Why do you do what you do?
There I was, in my yoga class trying to get rid of stress and help my bad back, when the instructor decides to share a personal story.
She does this periodically as a way to make us think of things beside the things that got us coming to yoga in the first place.
Her daughter’s friend from college was working on an assignment, she told us, and decided to e-mail my instructor Nancy McConnell to ask her “what motivates you in your career other than a paycheck?”
Nancy told us it was a hard e-mail to get at that particular moment because she was having some trouble in her chosen profession, running a daycare and school for about 100 kids.
Turns out she’s not only my yoga instructor but a small business owner as well, and when she got the e-mail she was in the midst of a challenging employee issue. She’s got about 30 employees.
The e-mail also included one line that really turned up the pressure on Nancy: “please inspire me. I need it.”
How do you let down a wide-eyed college kid?
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| Jim McKnight / AP |
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Nancy decided to put the e-mail aside and take some time before she replied to get her head together.
Why the heck was she doing what she was doing? At that moment, she couldn’t just convey her motivations clearly because she was wrapped up in the day-to-day stuff all business owners have to deal with. “I’m the supervisor trying to keep peace. I find myself in that role a lot. It’s part of my nature. I want to fix things,” she explains.
Once things got resolved she turned back to the e-mail.
“It took some slowing down on my part,” Nancy says, “to sit down and look at that question.”
Nancy started the Educational Enrichment Center in Wilmington, Del., with a partner in 1979. She graduated with a degree in early childhood education and a minor in business, and embarked on a career helping children.
And after all these years a college student was asking her the big question, “why do you do what you do?”
She sat down and started writing. “First I wrote about working with children and families, and being able to hopefully have a positive impact on their lives and have an opportunity to be able to make a difference -- giving a mom peace of mind so she’s able to continue her career.”
She also wrote about how much she loved working with her staff, helping them grow; and how her job challenged her every day in different ways.
“And I love the opportunity to hear laughter. I work in an environment where there’s constant laughter. And I get to walk into classrooms and play. I love hanging out with children.”
Before she knew it she had written down about 10 to 12 things she loved about her job.
Of the process, she says, “I found it uplifting and rewarding to contemplate that question.”
OK, everyone’s task today, whether you work for yourself or someone else, is to: Ask yourself why you do your job other than the paycheck?
If you don’t like your answers, or can’t come up with any answers, it may be time to rethink what you do.
But first, sit on the floor and breath deeply.
Namaste!
