Anyone else think the name Confucious sounds a little too much like confuse us? And his quotes are similarly mind-boggling. Like, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”. Huh? So I just go to a major publishing company and tell them, “I’ll be working here now. I am your newest writer” and that’s it? Sounds easier said then done, no? Most of us will spend years and years and years working for other people in any job available, whining and complaining through the day, just to get a paycheck that doesn’t really cover our basic needs. We’ll dream about what we want to be when we grow up and eventually, we’ll dream about what we wish we had done now that we’re grown up. We’ll sell our souls to the proverbial devil and deal with the accompanying depression, the extra 20 pounds we gain from sitting behind a desk all day and eating a diet that consists of fast food and Red Bull and we’ll be surrounded by a multitude of people just like us. How terrifying!
There are two things you can do, depending on what stage of the game you’re at.
1. Throw caution the wind and start your own business to live out your lifelong dream.
2. Learn to love the job you have until you can have the job you want.
How? Let me reference another Confucious quote: “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps”.
Maybe it’s not realistic to throw yourself into a new venture right this minute. But remember the quote, “Don’t dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want”? Change the word “dress” to the word “ACT”. The way you ACT, the way you project yourself is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Your attitude defines you, at work and at home. Your attitude creates an energy that creates your environment that create circumstances that unfold your destiny. Wake up every morning grateful for another day, grateful to have a job to go to, grateful for a mouth with which to smile, to speak, to lift others up. Be grateful for a brain with which to dream and plan and strategize. Go to work, full of hopes and dreams and determination and do whatever you do as well as you can do it. Flip those burgers with precision and efficiency. Paint those nails with accuracy and speed. Take those service calls with a genuine desire to help and you’ll find your day speeding past you like a blur of Star Trek warp speed light that encapsulates the energy YOU’VE put out into the vast unknown of the Universe. Go home and plan your future relentlessly. Confucious say, “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure”. Prepare, prepare, prepare! Research your target market, research your competition, create a map of where you are and where you want to be and how you’re going to get there. Wake up each morning knowing that your actions TODAY will create your tomorrow. Your energy will help your path evolve in front of you, no matter how long it takes. Confucious say, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop”. Keep going! Keep moving forward with a smile on your face, your dream in your heart, your head in the game and don’t let anything or anyone stop you!
To sum up everything I’ve just said, I’ll rely on one more quote: “When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself”. Maybe that Confucious was onto something after all.
I’m Lindsay Blue, and I’m addicted to Confucious quotes.