CHOOSE THE CHALLENGE
How confident are you that you can do your job? How much pride do you take in doing your job perfectly every day and in every way? How exquisitely do you know your craft? How knowledgeable are you with each element of your job?
These are good questions. On the surface, perhaps you are thinking that the more positively you can answer each of them, the better off you, your organization, and your customers are. That might be true. Yet there is another viewpoint that perhaps you haven’t considered.
Danielle Brown (Intel, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer) shares a provocative perspective about the challenge of your job (“How Did I Get Here?: Danielle Brown” Bloomberg Businessweek . 3/13/17–3/19/17, p. 76):
“ If a job doesn’t make you think, Wow, I’m not really sure I can do it, it’s not challenging enough. ”
Put yourself back into any situation in which you were intensely challenged. Did you not also find significant learning? Did you not also find deep growth both personally and professionally? Is it not true then that you became your best as you experienced your greatest challenge?
What does the challenge of your current job say about how much you are learning and growing? That is a question only you can answer. However, you owe it to yourself to seek out that challenge. Without it, you cannot become your best self.
