Struggling in Quadrant III, Its Common!

Going back to our model of assessment of ones professional life we must note that the scoring is done for what you are currently doing. WAP tool introduced in one of previous blogs allows one to assess his/her condition about what is being done and what is wanted. However in later blog a tool was introduced to let you assess where do you currently stand? Those who used this tool, must have found themselves in one of the four quadrants as shown below when scoring for passion and ability is done for their current work.

Quadrant I of Satisfied people was discussed in last blog. I was planning to discuss Quadrant IV today. However with the feed back I received, I was asked to explain Quadrant III. Those who found themselves in this Quadrant labeled as Struggling should not feel bad. 

Most of the people on this planet are expected to be in this Quadrant. You would be in there when you lack passion and even ability to perform your current work. The most important two reasons behind this could be, i. either you were forced to choose what you are doing, or ii. you started and then developed limited ability and limited passion and got stuck in this Quadrant.

Now the question is what one should do to improve the situation or get rid of this position. We found that people in this block lacked ability and also passion for their work. The first and most important step they should take is to re-assess their aptitude. It might be true that you have developed limited ability and limited passion for your work but you need to re-assess seriously. If this re-assessment shows that you want to pursue the existing work either you feel you may make it a passionate work for you or you may excel in it, then either through working hard on ability you move to Quadrant I or falling passionate for it would lead you to Quadrant IV. If you improve on both, you'll be in Quadrant II.

On the other hand if this re-assessment concludes that you are not interested in developing your ability or passion for the work you are currently doing, then you must go back to WAP  tool.  It would give you the other choices available with an idea about your degree of passion and ability.

Once you are done with this step, you may see a range of new options. Considering those options and working on them one can gradually move out of this quadrant.

Note: For those readers who expect that a quick fix is available or only reading can help, I am sorry to say, they would be disappointed. Please use the tools introduced and you'll feel the gradual improvement.

Simplest Personal Development Tool - WAP

A great difference exists between USA and other countries on the planet. No matter you like the country or you hate its governments, one has to admit that something is really different up there.  This something has transformed USA in to worlds' (considering its superiority in space program more than one world is a valid case) super power. In addition to natural resources, military power and a culture of spending time and effort, the single most important difference exists in style of children raising.

In most of the world including Europe it is very common to ask a small child what will you become when grown up? based upon exact location parents expect answers as Engineer, Doctor, Bureaucrat and to some degree Musician, Writer. In the original USA style the question and answer both are different. The question asked to child (if asked) is what will you do when grown up? Therefore even if the person holds a super ordinary job, he is proud of it as he/she is doing something not just holding a profession.

Try putting the question 'What does Google do?' to someone on street. The probable answer would be 'it is a search engine' or at best 'it helps to make search'. The second answer seems to be true but try putting this question to google itself and the answer would be  'Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google primarily generates revenue by delivering relevant, cost-effective online advertising.' 

See the difference, the success of google lies in the fact that they know exactly what they do or should be doing. Unfortunately most of us never find answer to this simple question. Guy Kawasaki in his lecture 12 lessons I learnt from Steve Jobs, said that while being interviewed for your ideas by investors you must tell what on hell you do in first 30 seconds. Agreed, but I would like to take the idea to self development case.

I would suggest using the simple tool I call WAP, i.e. What you do, What you are Able to do and What is your Passion? (What do, Able to do, Passion to do). The system works in very simple manner. Take an A4 page and put the questions as following.

Now try to fill the Current Situation Column. This might be not what  you wanted but you are following or you had to follow. Later fill the column Wish Situation and note the difference. Please share if you had same answers for both, little different or too different.

In my next blog I would be discussing how this tool can be used to make your life easier and for switching to the condition where you are doing with ability what you have the passion for.