Summary
Joe argues that enjoyment is the best measure of efficiency — not speed. A fast car that guzzles gas isn’t efficient; similarly, working fast while draining your energy isn’t productive. When you enjoy what you’re doing, it takes less energy and you have more of it. When you don’t enjoy it, everything requires enormous effort.
He offers three practical approaches: (1) Stop acting from obligation — replace “I have to” with “I want to,” as he discovered when committing to only doing what he enjoyed and facing a smelly trash can. (2) Enjoy what you’re doing just a little bit more — right now, without changing anything external. (3) Use your lack of enjoyment to diagnose problems — a business owner couldn’t enjoy their marketing because it wasn’t authentic, which was exactly why the marketing wasn’t working. Following enjoyment attracted the right people and outcomes.
Key Concepts
- Enjoyment is the true measure of efficiency
- Replace obligation with wanting
- Lack of enjoyment diagnoses the real problem
Key Quotes
“The best measure for efficiency is enjoyment.”
“I want to take out the trash — and as soon as I got in touch with that I could learn to enjoy the thing because it was no longer an obligation.”
“Just right now whatever you’re doing, stop and just enjoy this moment a little bit more. Just a little bit.”
“Let me guess that your marketing isn’t working… because you’re not enjoying it, it’s not authentic to you, and so everybody can read and feel that.”
“When you are doing things in a way that you enjoy them, you attract people who also want to be in enjoyment.”
Transcript
people who enjoy their life they start doing things that they enjoy more and more and people who endure their life end up doing things that they endure more and more hey everybody in today’s video we’re going to talk about how to feel more joy in work and more importantly than that we’re going to talk about how enjoyment and work makes you far more productive my name is Joe Hudson I was a former venture capitalist and now a coach to some of the most notable names in Silicon Valley so a lot of people think that enjoyment is something that gets in the way of productivity but think about it this way if you have a very fast car and that car takes a lot of gas you would not call that an efficient car if you have a car that doesn’t take a lot of gas you would call that an efficient car and yet somehow we confuse speed with efficiency in business meaning the faster we are in business the more efficient we are in business the faster we are at making art the more efficient we are at making art but that’s only taking time into account if you take your energy if you take the stuff that actually drives you dayto day the amount of passion that you have for something the best measure for efficiency is enjoyment so if you enjoy what you’re doing you have more and more energy to do stuff it took you less and less energy to get it done if you have no enjoyment in what you’re doing then it takes a tremendous amount of energy to get anything done and that’s extremely inefficient the other thing about enjoyment that’s really important to know is that enjoyment doesn’t only come from what you’re doing but how you’re doing it often times people think that they’re going to get to enjoyment by making sure everything that they do in the day is enjoyable there’s truth to that but it’s not the whole truth the other part of the truth is that how you do things can create a tremendous amount of enjoyment and more importantly than that if you do things in a way that you really enjoy you start attracting the things that you really enjoy into your life so let’s get into the three ways to enjoy your work more the first one is stop acting from obligation so often times when we’re working we tell ourselves simple little things like I should do that I have to do that I’ve got to do that and all of that is like a force it’s like an obligation and we lose track of what we actually want do we really want to do it or do we not want to do it or what part of us wants to do something so let me tell you a story about this I remember there was this twoe period where I said I’m only going to do what I enjoy I’m just only going to do what I enjoy and at some point I was looking at a trash can and it smelt and so there I was staring at the trash can going what do I do because I committed to myself to only do what I enjoy I was like huh crap the only way I’m getting out of this cuz I don’t enjoy the stink is to figure out how to enjoy taking out the trash and that lesson to me there was like this profound lesson of being able to get in contact oh I want this trash gone I want it it’s not I have to take out the trash I want to take out the trash and as soon as I got in touch with that I could learn learn to enjoy the thing because it was no longer an obligation it came from my want so number two is how do you enjoy whatever you’re doing just a little bit more so this one is kind of an interesting thing so just right now whatever you’re doing stop and just enjoy this moment a little bit more just a little bit and you notice nothing had to change outwardly but something happened inwardly that was different maybe you took a breath maybe you slowed down maybe you paid attention to your body there’s lots of little things we can do that help us enjoy just a little bit more if you’re doing emails and you’re rushing it might not be as enjoyable as doing it a little more slowly or doing a little bit more slowly might not be as enjoyable as just feeling like you’re pounding them out so whatever it is that makes you enjoy what you’re doing just a little bit more pay attention to that so number three is all about using your lack of enjoyment to solve problems so the other day I’m sitting there with a business owner and the business owner had like a marketing plan and we were sitting there and I said okay so what would it require for you to enjoy doing this marketing and they were like yeah I can’t I can’t enjoy it and I was like you can’t enjoy it and they’re like no I can’t enjoy it I’m like okay let’s from scratch what would we have to do to enjoy this marketing plan what would you have to do to enjoy this marketing plan and they were like okay well the team couldn’t be there that that wouldn’t be right I would need to make it more authentic to the brand and it would need to be something where everybody who was doing it felt like they were saying something that was meaningful to them instead of something that they had to do to get customers and so of course I can’t mark it and enjoy it and I was like oh wait hold on a second exactly that that’s exactly what you need to do to solve your marketing problem so let me guess that your marketing isn’t working and the business owner was like yeah the the marketing how did you know I’m like because you’re not enjoying it it’s not authentic to you and so everybody can read and feel that so what is it that you have to do like specifically and and slowly but surely he started thinking of ways that it could be more brainstorming it could be more authentic it could actually drive Connection in the company and he started thinking of ways that the marketing department could come together and really work off of something that made them feel good and connected both with each other and With Their audience and after just a short period of time I think it was like less than a quarter their marketing started working because they came at it from a way that made it so that they could really enjoy it when you are doing things in a way that you enjoy them what you do is you attract people you attract people who also want to be in enjoyment you attract work that you will enjoy so what you notice is more and more and all that’s required is that you just focus on the enjoyment the way that you would focus on getting a job done and the job gets done it just gets done better it just gets done more efficiently and you start having a life that you just enjoy all right if you like the content hit subscribe tell us what else you want us to talk about and watch the next video