Being a Professional

Show up, do your work, go home.

Show up on time, do your best work, go home feeling accomplished.

Show up on time so you can focus without early distractions (like email, or the mess from yesterday), do your best work because the world needs it and your company enables it, go home feeling accomplished because you did something that moved you towards the change you seek to make.

Amateurs do the work because they have to. Professionals do the work because it’s important and the world would suffer if they didn’t.

All-day uniform

If you didn’t go to Catholic School growing up or wear a uniform to school, this won’t make sense to you. If you did, I’m about to unlock a memory you didn’t know you had.

There were days in grade-school and high school, usually in the winter, when I would come home from school and not change out of my uniform. I would keep it on, to watch TV, do homework, eat dinner with the family, and even play video games. There was something uplifting about those days. They almost made me feel accomplished.

I had a couple of those days last week. I wore my teacher’s uniform (button down and khakis) for about 14 hours, from 7:00am to 9:00pm because there just wasn’t enough time to shower and change. Just like when I was a kid, I felt productive, accomplished, and even encouraged.

I went to bed tired but relieved that the next day was Friday.

I never understood why teachers complained. How hard could it be, getting summers off?

Add up all the hours teachers work in a year and it’s equal, if not more, than a typical 9 to 5. Teachers just work 10 hour days every day, and on the weekends. You could average it to 12 hours each work day, easily. And this doesn’t even include planning and preparing in the summer.

50 weeks of work each year x 40 hours per week = 2,000 hours of work each year

180 days of work each year x 12 hour per day = 2,160 hours of work each year

The next time somebody says, “Yeah but teachers have it easy because they have off in the summer,” you have my permission to remove yourself from that conversation before your only option is to resort to violence.

What are you learning?

This question can save you a lot of headaches.

As human beings, we want to have purpose. We want our lives to be meaningful, and we want to do work that matters. We want to be remembered for the great things we did.

When you realize you’re not living up to your potential, you’ll be upset. You may sink into a depressive episode and not recognize yourself. Menial tasks like emptying the dishwasher will feel daunting. You will feel like the things you do don’t matter.

In these circumstances, ask yourself this: what are you learning? Every moment proposes the opportunity to learn, and all tasks can be made meaningful if they have a purpose.

Let learning be that purpose. Learning is what makes us human. There’s always something to learn, always something to make you feel more human. Like you matter.

You definitely matter.