Any job worth doing is worth doing well.
Any job with acceptable compensation (be it monetary, spiritual, emotional or other) is worth doing.
Any job I take on will have acceptable compensation. (I don’t intentionally commit myself to things that I know I will hate doing and gain no form of reward from.)
So, by the transitive property, any job I take on is worth doing well.
If you live your life by these simple rules, it is possible that you might have a job that sucks, but you should never suck at your job. If you find yourself being terrible at your job, you either need to find a way to be better at it or find a job that is a better fit. By knowingly, willingly being terrible at your job, you are choosing to make your own life worse and having a negative impact on everyone you interact with. Conversely, by doing your job well, you will have a positive impact on the people you interact with, and that, in turn, has a chance of making you feel that your job doesn’t suck.
I’ve been telling my staff that for years! “I know this isn’t your dream job and you certainly didn’t expect to be doing this when you a daydreaming little kid, but that doesn’t mean you have to be terrible at it! You can still be the BEST at this job and be the person that everyone loves working with! You don’t want to be the one that when someone looks at the schedule they think ‘Oh no… not THAT person…ugh’. If you’re going to bother doing it, do it well. If anything, so you don’t have to listen to me harp on you!”
I first heard you say this probably 12 years ago. I’ve repeated it to my friends, my kids… it’s a great attitude to have regarding your work life.
Thanks for sharing it again, it’s always good to be reminded of things like this.