Alan Mulally Module 5: One Life – Life’s Work
What if your one life was your life’s work? That’s a question former Boeing and Ford CEO Alan Mulally continues to ponder.
In this final module, Mulally looks at work, life, and finding a greater balance greater than the one you expect.
‘Love made visible’
Mulally first asks, “What is our one life?” before breaking it down into five smaller components:
- Work life
- Family life
- Spiritual life
- Community life
- Personal life
Engaging in those components should be your “life’s work,” Mulally contends. Moreover, you shouldn’t consider it work.
“What if your work is not work? Like something different than not work?” he asks. “What if your work is your love made visible?”
The latter question comes from the poem “On Work” by Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran. In the poem, Gibran posits that when we fuel our work with passion and love, we’re not only more likely to achieve our goals but find joy in that alignment.
Conversely, those who don’t enjoy their work will find their efforts less successful. As he writes further:
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils [sic] a poison in the wine.
Kahlil Gibran, On Work
Mulally looks at the phrase from a similar, yet different perspective. Breaking life down into those five components, he asks whether or not you’re fueling each of those aspects with passion and purpose.
“What do you think about all those aspects of your life?” he asks. “What’s important to you? What’s compelling to you? What do you want to make sure you do your very best to serve that life?”
Balancing all lives
At a time when we’re “all over the map,” it becomes imperative to think about each aspect of your life and its importance, Mulally says.
That’s what everyone’s thinking about,” he says. “What do you think of your work life? … your family life… same thing on spiritual life. Same thing on community life. Just look at what you’re doing … and then your personal life. If you integrate those, you would have one life, and it’d be your life’s work. ”
Lifelong learning and continuous improvement will always be a part of you, Mulally says, but to see if you’re truly balancing all aspects of your life, simply look at a calendar.
Mulally suggests coupling the calendar with this attached diagram (see below) and figuring out how much time and attention you’re putting into each aspect.
“And be honest about that,” he says. “And what’s going to happen is that if you are, and you think this out, and you review this regularly, you’re going to have one life, and it’s going to be your life’s work.”
Related Resources
Working Together Life’s Work diagram
Alan Mulally on leading transformation
Category : Leadership
Topics : Leadership, Peak Performer, Work-Life Balance
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