What Your Job Is Not

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

What is your job?

Or, more importantly, what is your job not?

One evening, late on a Friday night, I asked myself what I was accomplishing, and what I was achieving. Who am I working for? What’s the bigger picture? How am I making this happen? 

Sometimes, to figure out what to do, you have to make a “do not” list. A “Your job is NOT” list.

So, frustrated, I scratched a few reminders and notes down in my journal. What am I doing? I thought. What really needs to be done?

Here’s a few:

  • Your job is not checking email.
  • Your job is not (just) making other people happy. 
  • Your job is not to stay late.
  • Your job is not to be miserable.
  • Your job is not to make other people miserable.
  • Your job is not procrastinating. 
  • Your job is not acting in a way that goes against your beliefs.
  • Your job is not to be bored.
  • Your job is not your life.

What is your job? 

  • Your job is something you do.
  • Your job might help you to pay the bills.
  • Your job is a place to create great work. 
  • Your job is to learn.
  • Your job is to bring your unique and necessary skillset to particular projects.
  • Your job is to excel.
  • Your job is to innovate, improve, and generate.
  • Your job is to to make your boss look great.
  • Your job is to use your judgment wisely.
  • Your job is to be the best professional you can be, given your knowledge, expertise and judgment.
  • Your job is to be a great teammate. 
  • Your job is to make others’ work better. 
  • Your job is to grow.

8 thoughts on “What Your Job Is Not”

  1. I love this! Especially the “your job is NOT to make other people happy”. I tend to get caught up in this thought process and it is counter productive in my personal life. Thanks for this!

  2. Your job IS a good indicator of what you’ll be doing tomorrow. Your job is NOT a good indicator of what you’ll be doing 10 years from now, or 5 years from now, or maybe even 1.

  4. Your job is to identify and then work on your unique ability, the place where you are in flow. In that role you will bring more value to your professional and personal relationships than any other thing you could possibly do. And your job is to give away, to systematically discard all the omplexity that is merely background noise. Striving to optimize your unque ability is the pursuit of happiness; the other path is all sorrow and woe.

  7. Pingback: Can We Set Boundaries and Still be a Loving Person? « Fruitful Devotion by Pastor Susan

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