What kind of work are you doing? Not the tasks themselves, but the quality or nature of your work? Are you doing good work? Not so good work? Bad work, even? Or are you amping up the meaning of what you’re doing so that it becomes Great Work?

The book being featured this month as a self-help book summary for members at PersonalGrowthPrincess.com is Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier. In this, his latest book, Michael sets out a course, or a path, to identifying what your Great Work might be.

Great Work is meaningful work. It is work that you know makes a difference and it makes you feel good – maybe even proud – to be doing it. It “inspires, stretches, and provokes” you. In short, it is work that matters – to you, first and foremost, and ultimately to others (even if they are oblivious to the work you’re doing, or of the need for it). When you are doing Great Work, you feel fully engaged, like you are “in the flow”.

But Great Work also brings with it paradoxes. It often has the quality of uncertainty and discomfort along with the thrill and flow. It is frequently new and challenging (discomfort) and may have possible risks (uncertainty). But this is also what drives innovation and evolution.

Everyone is capable of Great Work, but the 6 Great Work Paradoxes explain why it’s easy to be ambivalent about doing it – as well as why it’s hard to stick with it.

#1 – You don’t need to save the world…and…you DO need to make a difference.
You may have a grand vision or powerful purpose, but you don’t need to be a martyr, give up your friends, quit your job, embrace poverty, etc. in order to do Great Work. You also don’t have to attempt to save the entire world or solve all its problems. Sometimes changes on a small scale can make the biggest difference.

The desire to do Great Work is simply a call to do more meaningful work. It can be very simple or subtle. The point is that if/when you feel called to do something meaningful, you design your life so that you can.

#2 – Great Work is private…and…Great Work can be public.
Doing Great Work isn’t about getting recognition or winning awards – though that can certainly be a by-product. If you’re doing the work for the accolades, you can pretty uch be assured it’s not going to be Great. According to Michael, “because it is a subjective matter – Great Work is what is meaningful for you”. Often the reward or recognition is a private, internal one. YOU will know you’ve done something that matters. Others may or may not know it.

#3 – Great Work is needed…and…Great Work isn’t wanted. Read More→