The Nobility of Work

Noble work occurs when a person applies their values, talents and passions toward what they consider to be a meaningful purpose. In other words, they do what trips their life's trigger.

Notice there are three parts to noble work:

1. Identify your values, talents and passions
2. Decide what you consider to be a meaningful purpose
3. Apply the former toward the latter

Notice further that "noble work" is a personal matter. What is noble work for one person may not be for someone else. Also, notice that by definition noble work has nothing to do with income, title, industry, media recognition, acclaim, glamour and so on. It is based completely on your internal perspective.

The two most influential women in my life are my wife, Barb, and my mom. They are classic examples of the nobility of work. They apply their considerable values, talents and passions toward what they consider to be a meaningful purpose. And they do a magnificent job in the process. They both happen to be "stay-at-home moms."

Does this mean that if you're not a stay-at-home parent that you're not doing noble work? Of course not. Again, it's based on what you think is a meaningful purpose.

I used to be a high school math teacher. Clearly, I had colleagues who would apply their enormous reservoirs of passions, values and talents toward what they thought was a meaningful purpose. Did that mean I was automatically doing noble work as well? Nope, because I wasn't passionate about the math and soccer that I was teaching. I was far more interested in focusing on teaching leadership, teamwork, management, creativity and innovation. Some people argued with me that I was doing that indirectly, but it certainly didn't feel like it to me as I ran soccer drills and explained the quadratic equation. Today I believe I am doing noble work: applying my values, talents and passions toward working with other people to achieve whatever they want to achieve. That trips my life's trigger.

What are your values (the behaviors you believe are important), talents (the things you have the capacity to do well) and passions (the things you get excited doing)?

What do you consider to be a meaningful purpose?

How can you apply the former to achieve the latter?

Ok, one more question. What's the big deal about doing noble work? What's in it for you?

The benefit is that at the end of the day, week, month or lifetime, you can look back and say, "I mattered."

That's it. That is the big benefit of doing noble work. You will know that you mattered!

The night before he was shot, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "All I want to do is leave a committed life behind." When he died, he had accomplished what he set out to do. He had left a committed life behind.

An extraordinary career, a career of enduring greatness, is always built on doing noble work.

For a more in-depth and far better explained description of noble work, I encourage you to read, "Authentic Happiness" (The Free Press, New York, 2002) by Martin Seligman. One of my favorite quotes from this book is "The positive feeling that arises from the exercise of strengths and virtues is authentic… Positive emotions alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression, and, as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die."

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

Accelerate Update This section is always current to the current month

I suppose every book changes an author's life to a certain degree. My first book, which was self-published in 1995, was called Inside Out: A Catalyst for Conscious Living. It's out of print now for a number of good reasons. The layout, which yours truly did, looks like something a first grader could do today. And the ideas are very theoretical, which doesn't fit my approach anymore. However, I read the book a few months ago, and I was pleased by how clearly I had explained my early thoughts on improving performance.

My second book, Corporate Catalysts: How to Make Your Company More Successful, Whatever Your Title, Income, or Authority was published in 2005 by Career Press. That book was a step forward in clarifying my ideas on improving performance and understanding how to write a whole book. It's one thing to dream about getting a book contract and another thing to write a 70,000 word manuscript.

My third book, ACCELERATE: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Momentum, which was published in May 2007 by Kaplan Publishing, has changed my business dramatically. Up until that book was published, I mostly did projects for four companies: McDonald's, Marriott, GSD&M, and Toyota. In the past 12 months, I've worked with business owners, executives, and managers within dozens of small, medium, and massive organizations in more than 20 industries ranging from boats to banks to software to financial services to trucking to lighting to home healthcare to hospitals to optometrists. It's been an exciting adventure.

If you want to see my speaking calendar for 2008, which we'll try to update every two weeks, please click here.

Currently, I have 66 speeches scheduled for 2008. If you would like for me to speak at one of your events in 2008 or 2009, feel free to contact me at dan@thecoughlincompany.com and I will be glad to see if we can make it work.

If you want to see my speaking topics and a video of footage from some of my keynote speeches, please click here.

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