Picture a kid on the kitchen floor, an old radio in pieces around them, completely lost in figuring out how it works.
That kid is still in you.
So many of us carry a quiet ache. We want to make something meaningful with our lives, and we feel fuzzy about where to begin. We keep waiting to discover our one true passion before we start.
In 2023, the essayist Paul Graham published a long, generous essay called How to Do Great Work, distilled from years of studying how ambitious people do their best work. Its answer to that ache is surprisingly gentle. Follow your curiosity, and let the work show you the way.
Curiosity Is the Compass
Great work grows from something wonderfully ordinary. You follow what you’re curious about, curious to a degree that might bore everyone else. You learn it deeply, you notice the open gaps waiting to be filled, and you explore them with steady, joyful effort.
I love how human that is.
The essay names curiosity, delight and the wish to make something impressive as the strongest motives behind great work. Curiosity leads the way through every stage. It chooses the field, it carries you to the edge of what’s known, and it helps you spot the open questions waiting there.
So instead of asking, “What is my passion?” try asking, “What am I already curious about this week?”
The second question is easy to answer. That’s the beauty of it.
The Work Shows You the Way
The way to figure out what to work on is by working.
Paul Graham, How to Do Great Work, July 2023
This line feels like permission.
So many of us wait for clarity before we begin. This flips the order. Clarity arrives through doing. You start, you notice what lights you up, you adjust, and the path draws itself under your feet.
The essay also encourages a habit of working on your own projects, the ones you choose for yourself. A garden. A podcast. A notebook of recipes. A song you play for yourself at midnight.
Our Start Early Today podcast is over four hundred episodes of exactly that, one curious morning at a time.
Small Steady Progress Builds Something Big
This is my favorite part of the whole idea. Consistency compounds. A little steady work on something you love builds on itself, and good work lifts your spirits, which helps you do even better work the next day.
Research on everyday work agrees. In their Harvard Business Review article on small wins, Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer reported that, of everything that lifted people’s emotions and motivation during a workday, the single most powerful was making progress in meaningful work, even small progress.
Small wins. Every day. That’s the whole engine.
If you love the feeling of getting lost in a task, my post on flow state pairs beautifully with this.
Your Morning Practice, Follow the Spark
- List three curiosities. Write down three things you’ve loved learning about lately.
- Circle the tug. Choose the one that keeps pulling at your attention.
- Make something small. Spend twenty minutes making, writing or trying something with it.
- Catch one question. Notice one new question the work raises and write it down.
- Return tomorrow. Give it twenty more minutes and let the questions lead.
If twenty minutes feels like a lot, then begin with five and let that count as a full win.
The Kid With the Radio Knew All Along
Picture that kid again, radio in pieces, eyes bright.
They were already doing great work. Curious. Absorbed. Happy to follow one question to the next.
You get to work that way too, starting this morning.
What has been quietly tugging at your curiosity lately?
Start early. Start curious. Start today.
Complement this with Feeling the Weeks Fly By? Count Your Saturdays and Spend Them on What Matters, Running Short on Time? Arnold Bennett Hands You a Full Purse of Hours Every Morning and if then planning.
For further reading, my Make Pure Thy Heart essay Get Still, Get Curious sits right beside this one.
Want a calm, intentional start every day? Hold Until Sunrise is our little app for mornings that matter.
For a little goodness in your inbox every Sunday, join us here.
With love, Paolo
Sources
- Paul Graham, How to Do Great Work, July 2023
- Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, The Power of Small Wins, Harvard Business Review, May 2011
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Carry this into tomorrow morning
The practice in this post lives in an app we built, Hold Until Sunrise. Your alarm becomes a moment of stillness. You hold your phone, rest with one affirmation, and let the sunrise welcome you into the day. Begin tomorrow gently and on your own terms. Find it on the App Store here.