Blurb #3: Put Your Heart in the Work and Make Time for Some Fun

Image via vkp_patel, Flikr

Welcome back to the third rendition of Brandon’s Blurbs, your weekly dose of interesting news, information, and philosophy!  This week, I am going to focus on the importance of enjoying what you do and throw in some interesting stories.  To all my loyal readers, I am sorry that I was unable to publish last week, as I was visiting family in Virginia and did not have time.  However, I think this issue will make up greatly for the missed week!


Quote of the Week

My heart is in the work.   - Andrew Carnegie

Thought of the Week: Enjoy What You Do
Do you currently hold a job that causes you to wake up dreading the day ahead of you?  Would you rather go back to bed?  You’re not alone.  According to a Gallup study conducted this year, 52 percent of people did not feel engaged in their workplace, and only a minute 30 percent felt engaged or inspired by the work that they do.

This means that there is a better chance that you dread your job than enjoy it.  My question is, if you do not enjoy what you do, why do it?  Obviously, there are exceptions to this, such as people that depend on a job at a fast food joint or grocery store to survive, but if you have the opportunity to receive a college degree and choose the career in which you progress, why choose one that you do not like?  Are too many people looking at the high salary of a doctor or engineer and following this career path simply because they wish to make six digits out of college?

This is absurd.  My belief is that you should do something that you are passionate about, something that makes you dread sleeping because it will take you away from it.  I’ve chosen the career of computer engineering because all of my life, I have been passionate about technology and how it works.  I find it inspiring that a few individuals can create a piece of technology that changes the course of history.

I have chosen this subject to discuss this week because of an experience I had last time I visited the mall.  I walked into a shoe store, where I found an awesome New Balance sackpack.  This thing was the best one I had ever seen, complete with pockets for your tablet and laptop.  However, this grand bag is not the point of my story.  Because of the large number of thefts they had, these sackpacks were clipped together.  I had to find an employee to remove it.

I walked up to the first employee I saw to request this favor.  However, her response was a rude, “I’m not on the clock,” as she fast walked away from me.  If she truly cared about the job that she had, she would've taken the two seconds to help me get my sackpack.  Obviously, she cared more about “escaping” the store than representing herself as a professional, caring employee at there.

This is not a small matter, in which you will only suffer a few days if you continue to hold a job you dislike.  According to Business Insider, the average American spends 90,000 hours working in a lifetime.  Do you want to spend those 90,000 hours waiting for the clock to tick five or feeling that you are changing the world?


Video of the Week
However, you must not simply work your life away.  Make time for yourself.  See everything there is to see in the world.  The man in this week’s video of the week did just that.  Graham Hughes spent the past four years traveling to all 201 nations in the world; I am not even sure how he was able to gain access to some of them (like North Korea)!  However, he somehow accomplished this great feat, and you can now see the entire world in four minutes.  I really want to do this now.


Song of the Week
While you’re busy doing something that you are passionate about or traveling the world, take a minute to feel alive with this great song from Michael Franti & Spearhead!



Experience of the Week

Last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to golf with my friends at Mystic Rock, Nemacolin’s PGA-level golf course, consistently ranked as one of the best courses in Pennsylvania.  Click here to read more about it here.









Television Event of the Week

Image via Discovery

Need I say any more?




Concluding Statement
To love your life, you have to love what you do.  You have to enjoy everything from the long days at work to the golf outings you have with your best friends.  I urge you to do something that you are passionate about if you aren’t already.  Wake up tomorrow with a smile, enter your workplace with a smile, and conclude your day with some Shark Week.  And if you work at a shoe store, please take the time to help your customers - even if you are off the clock.