There’s an old country song titled Do What You Do Do Well. There are two possible interpretations of this advice: one is we should do only what we do well, and the other is that whatever we do we should do it well. The former can be dismissed because doing only what we do well would mean never trying anything new, which would seriously curtail our enjoyment of life. So the interpretation that whatever we do we should do it well is the one that makes sense.
Doing the best we can with what we have wherever we are and whatever we’re doing pays off in two ways: a job well done is always gratifying and it’s the only way to improve.
Here’s how to test this theory. The next time you’re faced with something you don’t particularly want to do, instead of just going through the motions do it to the best of your ability; enthusiastically dig in and do it better than you’ve ever done it before, all the time thinking about ways to do it even better. The result will likely astound you.
Hard work without ability is a shame, but ability without hard work borders on tragedy. We’ve all seen examples of it. There are the skilled athletes who never reach their potential because they don’t consistently do their best nor try to stretch their limits with the result their skills actually diminish instead of becoming better. There are the employees who never put in any extra effort, such as the technician who doesn’t keep up with changing technology and gets trapped in a dead-end job, or the accountant who doesn’t develop communication skills and as a result won’t be made a partner. There are students whose marks are lower than they could be because not enough notes were taken; or if notes were taken they weren’t sufficiently reviewed.
Doing our best is the key to making the most of our abilities; but there’s another necessity.. In the long run it’s the quality of our efforts, not the quantity, that will determine the level of our success. And the quality of our efforts is affected as much by our attitude as it is by ability, perhaps even more so.
I came across a situation a few years ago that illustrates the importance of attitude in the workplace. It involved two truck drivers who spent the day picking up cans of milk in the countryside and bringing them into town for processing. One was bored with his work, usually crabby, not very well liked, and clearly an unhappy person. The other was always in a good mood, and clearly loved his job. One evening after parking their trucks the crabby driver asked his colleague why he always seemed to be so happy at work. His colleague answered, “You went to work this morning, but I went for a drive in the country.”
Making the most of our abilities is usually the link between wanting something and getting it. The best way to prepare for the future is to do our best today. People who consistently do their best tend to succeed. But, back to attitude.
When people think their jobs aren’t important, quality suffers. All jobs aren’t equal, but every job is important or it wouldn’t exist. Treat what you do as being important and others will begin to think it is too. Your attitude and performance will be noticed and appreciated by those who matter.
Reputations aren’t built on what we’re going to do, they’re built on what we’ve done. We tend to judge ourselves by what we think we can do, but others judge us by what we actually do. No one will remember how many tasks we started, but they’ll remember how many we finished, especially those we did well.
Easy Street is a dead end.