Scott Dinsmore quit a job that made him miserable, and spent the next four years wondering how to find work that was joyful and meaningful. He shares what he learned in this deceptively simple talk about finding out what matters to you — and then getting started doing it.

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Glossary

• sage – profoundly wise
• screw up – completely mismanage or mishandle a situation.
• embody – be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling)
• dorm – a large bedroom for a number of people in a school or institution
• repository – a place where or receptacle in which things are or may be stored
• framework – a basic structure underlying a system, concept, or text
• bitty – tiny

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Think about it

Answer the questions below. Stop at times indicated in brackets.

• What advice did Scott’s friend give him? How had Scott’s attitude changed over time? (1:39)
• What happened to 80% of the people Scott met to talk to about their jobs? (2:58)
• How can we become self-experts? What do we need to identify to be able to define what success means to us? (6:47)
• Why should you do the impossible? (10:46)
• What is the best way to do the impossible? (14:47)

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Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words. Use ONE word per blank space.

But as I ________ doing this, more and ________ people started to ask me, “You’re into this career thing. I don’t like my job. Can we sit down ________ lunch?” I’d say, “Sure.” But I would have to warn them, because at this point, my quit rate was also 80 percent. Of the people I’d sit down ________ for lunch, 80 percent would quit their job within two months. I was proud ________ this, and it wasn’t that I had any special magic. It was that I would ask one simple question. It was, “Why are you doing the work that you ________ doing?” And so often their answer would be, “Well, because somebody told me I’m supposed to.” And I realized that _______ many people around us are climbing their way up this ladder that someone tells them to climb, and it ends up being leaned up against the wrong wall, or no wall ________ all.

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Explore it more

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