What do you DO for a living?

How often in this life do we hear this question?

“What do you DO for a living?”

And how do you feel when people ask?

For some of us there may be a sense of pride or accomplishment, because we have the letters like PH & D at the end of our names and culture tells us that we are successful.

But for many, that question invokes a sense of shame. We respond apologetically, like we are a failure, a victim, unworthy and not quite measuring up.

Do you want that to change?  Do you want to feel different about what you do?  Starting today?

Grab a pen and paper.  Common – JUST DO IT.

Write your current job on the paper.  Think about it for a minute.  Think about what you do.  Think about what would happen to the world if no one did the job you do right now.

What value does your position bring to the world?  Write a list!

And then look back – at other things you have done – and the impact you had on the world around you – from the first paper-route until today.  Think of the people you have met, the lives you have touched, the needs you have filled.  Now how do you feel?

The reality is this.  Often times the vocations that are “least valued” in status are the ones we can’t live without.

Think about it.  Yes, Doctors are important and save lives.  But so do the waste management workers.  Thousands of people die in other countries because they do not have access to clean water.  But do we think highly of the garbage guys, the plumbers, the builders and the electricians?  No? Why is that?

PROGRAMMING.  We have been programmed to believe that the ‘better’ education you have the more valuable you are .  But is that true?

Where would you live today, if the “trades guys” weren’t around?  What would you wear, if there were no retail stores to shop at?  What would you eat, if there were no grocery stores around?  What about the import/export workers who receive shipments every day?  Where would you be without them?

Every job is important.  So raise your head a little higher and make a decision to VALUE what you DO. YOU ARE IMPORTANT.