What are you working on?

One of the blogs I subscribe to is Seth Godin's and I would like to share here 3 of the posts that I really like (means that I keep the emails and didn't delete them after reading them):

One

Reasons to work

1 For the money
2 To be challenged
3 For the pleasure/calling of doing the work
4 For the impact it makes on the world
5 For the reputation you build in the community
6 To solve interesting problems
7 To be part of a group and to experience the mission
8 To be appreciated

Why do we always focus on the first? Why do we advertise jobs or promotions as being generic on items 2 through 8 and differentiated only by #1?

In fact, unless you're a drug kingpin or a Wall Street trader, my guess is that the other factors are at work every time you think about your work.

Two

Where do ideas come from?

1 Ideas don't come from watching television
2 Ideas sometimes come from listening to a lecture
3 Ideas often come while reading a book
4 Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them
5 Ideas hate conference rooms, particularly conference rooms where there is a history of criticism, personal attacks or boredom
6 Ideas occur when dissimilar universes collide
7 Ideas often strive to meet expectations. If people expect them to appear, they do
8 Ideas fear experts, but they adore beginner's mind. A little awareness is a good thing
9 Ideas come in spurts, until you get frightened. Willie Nelson wrote three of his biggest hits in one week
10 Ideas come from trouble
11 Ideas come from our ego, and they do their best when they're generous and selfless
12 Ideas come from nature
13 Sometimes ideas come from fear (usually in movies) but often they come from confidence
14 Useful ideas come from being awake, alert enough to actually notice
15 Though sometimes ideas sneak in when we're asleep and too numb to be afraid
16 Ideas come out of the corner of the eye, or in the shower, when we're not trying
17 Mediocre ideas enjoy copying what happens to be working right this minute
18 Bigger ideas leapfrog the mediocre ones
19 Ideas don't need a passport, and often cross borders (of all kinds) with impunity
20 An idea must come from somewhere, because if it merely stays where it is and doesn't join us here, it's hidden. And hidden ideas don't ship, have no influence, no intersection with the market. They die, alone.

Three

What are you working on?

If someone asks you that, are you excited to tell them the answer?

I hope so. If not, you're wasting away.

No matter what your job is, no matter where you work, there's a way to create a project (on your own, on weekends if necessary), where the excitement is palpable, where something that might make a difference is right around the corner.

Hurry, go do that.

What am I working on? I'm working on some six or seven things at the moment. I only have time to physically work on three or four at the moment, but the remaining three remains lurking in my head. I think about them often, for example when I'm driving (a lot of thinking can be done in one-hour solo journeys, really). And Seth Godin is so right about the excitement being palpable. I hope some of these things I'm working on will come to fruition this year, insyaAllah.