creative maverick

Would you like to know where to focus your work so that you can get paid for doing what you love? The key is to find your “moment of magic”.

Think back to a recent time in your work that stands out as a great moment; one when you did something you know you are great at, you really enjoyed doing it, and it had a positive impact. What were you doing at that moment? What made it so enjoyable for you?

Your moment may come in many different forms - coming up with the new idea that makes a whole project run better, making a great joke in the middle of a presentation, saying something encouraging to a co-worker when they most need it, negotiating a huge discount on a purchase, pointing someone to just the right piece of information, tweaking a process or system to make it better, finding a clever way to automate a task, spotting the error in a plan before it starts. Look for something you got a great deal of pleasure out of - not just for the result (like a pat on the back from your boss or client) - but in the actual doing of it.

This moment may not be something that is in your job description or main business tasks - setting up your PC for maximum productivity or writing a funny email for a colleague’s birthday. If your current work is so off the mark that you can’t think of a single moment of this kind, look at your personal life for moments when you do something brilliantly, enjoy it and it’s valuable to other people. Often this thing took you very little time at all to do - even if a huge amount of experience and preparation led up to it.

This is your moment of magic. Make a note of it. Think of two or three other moments that stand out and write these down too. Can you see any common element that makes them so special to you? Write it down if so but don’t worry if not.

Now here’s a thought. How often are you doing your moment of magic currently in your work? Once a day? Once a week? Once a month? Only in your spare time? Imagine if you just did your moment of magic twice as often in a week. How much more valuable would you be to your employer or your business? You might find you were twice as valuable.

Now imagine expanding this moment so that your whole career revolves around it and much of your working week is filled with this experience. How much fun would that be? How valuable would you be? Can you see that it might be possible to get paid for providing all that value?

I need your help!

I’d like some examples of people’s moments of magic to put in my book for Pearson Education which I am just finishing. Please leave a comment with what you think your moment of magic is and I’ll contact you if I decide to put it in my book. Thanks!