Putting on Our Work Clothes

As we grew up we learned that ‘four letter words’ were not always welcome. They were ‘bad’ words and never to be spoken. Unfortunately for many people, W-O-R-K has become one of those four letter words. It is not that people do not want to work, full time employment is what people desire, or at least the financial benefits of working full time. The challenge comes when WORK is treated like a four letter word.

I spoke with a young woman who was asked to take on more in her current role. She told her boss she would think about it. When she was telling me her sob story (which is what she called it) I had to smile. I let her wax on and on about how unfair it was, that is not what she was hired to do, she wondered if the extra work would go away…blah, blah,blah. I had to be patient while I listened as she had many turmoils and troubles to share over this ask. Eventually she stopped after she told me that she didn’t want to have to work that hard in her job…maybe she needed to find another job.

Oh how our perspectives change over our lives. She saw the extra work as a punishment. I saw it as an opportunity. Like this quote – trouble is opportunity in work clothes – there was a choice before her and she didn’t even know it. Many of my best life lessons, career moments, extraordinary opportunities came disguised as hard work. It meant digging in, working hard for many nights and weekends, and it even meant not doing other things until the hard work was completed. It meant being proud of my accomplishments for the work most people didn’t want to do. I put on my work clothes and got busy.

I let my young friend wax on some more, then silence enveloped the room. She looked at me and asked, “What do you think?” AHHHHH! The phrase that opens many doors and let me share with her my very different perspective. She listened, frowned a little and then we chatted about the opportunities that hard work brings. I ended by letting her know she has a choice, she always has a choice. She gets to choose what kind of person, employee, leader she wants to become as she grows her life and career. Was she going to dig in, or do only what was asked? Was she a forward thinker or a victim? Did she see the opportunity or only the punishment?

Each day in life we have choices to make. Often those choices are disguised as hard work, messy projects and possibly things we would rather not do. Good news is we always have a choice. We get to choose by our actions and our attitude how we are going to progress through life. Are we an achiever who willingly does the work? Do we gladly work hard to grow ourselves and our skills? Or are we content to stay where we are and suffer the consequences of the path not taken? People will tell us what to do, yet only we can choose who we want to be and how we want to work. We get to choose to take advantage of the benefits and bridges that putting on our work clothes provides…it just means we have to be willing to actually do the work.