Love Is A Decision
Love what you do!
I have seen this quote many, many times. When you come to the point in your life or career where you love what you do, the “work” is no longer work. Creativity and all your investment pays off. All your blood, sweat and tears are more meaningful.
This is not the case for many of us, however. There are times when you have to decide to love what you do. It’s the jobs we do before we get to the job we love that really impact our character and even our success for the work that we will love.
For 17 years I worked for an American restaurant chain from the ground up to Management. There were days, weeks, months when it sucked. Real bad. However, regardless of how I felt, I had to decide to love what I did. This seems like an unrealistic perspective.
Through out my restaurant career I saw many, many employees come and go and I saw a common thread. Those who hated their job, decided to hate it and it made their life miserable; as well as anyone who had the luck to work with them. I used to say, they had the disease; the disease of the mind. Like cancer it spreads fast and effects every part of your being and will.
If I had not decided to love what I did, I would have quit early, and would have never received the invaluable business/leadership education I was about to receive with people management. I would not have been prepared for my next step.
I love Ashton Kutcher’s famous advice at the Teen Choice Awards in 2013:
I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work. When I was 13 I had my first job with my Dad carrying shingles up to the roof, and then I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant, and then I got a job in a grocery store deli, and then I got a job in a factory sweeping Cheerio dust off the ground. And I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job, and every job I had was a stepping stone to my next job and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.
Deciding is an attitude of the heart. If you determine now, where you are at, to change your attitude and love what you do and love the process with which you are doing it, it will get you beyond just a job and provide opportunities that you would haven’t had if you decided to hate what you do.
Love is a decision.
