What I Learned From Working Crappy Jobs
http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/working-crappy-jobs/
2012 is here! Man is there a lot of work that I want to get done. What about you? What do you have left to do? What do you want to start?
As much as I have left to learn and do, there’s plenty that I’ve learned over the years that’s worth sharing. Throughout high school and college I had many jobs that I didn’t care for at all. Sure, I could complain about these jobs. That wouldn’t be a fun post though. I wanted to have some fun and shared the good stuff.
You have a lot to learn from a crappy job. You can arguably learn from more a job that you don’t like than from your dream job.
What have I learned from working crappy jobs? I wanted to share a few lessons:
Knowledge is power.
Knowledge really is power. Without any sort of education or knowledge your options are going to be limited. You won’t have any power at all until you learn something new. Why would you want to hold yourself back? This is why I become a fan of learning at an early age. On top of my formal education, I’ve always taken online courses, read books, chatted with successful people, and took weekend courses. Knowledge is power. Try to learn as much as possible.
There are better options.
You have to remember that there are so many better options out there. Don’t ever feel like you’re stuck. You never are stuck. The only person holding you back is you. No matter how poor things seem to be going, you need to remember that there are better options out there. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
You put yourself in that position.
You’re in your current position for a reason. You can blame the world for your problems. You can point to circumstances out of your control. That’s fine once in a blue moon. You eventually need to stand up and take ownership for your life. You put yourself in your current position. You can’t blame anyone.
It’s cool if you’re intentionally staying in an entry level position because you don’t want a stressful job or because you don’t care for money. All that matters is that you understand why you are where you are. I’ve been in many lame situations. I’ve learned to accept that it’s simply my own fault.
You can get out.
The good news is that there’s always a way out. Since you put yourself in that position, you can easily take yourself out. You can always take the next small step or suck it up and fight through the tough times.
You need to work on the right things.
I don’t want to say that you should “work smart” because that phrase gets thrown around too casually. I will borrow a quote from Seth Godin on working hard on the right things:
“Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. “
Technically speaking, doing a job that’s considered hard work is the easy way out. It takes real effort to take risk. It takes even more effort to stand up after every time that you fail. Working on the right things will always be a risk. Are you willing to take this risk?
Your attitude will always determine your altitude.
This is so true. Your attitude will always determine your altitude in life. This is a quote that I heard at a religion retreat in grade 7 and it has stuck with me ever since then. Do you ever see someone with a positive outlook on life stuck in debt and complaining about the recession? Nope. You always see the same negative people complaining about the same crap. You know how it goes, “we’re getting screwed on taxes,” or “I would get a better job if the economy was the booming.”
The excuses are always lame and the attitudes are always poor. We’ve all been guilty of having a poor attitude at some point in life. It’s a waste of time and gets you nowhere. A positive attitude is something that nobody can take away from you.
That’s what I learned from working jobs that I didn’t like in the past. You can learn a lot from your first job or that job that you just couldn’t question. Instead of complaining about the job, you can take your lessons learned and better yourself.
2012 is here! Man is there a lot of work that I want to get done. What about you? What do you have left to do? What do you want to start?
As much as I have left to learn and do, there’s plenty that I’ve learned over the years that’s worth sharing. Throughout high school and college I had many jobs that I didn’t care for at all. Sure, I could complain about these jobs. That wouldn’t be a fun post though. I wanted to have some fun and shared the good stuff.
You have a lot to learn from a crappy job. You can arguably learn from more a job that you don’t like than from your dream job.
What have I learned from working crappy jobs? I wanted to share a few lessons:
Knowledge is power.
Knowledge really is power. Without any sort of education or knowledge your options are going to be limited. You won’t have any power at all until you learn something new. Why would you want to hold yourself back? This is why I become a fan of learning at an early age. On top of my formal education, I’ve always taken online courses, read books, chatted with successful people, and took weekend courses. Knowledge is power. Try to learn as much as possible.
There are better options.
You have to remember that there are so many better options out there. Don’t ever feel like you’re stuck. You never are stuck. The only person holding you back is you. No matter how poor things seem to be going, you need to remember that there are better options out there. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
You put yourself in that position.
You’re in your current position for a reason. You can blame the world for your problems. You can point to circumstances out of your control. That’s fine once in a blue moon. You eventually need to stand up and take ownership for your life. You put yourself in your current position. You can’t blame anyone.
It’s cool if you’re intentionally staying in an entry level position because you don’t want a stressful job or because you don’t care for money. All that matters is that you understand why you are where you are. I’ve been in many lame situations. I’ve learned to accept that it’s simply my own fault.
You can get out.
The good news is that there’s always a way out. Since you put yourself in that position, you can easily take yourself out. You can always take the next small step or suck it up and fight through the tough times.
You need to work on the right things.
I don’t want to say that you should “work smart” because that phrase gets thrown around too casually. I will borrow a quote from Seth Godin on working hard on the right things:
“Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. “
Technically speaking, doing a job that’s considered hard work is the easy way out. It takes real effort to take risk. It takes even more effort to stand up after every time that you fail. Working on the right things will always be a risk. Are you willing to take this risk?
Your attitude will always determine your altitude.
This is so true. Your attitude will always determine your altitude in life. This is a quote that I heard at a religion retreat in grade 7 and it has stuck with me ever since then. Do you ever see someone with a positive outlook on life stuck in debt and complaining about the recession? Nope. You always see the same negative people complaining about the same crap. You know how it goes, “we’re getting screwed on taxes,” or “I would get a better job if the economy was the booming.”
The excuses are always lame and the attitudes are always poor. We’ve all been guilty of having a poor attitude at some point in life. It’s a waste of time and gets you nowhere. A positive attitude is something that nobody can take away from you.
That’s what I learned from working jobs that I didn’t like in the past. You can learn a lot from your first job or that job that you just couldn’t question. Instead of complaining about the job, you can take your lessons learned and better yourself.
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