It was a Friday night back in March 2019 and, as I was travelling home, I just knew that something had changed. We’d run a two day workshop that week that had (rather unconventionally for an academic in an engineering faculty) brought together artists, medics, engineers, a philosopher, astrophysicist, museum curator, and a historian. I felt refreshed, enthused, excited and was reeling a bit from feeling like my mind had been a little bit blown. The conversations had been fascinating, the topics disparate, and everyone there had come with energy and willingness to share and consider different perspectives. I was buzzing. Not only had I enjoyed that time, I realised that I’d had the opportunity to find the themes that connected all those seemingly disparate dots, and that that had been valued by the others in the group. I realised that I was feeling so energised because I’d been doing something that I was good at, with people who were positive, interested and interesting, and willing to explore.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
As a society we are often asking children ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ It becomes about roles they would like to fulfil rather than who they would like to be. That mindset often follows us into adulthood. We are encouraged to have goals like being a professor or a CEO rather than articulating our goals in terms of the type of things we’d like to do and think about, and the type of setting we’d like to do that in. We’re all about encouraging people to have a personal BHAG (a big hairy audacious goal) which is amazing, but we subconsciously slip into putting a label like a job title on that goal rather than what we would really like to be.
That’s why coming away from that workshop felt different. I realised that when you’re doing what you’re good at, and what gives you energy, it transforms what you are doing from achieving tasks and goals, to being who you are. I resolved in March 2019 to think more about how I could ‘go where the energy is’ in a more comprehensive way.
Enjoy the journey, don’t get too hung up about the destination
Going where the energy is is not just about feeling good. It’s a principle that, if we can get our arms around it, can change our lives. When we give ourselves permission to do what we enjoy, that almost always corresponds with what we’re good at. If we’re doing what we are good at, we can enjoy each day on its own merits (even on hard days) and actually be more free from worrying about where we ‘need’ to get to in the longer term. It doesn’t mean that we’re rudderless or we don’t have goals, or don’t do the hard and necessary things. But it means that the longer term goals need not be so rigid, so we don’t close off opportunities we might not even be aware of yet and are free to take opportunities that arise even if they don’t meet the conventional pathways. Ultimately, it opens our eyes to the journey without getting too hung up on the final destination, because we can be sure that when we’re doing what gives us energy, opportunities will present themselves and we’ll have the freedom to take them. The other brilliant thing about going where the energy is, is that it can be a great guide for making strategic decisions about what to do and also what not to do.
How to go where the energy is
So how can we go where the energy is in real life? We’re still on this journey for sure but here are 4 next steps:
1. take the time to reflect and consider what makes you you, what are your gifts? What are you great at? What gives you energy? What are you doing when time disappears in the blink of an eye and even when you’ve been working hard you feel energetic?
2. Once we know who we are and what we love we can be open-minded when an opportunity comes our way. It may not seem like the logical next step but what could be learnt from it and is it something that will be, dare we say it, fun?
3. Giving ourselves permission to take those opportunities is important too – it might be risky, we might not know where it might take us, but it could be somewhere great.
4. As Tim Ferriss said, “what you don’t do determines what you can do” and so working out what to say ‘no’ to is a hallmark of a great leader. Going where the energy is gives us permission to say no to things that don’t give us energy.
Our experience of going where the energy is has certainly not taken us on the road well-travelled. But what it has done is opened our eyes to the world and what is out there. It has brought us into collaborations with people who are very different to us but are awesome and have challenged us and taught us huge amounts. And the very best thing about this is that going where the energy is has actually changed the courses of our careers and made them far more fun! Going where the energy is reveals your gifts, and creates more opportunities to share those gifts. The amazing thing about that? It changes the future.
little BIG ideas
A little summary of this big idea using the 1000 most common words
Instead of thinking about what you want to be when you grow up, think about who you want to be. Always try new things so that you can find what you are good at and what you enjoy - if you do, you will be surprised and find new things you are good at. Knowing what you want to be helps you to find other people you can work with to change the world.