Four Daily Criterion

Darryl Ohrt consistently produces very divergent and relevant content. I’ve been visiting his blog regularly for about a year, and it’s pretty awesome.

He founded an agency, Humongo, some 15 years ago.

He recently left.

He wrote about it in AdAge.

What caught my eye were four questions he asks himself:

“For me, the ultimate decision came down to a few factors. I found that I couldn’t answer “yes” to all of these questions:

• Are you doing something that scares you nearly every day?
• Are you having fun every day?
• Are you proud of what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day?
• Are you consistently learning something new?”

These are pretty good criterion.

The first criterion is about comfort zone. If you’re not leaving the comfort zone consistently, you’re not growing, and chances are, you’re risking very little.

The second criterion is about sustainability. If you’re not having fun, you’re going to burn out.

The third criterion is about progress. If you can’t point to any, and your no closer to your mission, then you’re not progressing.

The fourth criterion is about growth. If you’re not adding to yourself, you’re not growing.

The unit of ‘day’ is an interesting one.

Clearly, for Darryl, he had gotten into mud for quite some time. It had reached a threshold.

Since we’re all subject to be anchor-and-adjust phenomenon, it might be good to record how you feel at the end of each day. Answer each of the four criterion, and if you quantitatively see a negative trend, take action.

We spend a lot of time measuring the satisfaction of everyone else. Perhaps it’s time to start measuring your own.