Show

No one faults the actor for putting on a show.

Most people don’t find Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood to be inauthentic. They find it entertaining and memorable.

That’s the beauty of a great film or play — they transport us to another world and create intense emotions that we remember long after the experience is over. That the world we’re engulfed in doesn’t exist and is simply a carefully crafted cocktail of people pretending to be other people doesn’t detract from the experience at all, in fact, it adds to it.

If you’re in the service industry you’re also in the entertainment industry. Every day you have the opportunity to create a memorable experience for someone. Creating that experience often means checking your emotional baggage at the door.

Feeling down? Overly stressed? Angry?

That’s fine. It happens to all of us.

It’s ok to name and claim our emotions but once we decide to clock in, step behind the counter, and enter into the realm of guest service we’re making a choice.

A choice to not let our negative energy bleed into the show and detract from the experience we’re trying to create.

Is it a challenge to do our best work when we’re not feeling our best? Sure. The flip side is, if we only do our best work when we feel our best, we won’t get much done.

So we put on a show. For the benefit of those around us. To build the muscle of doing hard, important work even when we don’t feel like it. To generate energy and create an emotional connection that will have a positive impact long after the experience is over.