That Don’t Impress Me Much

Daily Meditation 756–3/24/2024

Do you remember your first job?

Okay, let’s back up a bit. Most of us did not take our first job very seriously…

Do you remember the first job you actually “tried” at? I’m certain you do. For me, it was K-Mart (dating myself, here!) as a shelf-stocker.

And what specific way did you act that generally made it seem you were taking it seriously?
You were trying to prove yourself to someone, likely your boss.

For most of us, it was because, well…we wanted better raises (“wanted” and want) or promotions and bonuses, etc. And that proving ourselves to them mostly was busting our butts — unpacking more boxes, checking out more customers, or making more sales. But, for some of us, sometimes, it may’ve been outright groveling. Please don’t do that.

I still remember the exact moment I started taking work seriously.

I was stocking bathroom fixtures. Toilet seats, shower heads, soap dishes and such. Every box took me probably 2–3 minutes. I’d lackadaisically grab a box…then slowly hunt down my boxcutter…then slowly draw it along the tape, almost sarcastically carefully…then slowly set down the knife…then slowly open the box…then slowly withdraw one item at a time…slowly feeding it onto the proper hook…