a variation of this article was posted to Medium

It’s the day before Groundhog Day Resolutions! This year’s system flips the focus from “what is produced” to maintaining the conditions that I believe feed my motivation. So, I’m employing a variation of the gathering style productivity system I tried in 2018 with the twist of emphasizing the gardener instead of fixating on the crop.

Here’s the personal insight behind this year’s system:

• I’m values-driven, more so than many people. My technical systems-driven way of understanding the world had masked this.
• I need frequent meaningful communication in the context of shared purpose to be motivated. This is a deep need that is more intense in me.
• My productivity grows when I’m in alignment with my values and fulfilled with meaningful communication and sharing purpose with others. Conversely, productivity shrivels in the absence of alignment, leading to debilitating depression if left uncorrected.
• Hypothetically speaking, a productivity system that sustains alignment in the critical dimensions of (1) personal values (2) meaningful communication and (3) shared prosocial creative purpose will lead to increased productivity.

If I’m truly a values-driven person, I need to figure out what values actually matter to me. I’ve defined them as the beliefs that irritate me the most when they are violated.

• Being truthful
• Being transparent
• Being authentic
• Practicing equality

These are not intended to be a moral proclamation. I literally have difficulty functioning in an environment where people are not directly communicating what they mean with the words they say. While I can make allowances for the sake of social niceties, I am severely disturbed by deliberate dishonesty, obfuscation of intent, false engagement, and divisive actions. I am further outraged when the presumption of these values are manipulated for the purposes of exploiting others.

The four values I’ve expressed are also the foundation for trust and good relations, which leads into my critical emotional need: meaningful conversation and shared purpose. I’ve defined them narrowly below as:

• Meaningful communication is engaged, present. It is a given that it’s also truthful, transparent, authentic, and egalitarian. In my case, it is also inherently kind and seeking of mutual understanding, respectful of each parties’ differing priorities and experiences.
• Shared purpose is a commonality of interest plus commitment to make something happen. In my case, my purpose is to create cool stuff that others find useful and inspiring. This includes creating the communities and culture that functionally sustains them. It includes the desire to pursue excellence and acquire skills and practice them.

In the absence of the above, I quickly lose interest in projects because I don’t find technical work inherently meaningful. I think the only reason why I picked up so many technical skills is because the context was (1) working with friends who had shared purpose and liked talking about the work and (2) the technologies involved were related to telling stories and building worlds that people in which could have meaningful experiences. A big DUH in hindsight!

My takeaway of being a values-driven and meaningful conversation and shared purpose kind of person is that I’ve been focused on the wrong metrics. Therefore, this year’s Groundhog Day Resolutions will try to answer…

If I prioritize good conversations and finding shared purpose with others, will productivity naturally follow?

I think it’s worth trying. I’m on the 19th year of trying to achieve creative independence, an idea inspired by the author Neal Stephenson description of his job as, “Making stuff up and cashing checks” in a Kickstarter video.

The ongoing process will be documented as usual on dsriseah.com with daily conversation happening on the DS|CAFE Discord server where we are running an experimental mastermind group.

» GHDR Mastermind Group Information