Go Big or Go Home

It’s an incredible joy to be in a real house again. To say go and see what I expect. To focus every light with the proper colors. To hear a crisp, clear sound, and have space to move, change, and work off stage. The stage hands are great: efficient, fast, friendly and they were proud of their job. I love that. Why it’s such a unique situation is beyond me. Over the past couple weeks I have run into various people who enjoy work. Mike is the cleanest and most precise sound guy thus far and all of this good service is accompanied by an upbeat attitude. Kim at a truck stop with Taco Bell had fun with her co-worker. Not only did they get the job done properly, but they played a game to see how fast they could get it done which made all of us chuckle.

Does my attitude communicate a similar love for my job or do I just go through the motions? I’ve met too many people on the road who just do what they can to get the job done and leave. Of course, they’re not paid or compensated for the extra energy and attitude adjustment, but I doubt I could find a person who wouldn’t appreciate this extra bit of intentionality and optimism whether at the coffee shop, gas station, hair salon, bank, office, or school. What would a world be like if these unique moments of people going above an beyond become common place? Would the standard go up again?

The hypothetical utopia of attitudes and actions doesn’t have to be so fantastical. Instead we need to examine our motivation and reactions to circumstance and see if they are suitable or if they’re just the easy/lazy answer. One of my coaches said to do one more push up then what we thought possible. If I could do 25 in a row, I should do 26 just to make sure I gave my all. Push ups are easy to count and better, but that doesn’t mean they require any less intentionality.

Thoughts along the same vein from Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird:
Anne Dillard has said that day by day you have to give the work before you all the best stuff you have, not saving up for later projects. If you give freely, there will always be more. This is a radical proposition that runs so contrary to human nature, or at least to my nature, that I personally keep trying to find loopholes in it...You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to have to be its own reward