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So, I got a question for you.
How did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?
I didn't know. So I asked my dad,
'cause dads know this stuff, right?
And he said I should go into Computers and Accounting,
and then I could always find a job.
Well, for me, something went a little awry,
and I think for most of us, because get this:
If there were ten of us having dinner together,
statistically speaking, seven of us would be complaining
about how bored and frustrated we are at work.
So, the vast majority of us in the US
are actually checked out and sleepwalking,
through our work and maybe even through our lives.
I asked the wrong question to the wrong person,
and with that, I put myself on the train tracks to become a job hater.
And, by the time I was 23, I was there. And it didn't matter
that I was working for this prestigious firm and making good money.
On the inside, I was living like 2 inches behind my skin,
and it was contagious to my whole life.
At this time, I used to run across those rare few
who were just flourishing in their work.
I would read about them or meet them,
and they were qualitatively different.
There was a vibrancy, and they were giving their gifts to the world.
And I knew I wasn't.
How do I get to be one of them?
The first thing I did is I took all the carreer tests and read all the books.
But I still didn't know how to change my work.
So, then, I went looking everywhere for the answer to this.
Religious traditions, the arts, psychology and business.
And they all pointed me to the same place,
which is that I was overlooking something hugely important in myself.
And I think many of us are.
So, from the arts and religious traditions I learned things like this.
The poet Rumi said, "Let the beauty you love be what you do."
And Joseph Campbell said, we've all heard it, "Follow your bliss."
And Shakespeare said, "To thine own self be true."
And I felt three things: delighted, confused and skeptical.
Delighted because, like, "Wow! Now there's a way to live on this planet!"
And confused because my nose was pressed up even more to the glass,
looking at these people who were flourishing in their work,
who had somehow figured out this poetic riddle
that I was just never going to get.
And then, skeptical, because I still didn't know
how to change my work with these ideas,
and I doubted that, even if I figured it out,
that I was going to be able to earn a living.
But that was before I discovered a boat load of modern research.
Here's an example of what I learned from business.
So, thousands of people took a speed-reading course.
And the point is not about speed-reading.
It's actually about human nature. So, check this out.
Before they even took the course, some readers started out as super slow,
and some readers started out as super fast.
Now, intuitively you would think
that because the slow readers were at the bottom of their potential,
they would have the most to gain.
And the fast readers, because they were already at the top of their potential,
would have the least to gain.
So, what happened?
The opposite.
The slow readers increased 50%.
Pretty good! Until we look at the fast readers.
They skyrocketed to 600%.
We think that we are going to grow the most where we're doing poorly,
and that if we just work hard and use a lot of brute force,
we can excel at anything.
And what I learned is we're actually just playing misinformed about this.
So, let's look deeper at what the readers are showing us,
and imagine for a minute that each group of readers
is a person.
If you put a book in front of the slow reader, she wilts.
She does not have a voracious appetite for reading.
She has appetite for other things it's just not reading.
So, when she trains and practices in this, she can get better,
and she can get proficient and, maybe, good,
but she's never going to masterful,
because reading is not native in her system.
It's actually foreign.
It's an ability, yeah. But it's a foreign ability.
So, if she goes into work that relies on this foreign ability,
she's going to be less creative and productive at work,
so she's not going to be recognized,
and she's going to be twice as likely to be stressed,
depressed and have heart disease.
When you put a book in front of a fast reader, she lights up.
She has a voracious appetite for reading and her life is filled with books.
And when she trains and practices in this, she is masterful,
because reading is native in her system.
It's a seed of her native genius.
And if she goes into work that relies heavily on this,
she's going to be six times as likely to love her job,
she's going to be super creative and productive at work,
so she's going to be recognized as a superstar,
and she's going to be twice as likely to thrive in her life.
So, it turns out that research organizations like Gallup,
who's been studying this for the last thirty years with millions of people,
and there are other research organizations that have confirmed the same thing,
it turns out that this research is actually saying something very similar
to what the poet Rumi was saying 800 years ago,
which is that what's native inside of us is key
to us excelling at work and in our lives.
So, the thing that we're overlooking is our native genius.
And when we're faced with any kind of career move, big or small,
the question that we should be asking ourselves is,
"What is my native genius?"
Different traditions call native genius all different kinds of things.
You've probably heard flow, or intrinsic motivation,
or strengths, or divine nature.
And it doesn't matter what we call it.
It shows up when we put you in front of an activity that you really love,
and it's a specific activity that comes super naturally to you.
It's almost like you can't not do this thing.
You go on auto-pilot. You're totally immersed,
your instincts are firing and you're learning really quickly.
And this special combination of things that's happening inside you is a wonder.
You could do this thing all day, if someone just brought you food.
So, I'm going to suggest something strikingly simple,
and actually surprisingly small.
So, you know that job you hate or tolerate right now?
It's actually the best place to start noticing your native genius,
because 75% of us get to use our native genius at work at least once a week.
But, hate is a blur.
So, within that blur, notice when you light up.
It's different for all of us, but pay attention to cues from your body.
So, your palms might tingle, or your heart might race,
or your eyes might light up,
but whatever gives you that signal at work, do that activity.
And do it again, and do it again, and do it again.
It doesn't matter if you don't think you're good at it,
or you think it's so small, it's nothing.
If you do it again, and again, you will grow it.
In my life, amidst a job that I hated, I noticed that I lit up
when I got to ask people questions about things that mattered to them.
I told this to my friends and family, and they were like, "Oh, that's so you.
We could put you anywhere and you'd be doing that."
And now I'm not the kind of leadership consultant that gives a lot of advice,
but I am the kind that asks a lot of questions.
And I'm always on the lookout for what lights me up at work.
This "notice.do.repeat", it's a lifelong practice.
So, the world needs more creative and thriving people,
and you are exactly that.
And if you need a reminder,
just look around at this stunning physical world that we live in.
Bees make honey. They don't make milk.
And begonias, they bloom in the shade, not in the sun.
And when it comes to driving a screw,
a screwdriver works way better than scissors do.
So, I got two more questions for you.
What is the nature of you?
What is your native genius?
Thank you.
(Applause)