The rantings of Stoney the Younger

There is a saying, “when you love what you do you will never work a day in your life.” I don’t have to explain that this isn’t meant to be taken literally. You may have heard people say, “I love my job”, or “I absolutely love what I do”. You may have even said that about your own vocation. Having the right attitude about your work will inspire you to do the best job you can. That can certainly bring great joy and satisfaction. But, if you were offered a vacation for two weeks vs working those two weeks, even at a job you absolutely love, I dare to say almost anyone would choose the vacation. Because, loving your job is a relative term.

Love has so many different meanings when used in different contexts. I love eating pizza but I also love my wife. Same word, vastly different feelings and meaning of the word. So when you love what you do there are levels to why people say that. Maybe in comparison to other jobs, the benefits you have, the money you make, the flexibility you have. But more than likely there are elements to the job you don’t love so much. Those negatives are often overshadowed by the positives, leading people to use the blanket term they love what they do. So it’s usually about the mindset people have towards their careers, or where they are in their career. Perhaps you are in a layover type of job until you get to where you actually want to be, but still making the best of it. So what is your attitude towards work in general?

If your overall attitude towards making a living is begrudgingly reporting to your post everyday then yeah, you aren’t ever going to say “I love what I do”. More so, the people you work with and the consumers you interact with are going to be able to tell. Which could lead to being warned from management about your demeanor, making you even more unmotivated, repeating the cycle, eventually getting fired and turning into a curmudgeon… I warned you this was a rant… But it doesn’t have to be like that, even if its a job that you don’t really plan to make a career.

When I was a child I never told my parents that I wanted to clean windows when I grow up. I did have a phase where I was determined to be a garbage man, but that was mainly because I wanted to hang on to the back of a moving vehicle like Marty McFly getting around Hill Valley on his skateboard. While the desire to be adventurous never left me the dreams of collecting other peoples trash faded away. So far in fact I had no clue about what I wanted to do to make a living. My first job was shining shoes for a local repair shop. (Every 16 year old’s dream right?) It was actually a really cool job! I got to learn how shoes were repaired, best ways to clean and maintain your footwear and I even got to learn the retail side of it. My boss taught me to work the register and help customers find things while I wasn’t shining shoes. I didn’t love the work, but I did like what I was learning and the fact I had some money in my wallet.

I eventually left the repair shop and worked briefly at a really nice athletic club, not my favorite job but I did like the free membership and I learned a lot about washing and folding towels. Then I took a gig at a local hardware store which if it paid more would have been one of my favorite jobs. It was in a really cool old building and it was exactly what you think of when you imagine a neighborhood hardware store. I learned what a point of sale system was (he had an actual computer, not an old register like the shoe place) got to learn about all the different tools and what they did and got to interact with local contractors. I was also taught a couple of practical skills like replacing window screens and cutting pieces of glass and re-glazing them. I was 17 going on 18 and I could say, to a point, “I love what I do”. But I also didn’t have bills or any sort of responsibility, the money I was making was to have fun.

After graduation I continued to work odd jobs with a family friend doing handyman type work while I took a few classes at the community college, still trying to figure things out. Then I figured it out, I don’t want to go to college. Education is important but there are so many ways to learn things aside from the traditional collegiate route. I had skills and knowledge of real world things that most of my high school peers didn’t, so that was where my graduating class and I parted ways. I increased the time I was working and that increased the skills I was learning as a result. I loved seeing walls and doors that needed to be cleaned and painted after we got done with it. It was such a satisfying feeling to see the fruits of your labor. Again, I didn’t love the work, but the negatives were outweighed by the fact I was doing something that gave me tangible results in the end. Not just a paycheck but being able to show people and proudly say “I did that”. Sadly, the family friend I was working with moved away and I was too much of a squirrel minded idiot to take over and actually run a business at that point. But I had made a couple of connections and worked out a situation with a contact of my former employer where I was going to… LEARN TO CLEAN WINDOWS!

I talked a little about this in the “Using the Skills you Have” post and the other details really aren’t that interesting (as if any of this other non sense is) but this was a skill I stuck with and 15 years later still do. I don’t love cleaning windows. But I am providing a service with tangible results. You can see the stark difference between a clean and dirty piece of glass. I am also making connections and interacting with all kinds of people and those benefits go beyond just billing them for the work. I have the time I want with my family and have a business that my children can learn if they want to. Are there negatives? Sure! But as mentioned, the positives outweigh the negatives, especially if I work hard to keep the right attitude.

So in a balanced and relative way I can say, “I love what I do.”