Yesterday’s Quest prompt, #qualities, knocked me back to my undergraduate days.
1 of 3 Qualities
Visionary: Sally Hogshead of How the World Sees You fame
Of these 3 options, which one is most important in your work right now:
- Quality of life
- Quality of work
- Quality of compensation
The first thing I thought of when I saw this question was Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
And how, in my life right now, that pyramid is pretty much upside-down in terms of the energy I give it. And how that inversion is a big part of what twisted this past year so out of whack.
Focusing on actualization while denying my body’s physical needs (whether intentional or not) is like asking someone who spends most of their time on a couch or at their desk to stand on their toes on one leg while juggling with one hand and spinning plates with the other. It won’t be long before the whole act comes crashing down.
It doesn’t matter how many times I tell myself that if I don’t “feed” my body, I’m also starving my work. And if my work suffers, my compensation suffers. It’s simple math. Simple geometry.
Which is really a long way of saying that my answer is a no brainer:
I choose life.
Because until I right my pyramid, until I stabilize its base, it doesn’t matter how much I want to focus on the other two, how much work I do. Nothing I create will be solid enough to have any lasting impact on anyone else. And if it doesn’t, really, what’s the point?
This Quest group is truly inspiring. Check out some of these posts from fellow questers:
- I Don’t Want to Care About the Answer by Vanessa Jean Herald in response to #MissYou
- In Which a Couple of Contractors Redo my Bathroom and my Perspective by Brenna Layne in response to #3Qualities
- Goodbye to Striving: Permission Granted by Lois Kelly