Apply yourself

Thanks to Sash and her love for shoes, over the past few months I must have entered at least about 50 shoe shops. She has educated me on how to pick the right shoe, what color matches your outfit, what's in style and most importantly what you should pay for a decent pair of footwear (or babies as she refers to them).

As I entered this particular shoe shop I often heard a GROAN from the shop assistant. It was always a 'AAAAOOOOOO'. To me, the girl looked like a pudgy little monster, so at first I thought that the groans were simply the sound of her breathing. But as I observed her more, I realized her groans were directed directly at me. Very often she would smile too, but the groans were the same! So I set out to find out what those groans actually meant and to my surprise...

the pudgy monster was saying Hello!

She had been trained to greet visitors and so she was simply doing as she was told.  As long as she sounded like she was saying hello she had done her job! So she didn't care how the customer heard it - that wasn't part of her job. she took no pride in even saying hello!

As usual  - this got me thinking. Why would somebody who was perfectly capable of pronouncing HELLO - groan it instead?

And I can only think of one reason. That pudgy monster didn't like the job she was working at. She believed she was made for better things. She probably worked there just for the money so she could make ends meet. And the truth is many of us go through this stage in our life. We take on a job to make ends meet or as a means to an end!

And as we work at our job we just do a job! We refuse to apply ourselves because we believe we're made for better things. We think we don't deserve to be doing such a low level job or that we're being unappreciated!

The problem is - that attitude will take us nowhere in life. True successes apply themselves at everything they do. No matter how big or small their job is - they give it their all. They add value, make things easier and experiences more pleasant! They do more than what they're being paid for!

As I complain about the pudgy monster I'm asking myself if I could apply myself more too. And the answer is always yes. We can always complain less and do more.

So the question is - Are you giving your job your ALL? Or are you just doing a job?