15 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Working Another Day




October 17th, 2008 | Flourishing






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Are you in the right line of work? Should you be doing something else? Ask yourself the following questions:






1. Do you get to do your work, or do you have to do your work?
2. If you were guaranteed your current standard of living no matter what you did, would you still do what you’re doing?
3. True or false: When you think about what you do, are you dreaming or dreading?
4. Who decides when you work: you or your organization?
5. Do you get through your day or are days a chance to advance your goals and projects?
6. True or false: If you stopped liking what you’re doing, you would quit.
7. Does your productivity keep you working or does it help you maintain productive motion?
8. Do you like to talk about what you do, or would you rather people not ask about it?
9. True or false: What you’re doing today helps build skills and achievements that help will help you do what you want to do 6 months to a year from now?
10. Does doing what you do drain your energy or renew you?
11. Do you make your To Do list or does somebody else?
12. True or false: You would be proud if someone you loved did what you’re doing.
13. You get up early or stay late because…1) you want to work on the project or 2) you want to get the project done.
14. When you say what you do, do you say “I am a (_____) or I (_____). Example: I am a painter vs. I paint.
15. Would you do what you’re doing if you weren’t getting paid for it?




I recognize that some of the questions seem the same, but sometimes asking the question differently yields different answers. Please share some of your answers or thoughts if you’re up for it.

Whatever stories a director wants to tell, the 10 days of Sundance is the time to toot her own horn and take advantage of being the center of attention. It disappears all too quickly. Jamie Babbit and Angela Robinson learned from their experiences of having shorts at the festival and very smart in exploiting the business opportunities that came their way. They are up front with their ambition and comfortable working in TV as well as film. Both are young, gay and able to look at directing from a business perspective. The raw ambition they exude has at times shocked other women -- Robinson caused a furor on a panel several years ago at when she talked about wanting to model her career after that of George Lucas. "I want action figures," she said. "I want a studio." Babbit got an agent from Sundance, as did Robinson, and made sure that she had a script ready for potential investors. Robinson immediately got a studio gig directing Lindsay Lohan in the Disney's remake of Herbie Fully Loaded. She's been an executive producer on The L Word and did a web feature, Girltrash!, that just got sold as a graphic novel. She's entrepreneurial and thinks about creating brands and intellectual property, goals not commonly expressed by women directors.

As Allison Anders says, "Sundance is the only hand that feeds for women directors." She implores women to be more prepared and not get caught in the "grateful to be there" mode not quite knowing how to move forward. She says: "Acknowledge that you could encounter every single person who could possibly finance your next feature and have a goddam screenplay ready."

The bottom line is that until there is a critical mass, it's going to be a struggle for all women directors. The next step is to figure out how the films from festivals like Sundance get seen by more than just industry folks with enough money to spend a week in the Utah mountains.

Language is the primary conductor between your brain and the minds of your audience. Ineffective language weakens and distorts ideas.

If you want to be understood, if you want your ideas to spread, using effective language must be your top priority.In the modern world of business and politics this is hardly ever the case. In many instances, imprecise language is used intentionally to avoid taking a position and offending various demographics. No wonder it’s hard to make sense of anything!