Your time here is finite, so choosing the pursuits—personal and professional—that deliver the greatest returns on that time is essential.

You'll come across a lot of advice that says to follow your interests and passions, but I've always found that guidance to be a bit tricky.

What do those words—interests and passions—really mean?

I don't know about you, but I tend to lie to myself and say that I have an interest in things that I'm good at, so interest can be deceiving. And passion is a heavy term, one that I'm never fully convinced I'm applying correctly when it comes to my life.

My solution: I focus on energy, not interests or passion.

Follow your energy, because it is a truly scarce resource. When you have energy for something, you go deep on it, you push to grow, you gain life from it. It fuels you.

So, as you contemplate the grand question of your life—how should I spend my time?—energy should take center stage in your consideration.

I use an exercise I call Pursuit Mapping to identify the pursuits that are most likely to bring joy and outsized rewards into my life.

Here’s how it works (and how you can use it to change your life):

Step 1: Create Your Map

The Pursuit Map is a blank 2x2 matrix, with the X-axis representing Competency Level (from low to high competency) and the Y-axis representing Energy (from energy draining to energy creating).

I define the terms as follows:

• Energy-Creating: A pursuit that creates energy in your life; these activities leave you feeling energized, they fill your cup.
• Energy-Draining: A pursuit that drains energy from your life; these activities leave you feeling drained, they empty your cup.
• High Competency: A pursuit in which you are skilled; these activities feel effortless.
• Low Competency: A pursuit in which you are a novice; these activities feel challenging.

The first step is to place pursuits—personal and professional—onto this matrix. For the purposes of this exercise, pursuits can be broadly-defined (e.g. strategy consulting) or specific activities (e.g. market research).

This step should include both pursuits you are currently engaged in and those that you may pursue in the future.

Current Pursuits

For pursuits that you are currently engaged in:

• Establish Energy: How do you feel while engaged in the pursuit? How do you feel after? Do you find the pursuit life-giving?
• Assess Competency: What is your view on your competency level? Ask others who have worked with you on this pursuit for their honest perspectives on your competency level.

Based on your responses, and those gathered from others, place each current pursuit on the 2x2 according to the Energy and Competency levels.

Prospective Pursuits

For pursuits that you are not currently engaged in:

• Gather Information: Talk to people who are engaged in these pursuits. Ask them about the details of the pursuits to create a baseline estimate of your energy. Remember that the surface level view on a pursuit may not be accurate—you may think being a lawyer seems great, but are you basing that on the television version of the role, or the actual day-to-day work that is required? Seek to understand the true, underlying details of the day-to-day in a given pursuit, not just the surface level information.
• Experiment: Choosing the right pursuits involves experimentation. Learn more about your energy for a given activity or pursuit by spending a day engaged in it. Shadow someone to test it out, take the new role on a trial basis. Gather deeper information through small, reversible actions.
• Assume Low Competency: With any new pursuit or activity, it is fair to assume you will start out with a low (or modest) competency level. Until you generate evidence to prove otherwise, this is the safe assumption.

Based on the information gathered from discussions and experimentation, place each prospective pursuit on the 2x2 according to the Energy and Competency levels.

With a populated Pursuit Map, you can proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Identify Your Zones

There are three key zones to consider on your Pursuit Map:

Zone of Genius

​In his 2010 book, The Big Leap, author Gay Hendricks proposed the novel idea of the Zone of Genius as the range of pursuits where you have excellent competency and high interest or passion.

In the context of my Pursuit Map matrix, I'd consider the Zone of Genius as the top-right quadrant, where your competency and energy collide.

This is your promised land: It is the sweet spot of pursuits where you will ideally spend most of your time, both professional and personal.

Zone of Hobby

This is the range of pursuits that create energy in your life, but on which you have a lower competency level.

This is where you would ideally spend the second biggest chunk of your time.

It’s ok for certain pursuits to remain in this Zone of Hobby (i.e. it’s ok to be bad at things!), but you will find that pursuits for which you feel a lot of energy tend to slowly shift to the right as you improve at them. Pursuits that start in the Zone of Hobby often end up in the Zone of Genius over time.

Zone of Danger

This is the range of pursuits that drain energy but on which you have a higher competency level.

It is a dangerous place to spend your time because you will be given positive feedback on your performance and feel tempted to spend more of your time here as a result.

The goal is to avoid the trap of these activities—or find ways to make them more energy-creating for your life.

Note: The bottom-left quadrant is what I would consider the dead zone in that pursuits here should generally be avoided due to being energy-draining and low competency. That being said, there are instances where something becomes energy-creating as you improve at it (ex: many novice runners fall in love with running as they improve their fitness), so writing off these pursuits completely may be a bad idea.

To assess the likelihood of a pursuit becoming energy-creating as competency improves, ask, "Do I love the good version of this?" In other words, if you imagine yourself at a modest or improved competency level at the pursuit, does it give you energy?

Step 3: Align Your Time

By placing the various pursuits on the map and identifying your core zones, you've developed a picture of the pursuits on which you should aim to spend your time.

The changes won’t happen overnight, but the goal is to slowly work towards incremental improvements:

1. Most of your time is spent on pursuits in your Zone of Genius.
2. Your remaining time is spent on pursuits in your Zone of Hobby.
3. Minimize the time spent on pursuits in your Zone of Danger.
4. Eliminate the time spent on pursuits in the dead zone (with the exception of those that survive the test in the note above).

If you work in a company, the best approach is to have a clear, candid conversation with your teams and managers about your Pursuit Map and zones.

If you are in a leadership role, encourage the full team to conduct a similar exercise—with everyone’s Pursuit Maps, it becomes easier to piece the puzzle together.

If you're running into a wall—with a company or manager who fails to recognize your perspectives—it may be time for a change. The market will eventually determine which companies survive by allowing for the free flow of talent to the places that allow employees to thrive in their highest form and function.

If you work on your own, be honest with yourself about what daily activities and pursuits fall into what zones. Be ruthless in outsourcing to maximize the time you spend in your Zone of Genius. Your results and performance will improve in line with your ability to execute.

The Pursuit of Happiness

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing." - Annie Dillard

Choosing the right pursuits is a direct path to a more purpose-filled, fulfilling, productive, and successful life.

Learn to follow your energy and you won't be led astray.

Conduct the Pursuit Map exercise and slowly start to work towards a world where your time is invested in the pursuits that provide the greatest rewards.