There's A Job To Do
There's a job to do. It needs to get done. But within that job are infinite possibilities. How we look at those possibilities directly affects what we put into our work and of course, what we get out of it.
When I worked in cafes, I never thought of my job as prepping and shipping units of coffee. If I had, I probably would have been a barista for 6 months instead of 10 years. Every day was an experiment. Here are a few nuggets that made each day interesting:
Any given morning I was likely the first person someone would interact with outside of their family. I had the opportunity to make that interaction awesome and set the tone for their day.
Getting someone's drink to them by the time they got to the register instead of waiting for the order to come through. It's a game — if you're on time, you're behind. It made people feel special.
Buying someone coffee when they're having a shitty day. For less than a tenth of my tips for the day, I could buy someone coffee and brighten their day. (Baristas note: this is different than giving out free coffee, you have to pay to play.)
I'm naturally shy. Each day gave me the opportunity to experiment socially and build my confidence. No matter how awkward I was feeling, I got a fresh start with a new guest every 30 seconds.
You can learn a lot in small chunks compounded over time. Pushing past generic greetings and pleasantries opened up a whole new world of learning and exposure to interesting subcultures. I tried to learn something new every day.
The list could go on and on. When I zoom out, it's clear to me that I saw my time behind the counter as an opportunity to spark joy in other people and to push through personal barriers — much more engaging than putting brown water into tiny cups.
All of these things allowed me to have some autonomy and works towards a bigger purpose while staying in the lane of "doing my job."
Of course, we will all grow out of jobs, have the desire to try different things, and at some point probably have a job that we hate. But if we're clocking in for eight hours, we might as well make it count.
How do you view the work you're doing? What possibilities can you tap into right now to make work more rewarding for yourself and others?