find the asset you’re building or defending

Assets increase in value over time. They get stronger with age. Maybe they even compound - their growth begets growth of its own.

Work with assets can be satisfying in ways that work without assets cannot. 

  • When you work with assets, you’re in this zone: Investment, maintenance, maturation, slopes and smoothed curves.

  • When you’re not working with assets, you’re in this one: Betting, discarding, consuming, peaks and valleys.

A question worth asking yourself: what is the asset that I am building or defending with my work? This might not be the thing your market or employer are directly paying you for. It may be the field, instead of the crop.

Awareness of the asset can unlock a sense of time that is grounding and motivating. Action you take today can have a very large and long tail. So it’s worth taking action today. Action you take today fits into a story that’s much bigger than you and your career ladder. You’re making a contribution to something that will outlive your present and maybe even your foreseeable choices, stress, and attention. 

-eric

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creative and custodial work: a binary

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finding patterns with little near-term trackers