(The following is an excerpt from the book, Hacking Normal by John Stevenot available on Amazon.com)
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, autonomy is defined as “…self-directing freedom and moral independence; the state of existing or acting separately from others.”
If you are looking to escape the nine-to-five life, you need to be comfortable embracing the principles and responsibilities of autonomy.
When you free yourself from the prison-like environment of your office, no one will be there to make sure that you are working at your computer, diligently typing away to finish your Power Points, uploading product images to the eCommerce portal, or finishing your CAD drawings by the end of business (EOB) on Friday.
With autonomy comes the responsibility to provide yourself with self-motivation and direction. If you can’t or aren’t willing to take on that responsibility, turn back now.
This concept of autonomy, this freedom to make your own decisions, scares people. Like the Allegory of the Cave, when people are presented with the option to unfetter themselves from their desk and their cubicle, they freak out.
They fear that they will resort to laziness and unproductive activities, like watching TV or scrolling through Facebook all day. To be completely honest, some people will fall into that reality. That is extremely disheartening. But, if you have a desire to work, to be a productive member of society, you will not let yourself sit in front of the TV while there is work to be done.
Sick of Vacation and Retirement
There are two other times in life that people experience this complete lack of responsibility. The first is vacation. Remember what those days feel like?
At the beginning, you’re glad to be rid of work and work’s responsibilities. You want to sit by the pool, drink a margarita, and soak up the sun. But, by about the fifth day, your margarita starts to taste bland, your skin could use a break, and the chlorine is starting to do wild things to your hair.
By the seventh day, most people are ready to go back to work. You didn’t want a lifetime of vacation; you just wanted an hour (or so) a day to focus on you.
Speaking of a lifetime of vacation, this brings us to our second life experience, retirement. Ask people who are living in retirement how their life is after a year. Most of them are bored out of their minds.
No worries, though: only another 20 years or more until they die.
What’s the Point?
People say they don’t want to work, but that’s bullshit. What people really want is to control how they work.
They want autonomy to work on the things that matter and make them feel fulfilled and valuable. At the same time, they want to work in a way that doesn’t put life on hold.
I’m of the opinion that autonomy means that I can work where, when, and how I want to. I prefer working outside the office in places like coffee shops, bookstores, or on the beach. These places make me feel centered and happy.
Additionally, I prefer to get all my work done before noon so that I can plan meetings or activities in the afternoon. I once read that people should focus on the customer in the morning and administrative aspects in the afternoon. I’ve tried building my schedule around that, but your preferences may vary.
Autonomy doesn’t mean that you must work outside of the office like I do. I have heard people say that they prefer working in an office because it gives them an incentive to work or an air of professionalism. To these people, I say, more power to you.
Please, continue to go into the office if that’s where you feel most productive. I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to remove yourself from a place you feel productive, hence the win condition theory.
Take a moment to think about how many days you have spent sitting at your desk with nothing to do. If you are going to work in the office, ensure that you have the autonomy to decide whether sitting at a desk is a good use of your time. I don’t want you to feel like you must sit at a desk and twiddle your thumbs until the clock strikes a certain hour.
That is unnecessary torture.
If you have real autonomy, you can work when there is work to do and have freedom to explore other activities, hobbies, or run errands when things are slow. If you had that kind of autonomy, how much better would working in an office be?
Autonomy Seeks Efficacy
My modus operandi is to be as efficient and effective as possible to generate the greatest efficacy. The goal of any job is efficacy because efficacy is your time and effort focused on the right activities to generate the greatest results.
For example, if you are a salesperson, wouldn’t it be great to spend two hours [efficient] calling a highly qualified prospect list [effective] of people who want to buy [efficacy]? Of course!
If you knew you could reach or surpass your sales goal by seeking out, implementing, and using efficacious processes, you’d do it.
I would.