This Blog Could Change Your Life

One way to achieve happiness is to minimize what you don’t like to do, and maximize what you love to do. 

Ideally, you would also avoid what you’re not good at, and focus on what you’re great at. 

Of course, if you push this to the extreme, you could end up never going to the gym, and eating triple chocolate fudge cake all day. 

However that’s not how life works, and so that’s not exactly what we mean. 

To improve your level of bliss, take a moment to fill in our exclusive 4 quadrant happiness matrix. 

Well, apparently, it’s not so exclusive… Some call it the passion/skills matrix. 

The 4 quadrants are: 

1. What you’re bad at, and hate doing 

This is the quadrant of misery. This is one you should minimize at all cost (pun intended). 

Examples: ironing collared shirts, doing big dog spays, firing someone.

 

 

 

 

2. What you’re bad at, and love doing 

Examples: singing, painting, dancing. 

This quadrant can be called the growth spot. 

Only you can decide if honing your skills is worth it to you or not.

 

 

 

 

3. What you’re good at, and hate doing 

Examples: doing laundry, doing the dishes, taking the trash out, washing your car, cleaning the toilet, accounting, doing your taxes. 

If you hate doing something, even if you’re good at it, that is a task you should do anything in your power to delegate or outsource. And if you read the short list above again, those are things that are fairly easy to eliminate or at least minimize. 

So if you hate cleaning, consider hiring a cleaning person.

If you hate doing accounting and your taxes, pay a bookkeeper and a CPA to handle them for you. 

Now… few people like writing up records… but let’s face it, it’s hard to delegate (although even that is debatable). The goal is not to eliminate this quadrant, it’s to minimize it. 

Overall, this is the good riddance quadrant. These are tasks to consider throwing money at.

 

 

 

 

4. What you’re good at, and love doing 

This is the quadrant you should maximize. When your passions match your skills, you’ve found nirvana. 

As our BFF Confucius supposedly said: “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” 

This could include performing surgery or derm or cardio or dentistry.

It could be writing or playing tennis.

It could be playing the violin, hiking or walking your dog.

It could be real estate.

It could be creating businesses. 

This quadrant is the Holy Grail. It often includes your hobbies and self-care.

 

 

 

 

Of course, the examples above could be radically different for you. Some people hate running, some love it. Some people love ironing, some hate it. Some people hate surgery, some love it. 

This is the reason why you need to fill in the 4 quadrants for yourself.

 

 

 

 

So print them, or create 4 squares on a piece of paper, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit in your favorite spot, and take a few minutes to fill it in.

 

 

 

 

Take it seriously.

It could change your life.

Phil Zeltzman, DVM, DACVS
Meredith Jones, DVM
Co-Founders of Veterinary Financial Summit