Training For Your Dream Job

We all clock in for eight hours, however not all eight hours are created equal.

Eight hours where you’re disengaged and grumpy with one eye on the door is a long, slow, unrewarding eight hours

You’re not creating great experiences for the guests you’re interacting with.

You’re not an asset to your organization.

You’re not doing a great job for yourself.

“Who cares? I don’t even like this job. This job is just a placeholder–a temporary stop along the way. I’ll kick things into gear when I get the job I actually want.”

The idea that you’ll show up every day unengaged for years and then, once you get the job you actually want, you’ll magically turn it on and show up as a professional is laughable. Since you’re building a reputation for showing up and doing the bare minimum you likely won’t even get that opportunity. (You might think no one’s watching but as they say, the streets talk.)

If by some stroke of luck you do land your dream job, you won’t be equipped to handle it. Not because you’re not smart enough or don’t have the potential, but because you haven’t built the muscle of doing things that are hard. You haven’t practiced seeing things through the guests' eyes or from the organization's perspective. You have very little practical empathy and are probably also not a great team player. (All of these things are interrelated.)

So we shift our perspective about our eight hours.

We have eight hours to train, to learn, to grow. Eight hours dedicated to leaving the people, places, and projects we touch in a better place than we found them.

This changes everything. Instead of watching the clock to see when our shift ends, we’re immersed in our work. People smile at us. We smile back. Since we’re engaged we begin to connect the dots and see how our work matters. We go home fulfilled even if we’re dead tired.

While we might not have our dream job, we get to build our reputation, interpersonal skills, and the muscle of doing things that are hard–all things that will serve us on the path to that job, and in every other aspect of our life.

Think about it this way: What if you got paid to spend eight hours a day training for your dream job? Most of us have that opportunity right now and we don’t even realize it.