She catch herself dey draft di announcement post before she even do any of di work. Not even one paragraph of di real thing dey ground yet, but di first two lines of di write-up don already sweet. She sidon with dat thought for one minute, because na genuinely useful information about one plan wey she don dey excited about for one month.
E no be character flaw. To want make people see wetin you build normal, and e dey mostly productive, and person wey no get any appetite at all for recognition dey usually build less and share less. But if you dey about to spend five years on top something, e good make you sabi which part of di plan na di work and which part na di audience. One exercise dey wey dey separate di two inside about ten minutes, and e dey run on two columns and last week calendar, no be on plenty soul searching.
How I go know wetin I really value, no be wetin I dey talk say I value?
Look wetin you already do last week, no be wetin you plan to do next year. Then ask for every item, who hear about am, and watch which ones survive wen di honest answer na nobody.
Intention na very bad sample. Na di version of you wey rest well, wey no dey rush, and wey dey imagine audience of strangers wey dey admire am dey write dem. Last week na real sample, wey dem take under real condition, with real tiredness inside. So open di calendar and write down, for column one, everything wey you do wey nobody strictly ask you to do: di thing wey you read, di thing wey you fix wey no be your own, di hour wey you spend on person problem, di side project, di extra draft, di post.
Keep am to di things wey you choose by yourself. Ten to fifteen items na good list. No edit am make e fine, because na di sweet version be di exact thing wey dis exercise dey exist to remove.
Wetin go enter di second column?
Names, no be categories. Write di actual people wey hear say you do am, then mark each row with whether you for still do am if dat list empty.
Na here di exercise stop to dey comfortable and start to dey useful. "Di team" no be name. "LinkedIn" no be name. Write Marcus, your manager, your sister, di four people for di channel. Some rows go get six names and some no go get any, and di ones wey no get any na dem dis whole article dey talk about.
Dan Ariely, Anat Bracha and Stephan Meier report for American Economic Review say people dey do more good wen other people fit see dem dey give, and say wen you pay people to do good, di private version dey rise far pass di public one. Wen audience dey, na di audience don already dey pay. Dat one no be scandal about human nature. Na measurement wey you fit take on your own life inside ten minutes, and e dey tell you which of your commitments dey carry load.
Wetin if almost everything die for column two?
Na di normal result, and e no be judgment on your character. Almost all of us dey run partly on visibility, and di whole point of dis exercise na to find di one or two items wey no be so.
Most work dey legitimately for other people to see. Na wetin work be: you build something, person notice am, dem pay you or promote you or hire you next time. Column two wey full of names na sign say you get job and connection, no be sign say you empty. Wetin you dey hunt na di small residue, di two or three rows wey you for still do inside empty house, because na only dem go still dey run for di month wey everything hard and nobody dey clap.
If di residue really be zero, no draw any dramatic conclusion. Run am again on different week, and add one deliberate item wey nobody go see for di coming week, make you see wetin go happen.
To want audience make me fake person?
No. Recognition na real and useful motivation, and di research more interesting than di moralizing version of dis question.
Edward Deci, Richard Koestner and Richard Ryan review 128 experiments for Psychological Bulletin and find say tangible rewards wey dem share for doing task dey reliably reduce people intrinsic interest for dat task, while verbal praise dey generally increase am. Wen dem tell you say your work good, na fuel. Wen dem pay you per unit, e dey usually turn thing wey you wan do into thing wey you dey do for money. Self-determination theory, di bigger framework wey Ryan and Deci build around dat result, hold am say di motivation wey dey last na di one wey get autonomy and competence attached.
Na di practical point be dat. You get permission to want di audience. You just want at least one thing for your working life wey applause no dey pay for, because na dat item go keep going through di quarter wen di clapping stop.
Which surviving item I suppose do first?
Di smallest one, dis week, for size wey you fit really finish. Two hour version wey you do Saturday morning dey tell you pass five year version wey you just dey describe for dinner table.
One failure mode dey here wey worth naming. People finish dis exercise, find di thing wey dem for do wen nobody dey watch, then immediately blow am into plan wey need sabbatical, co-founder and new city. Di plan no go ever start, and di exercise go just enter file as interesting instead of as something wey dem act on. Do di opposite. Take di surviving item and cut am down until e fit inside one weekend, then run am once, no announcement. If e still dey interesting by di second Saturday, e real, and you fit start to give am proper space for calendar.
Then run di whole thing again for three months time. Dis no be one-time revelation, na instrument, and instrument na for taking reading again and again.
Di item wey no dey ever get post
One entry dey wey dey pass di second column automatically, and e worth trying before you decide whether to trust any of dis. Champion person wey no even ask for am. Put dem name forward for room wey dem no dey, for something wey dem no know say dey happen, then tell nobody, including dem.
Nothing dey accrue. No post, no reply, no thank-you, no line for review. Inside about four seconds of deciding to do am, you go find out whether di thing wey you talk say you value fit survive wen no audience dey, and e go cost you just one sentence. Na di cheapest honest test for dis page and na di only item wey double as favor to another person.
You no need to turn quieter or smaller person before you pass am. Di point of knowing wetin you for build wen nobody dey watch no be to make you stop wanting recognition. Na to make sure say at least one of di engines under you keep running for di days wen nobody dey look, because person wey get two engines fit push harder and far longer than person wey get one.
Sources
- American Economic Review, Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially
- Psychological Bulletin, A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation
- Self-Determination Theory, Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being