Module 3 · Your foundation
Day 7 of 11 · about 10 minutes
Many people treat their job as fixed: the tasks are the tasks, the people are the people, and the only choice is to stay or leave. Self-made people tend to see more room to move than that.
What the research found
Researchers Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton described something they called job crafting (Academy of Management Review, 2001). People reshape their work in three ways: the tasks they take on, the people they work with, and how they think about what the job is for. Later research has linked job crafting to more meaning at work, better well-being and better performance.
Try this today (10 minutes)
- Tasks: list the parts of your work you're best at. Pick one to do more of this week.
- People: name one person at work you'd learn from. Find a reason to talk to them.
- Meaning: finish this sentence: "My work matters because it helps ___." Be specific about who.
The honest note
Much of this research is correlational, and some jobs leave very little room to change anything. Crafting can make a decent job better. It won't make a bad one good. Sometimes the right move is a different job, and that's a decision worth making on purpose too.
Write it down: print Workbook 3, Your foundation. It has space for this lesson’s exercise and a week tracker.
The Selfmade Course · Day 7 of 11
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