This is an article written by Gregory Esman (Wolf Pup #12) and his reflection after he was nominated for Guardian of the Quarter Q1 2023. He asks important questions that fall in line with TGA principles and offers an action item for those that may feel like their contributions aren’t “important.”
What I learned throughout this experience is that you can operate from what you most naturally do and still get rewarded for it. Personally, I’ve never really won anything for being myself up to this point. I always thought I had to be someone else other than myself to accomplish things.
For example, if I wanted to accomplish something, I’d focus in on that thing and put a lot of resources into that. It was never a question of “Well what if I can accomplish this just by doing what I already do?”. It was always an equation that required a lot of focus, effort, and generally operating at a maximum level, rather than my average of simply… just being how I am and operating from my natural strengths. (Background knowledge is that things that feel natural for you feel like leagues of work for others).
From that came a belief that if I don’t put what feels like hard work into something, I shouldn’t get rewarded.
But thinking about it, does hard work really always equal value?
Maybe a question for @Docthew0lf’s deep questions he’s been posting lately, but probably not nearly as good as his.
“Can this really be true?”, I asked myself? “Building a life out of things I enjoy?”
This nomination is my first real world piece of proof that yeah, maybe there is some truth to that. Because I’ve just been doing what I’ve literally always done, naturally. None of it was forced. It’s just part of who I am and what I do. And yet here we are. (Worded in this way because this goes against what I believed).
So that’s the piece of insight I received by seeing the nomination.
Maybe others relate to these feelings too, in some ways.
In terms of action items: How would you act if you knew doing the things that are most natural to you could bring you the things you want? Try leaning into doing those things just a little more and see what might come from it.