Something happened earlier this month and I lost my will to live. Just reached a point where everything seems pointless.
A lot of this is because of my job. Much of my effort is going into stuff that I am very qualified to handle, I’m arguably the most qualified and knowledgeable person in the organization regarding this stuff. But the work that I’m doing right now is really low in my skill set. And it’s killing me.
I hit the my emotional floor on Wednesday night. I started contemplating a career change that involved buying a gallon of Frontier Whiskey and becoming a professional alcoholic. Worked for Bukowski, why wouldn’t it work for me?
That night I had a cascade of dreams in which I was personally invited (in one case with a wax-paper replica of the Declaration of Independence arranged in the style of Mad-Libs) to participate in challenging projects that involved creativity and problem-solving. I woke up to the damn itching dog, took her downstairs to bathe her (and myself) in flea poison and had the epiphany that I should Google a systems approach to happiness. After all, when you feel like you’ve been spinning in an eddy for some time it’s a pretty good indication that there’s feedback process going on, perhaps a balancing loop.
This is all just a long way to say that I stumbled across something new to try – Finding Your Signature Strength. Actually this is something that I already know, and have worked on for some time. But I haven’t followed an organized approach. One idea, a miracle cure for depression apparently, is to take your top signature strength and use it in a new way.
This seems a bit vague – use your signature strength in a new way…when? How often? For how long? Well, seeing that my signature strength turns out to be “Creativity, Ingenuity, Originality” (you can take your own test here) I suppose I can make my own answers.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
