When you work a job, you are a one-person
Business with only one customer. If you lose
the customer, you are out of business.
– J –
The age-old question “Does the dog wag the tail, or does the tail wag the dog?” I never figured the 
answer to this one out, although I have often pondered it. Tonight, while I was folding socks, which ordinarily isn’t a big deal, but in our house, we have a basked with about 100-150 pairs of socks that people dive into and grab what they need instead of organizing them. Until dad just can’t take it
anymore and the OCD finally causes me to match them at 1:30 am. I realized that it wasn’t a job it was a task, and I should allow myself to be in the moment and feel what I was doing was bringing value to the rest of the family.
What’s the difference?
A job is something that you must do because it must be done. It’s usually a somewhat negative experience, and even when it’s done, it may not be fulfilling because you know that you will need to do it again. Often thankless and uninterrupted by entertainment, the job can be the real down in anyone’s day. To make things worse, it is often regulated by a manager that doesn’t wish to be there. They went to college and thought they would get their dream job, and at the end of the day, they happened to land and opportunity that when they started, they would just do it until their real job came to them. Only to be welcomed to year after year of unenjoyable frustration.
Now if one were to rewrite the script or change the lens through which they did the activity. Break it down into its core pieces. We call these tasks. Tasks you can manage and handle. There is seldom a lot of thought or emotion put into a task, and when it’s done, you can truly feel good a sense of relief it’s done. When you go to a store and they act like the end of the workday can never come quickly enough. But have you ever experienced someone who just loves what they are doing? They are simply excited about each activity as if it was a discovery.
Having Pride
When I speak on the topic of employment, I often refer to employees as doing just enough not to get fired. It’s sad, but in this day an age once someone gets the job, they often feel as if they don’t have to work as hard anymore because they earned the job. It’s almost a sense of entitlement. They feel that because they show up to work, that’s most of the job. The rest is merely semantics that doesn’t require any additional effort unless they are in a team leadership or management position. Frustratingly enough they find that no matter how hard they work they never get a raise or an improved position above their coworkers who are doing just enough not to get fired. In fact, some companies offer a standardized incentive package that everyone gets the same income increase. Truthfully this never made a lot of sense to me or to many of the people with whom I speak about this topic.
As I folded the socks, I began to smile. I went back to the days when I did marketing for hotels. I would sometimes find a need to go to the housekeeping department and the laundry area. I whisked away as quickly as possible as I was in management and the girls were worried I would get lint on my suit. But, I was always so pleased with the pride with which they did their job. They were honored to have a job and thought of themselves as lucky. Many of them didn’t even speak English. Sadly the American graduates often wouldn’t accept the position. These men and woman deserve the utmost respect. It was often over 100 degrees in the laundry room and never a complaint about it. They were always smiling and happy to be at work and worked the same level of high end for minimum wage every day. My wish is that others people had the same effort.
Being happy
Because of my extensive history of customer service I love to go into stores and hear Welcome!!! But, 
sadly sometimes it’s just store policy. I usually get a warm fuzzy feeling and say “Thank you, how are you today?” When they don’t answer my heart falls, and I feel like “I just got robbed!!!” So, if your one of those people and you know who you are… Answer people when they ask, some of us care and want to have a sincere and authentic conversation about how your day is going. And another thing, if I ask you what’s up that you’re having a bad day, I’m a stranger, and it may feel strange but feel free to tell me what’s bothering you. Sometimes just talking about it will help you, and it makes me feel good to help a stranger.
Being a task handler means taking each part of the job and breaking it up. Next, crush each task as if it’s the most important thing in the world. I’m not suggesting having pride is a bad thing either, but at the least feel satisfied with the work you do. I remember a story about a man who said: “If I’m a janitor I will leave the cleanest floors around, people will know my floors and say I did it.” If you want to be more successful, or wish to make more money, it starts with providing more value. That means working hard for the sake of doing a good job, not because you need to do just enough just to get the paycheck at the end of the week.