in each of these examples are 1.  A group of people working together, and 2.  Achieving something bigger than themselves.

All it takes to live an inspired life, to be "successful", is to achieve something greater than yourself.  The key to a fulfilling meaningful career is set the bar high and follow through to hit your goal.  Throughout history, bringing a group of people together to work towards a common goal, has been the most consistent and reliable way to achieve extraordinary things.

What goal will you set?  How will you know what extraordinary goal you were meant to achieve?  Those are the magic questions.  Once you are certain of the answer, you can go to work on building your meaningful life.

What do you currently do for work?  How did you end up in your line of work?  What had you envisioned it would be like when you first were interested in doing the work you do?  Write down your answers and look at them.

Think of the last time you were lost in the moment, completely loosing track of time. What were you doing? Write down your answer and look at it.

Remember the last time you had an adrenaline rush? What were you doing? write down your answer and look at it.

What is the last thing you produced that you were proud of? What skills do you have that other people have gave you praise about? Write down your answer and look at it.

Looking back over your answers (or let's be honest, you're just thinking about the answers because you didn't actually write anything down), you'll notice you've found meaning and excitement about a lot of different unrelated things.

The truth is, the distraction of figuring out your "passion" or "finding your purpose" is a barrier you've subconsciously created to hold yourself back from achieving great things. You can find meaning and accomplish things greater than yourself in many different fields of work.

The key to achieving greatness and living an inspired life is learning to live in the present moment. In the moment you can be larger than life and perfect your trade, regardless of what that is for you right now.

Last Thursday, in the moment I managed a caisson crew, a grade beam crew, a utility crew, a concrete core crew, put a real estate deal back together that was falling apart, and answered some last minute questions to get final approval on a fix and flip loan from a bank, all while dealing with the new news that my grandpa had died in his sleep the night before.

I could remain larger than anything life could throw at me, and I did it by remaining present in the moment, ready to give my all to ANYTHING life could come up with.

When you are in this flow state, it's contagious. The people working with you can feel it. It's the reason sports teams rally and crowds in the stadiums feel "magic".

When everyone on your team starts to work in the moment, lost in the process of achieving your work, the outcomes are limitless....but it all starts with you and your ability to get lost in the moment by finding the meaning in the work you do.

More on how to do that in future posts.