Day 48: A Miserable Job

I like to read. I love every kind of book . . . well, I don't really love biographies, but I try to read one or two a year just to broaden my horizons.

Anyway, one of my favorite books is a leadership book called, "Three Signs of a Miserable Job" by Patrick Lencioni. He writes his books in narrative form (he tells a story) as opposed to presenting a list of facts and theories that you should read and learn. It makes for good reading.

The premise of this book is that no matter WHAT kind of work you do,(this is for Stay-at-Home moms to CEOs of fortune 500 companies) you will most likely be miserable if the following three factors are not taken into consideration:

1. Anonymity - All human beings need to be known, valued and appreciated for who they are and for their unique qualities, by the person in authority over them. If they feel invisible, generic or anonymous, they will eventually not love their job, no matter what they are doing.

2. Immeasurement - People need to be able to measure the progress and value of their work for themselves. Regardless of how benevolent their employer might be, people will eventually be unmotivated if their only means of measuring success depends upon someone else's opinion of their work.

And lastly, and the most important in my mind is

3. Irrelevance - Everyone needs to know that what they do matters to someone. That in some way it makes someone else's life better.

I always say, "We need to connect the dots for people." We need to tell them that they matter, help them measure their own success, and remind them of why they do what they do.

All that to say, I hope you know you matter. I hope you see the progress of your life and of what you do in it. I hope you know that you were created with a purpose that was given to you by a Purposeful Creator. I hope you know that each and every day in which you awaken and take a breath, you have the potential to change your life and the life of someone else for the better.