What Should You Do?

During a recent road trip, we discovered and listened to a number of episodes of the excellent How to Save a Planet podcast. I’d highly recommend it–it’s just as entertaining as it is informative.

On many episodes of the podcast, co-hosts Ayana and Alex address a question that any listener might wonder: What should I do? As in, if I care about X (in their case, climate change), what should I actually do.

Their solution is a Venn diagram that asks 3 questions:

• What brings you joy?
• What are you good at?
• What is the work that needs doing? (or, in other words: What problem needs solving?)

I though this was an excellent set of questions for any entrepreneur, crowdfunder, or content creator, hence why I’m sharing it with you today. If you’re like me, even if you’re entrenched in a specific role, job, or career, you might still find yourself asking–in a micro or macro way–what should I do? Should I pursue this new project? Should I try out a new form of social media or marketing? Should I be a designer or a publisher?

What Brings You Joy?

I think the diagram says it best: “Neglecting your joy will lead to burnout.” The most common example of this I see is when media creators go down a specific path with their channel/platform (e.g., I’m going to make unboxing videos!), only to realize that they’re more excited to do something else (e.g., write articles about game strategy). But because they’re so entrenched in their original self-branding, they don’t give themselves permission to actually do the thing that brings them joy. The result is that their content ends up feeling like a chore.

So I’d say this: Let this answer be fluid, and leave room to add to it later. What brings you joy today might be different than what brings you joy tomorrow.

Oh, and be open to finding the limits of your joy. For example, I like making videos about game design. I don’t, however, enjoy editing videos–if I added editing to the process, I would no longer find joy in filming my thoughts. So most of the videos I make are single unedited takes (Joe adds some nice flourishes to my long-form videos).

What Are You Good At?

Go ahead, give yourself some affirmation and acknowledge the things you’re good at. Think about your past few jobs, your hobbies, your relationships, your education, etc. What tasks have you been proud of? What types of compliments have you received?

I particularly love the intersection between this and the joy question. I bet you’re very good at something that you don’t particularly enjoy, and I also bet you love doing something that you’re not particularly good at. Find the overlap.

What Is the Work That Needs Doing?

This is such a big question that I think it works best when you already have an overarching topic in mind. For the How to Save a Planet, it’s addressing climate change. For you, it might be about starting something new (a company, media, game, etc), or it might be a decision within something you’ve already started. That’s where the question, “What problem needs solving?” might be slightly more helpful.

Honestly, a huge chunk of my job involves (a) trying to solve problems and (b) trying to identify potential problems and preventing them from happening. I’m learning to frame these solutions within the context of the other two questions (joy and ability).

For example, many game companies attend Gen Con, so for a few years, Stonemaier Games had a modest presence at the convention. But I wouldn’t say we were particularly good at it, and it brought us considerably more exhaustion than joy. But that wasn’t the case for Meeplesource, a long-time partner: They’re very good at Gen Con, and they have a lot of fun with it. So Meeplesource now represents Stonemaier Games at Gen Con (specifically, pre- and post-pandemic).

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I don’t necessarily think there is a correct order to asking these questions, as the answer ends up being the intersection of all three (the answers found in each circle). I hope this exercise is helpful for you the next time you’re wondering what you should do–I’d love to hear the results in the comments below!

Also, here’s an interesting tidbit I learned from the podcast: The thin type of plastic used for bubble wrap is rarely used for recycling (i.e., recycling centers rarely process it) and can even clog up recycling machines, whereas paper is much more easily recycled. Something to consider when you talk to your fulfillment centers about packaging options.

Also read:

• The First Barrier Is the Biggest
• An Open Letter to Game Designers

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