Effortlessly Amazing

“It is very difficult to make the ideas in my head come to life, but what is harder is making them appear effortless.”

–     Tim Walker, British photographer

One of the best interview questions I’d ever heard, and, since hearing it, one of the best that I ask, is “What kind of work is both energizing and effortless for you?”

I kept thinking of this topic Thursday night watching the Foo Fighters concert at ACL Live @ The Moody Theatre.  I went to the show knowing that I liked some of their music, but I walked out having seen the best live show that I remember — and I’ve been blessed to see a lot of bands in a lot of cool places.  (None is cooler than Moody, by the way…)

What I kept coming back to, though, is despite the complexity of their music and the nearly three hours that they played, all six of the Fighters were effortlessly having the time of their lives.  At the very least, they appeared to be having the time of their lives, and when they wrapped up after playing more than twice as long as most acts do at an ACL Taping, they were still taking energy from the crowd, from each other, from the music — and giving it back plus interest, effortlessly blowing us away.

They’ve been doing it for twenty years.

Some tasks just suck the energy out of us after twenty minutes.  Some jobs do.  Some companies do.

Those aren’t the things we’re meant to do or the places we’re meant to work.

I’ve been blessed to only work in one really bad work environment — and it was a wildly successful company, staffed with many people that I call friends to this day — but the key, if our goal is to make a difference, is to find a place and a collection of people where and with whom we can effortlessly be energized and energizing.  I am pretty sure that Dian Marker, my high school English teacher would not like that sentence, but here it comes again:  The key, if our goal is to make a difference, is to find a place and a collection of people where and with whom we can effortlessly be energized and energizing.

We know it when we see it, like we did Thursday night.  And remember, we know it when we find it — and we ought to hold on to it when we do.