Instrumental versus Fundamental Reasons for Work

I've been reading The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and I came across a concept I thought was worth sharing. In this page, Johnny's career fairy talks about doing things for either fundamental or instrumental reasons. She explains that people do things for instrumental reasons because they think it's "going to lead to something else" such as career advancement etc, even if it's not something that's enjoyable. People do things for fundamental reasons because they think it's the right thing to do.

The idea is that we can't really plan our career out because there's to much uncertainty. We shouldn't take jobs or assignments because we think they'll get us ahead. We should do the things that provide us satisfaction, align with our inner soul, or fulfill a higher purpose.

The successful people are those that do the things they want to do, not the things they think they need to do to get ahead.

A hot new book

As I was reading some of my usual blogs, I came across two different references for the book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. It's a career guide written in manga, the Japanese style of comics.

Watch the trailer.