I Hated Work

If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why?

I’m afraid I often found my career boring. Not NHS admin, but office jobs were mind numbing. Political minefields, arenas of back biting, the province of bosses who were at least two levels above their ability to manage. Lack of focus on the mission.

So the salary would have to be immense and the role interesting before I’d even think about it.

I think with work it needs to be something you would do for free if you’re to be happy in your job. You’d pay to go and do it. Being a playwright and staging my plays is something I’d pay to do.

I’d also love to be a public speaker again. That feeling of sharing information rather than advising, leaving people to take what they need and dismiss the rest.

Coming in as a stranger often helps the ideas to land more gently. Less pointed because you don’t know the person; less pressured because you’re not talking directly to one person; safer because you can be easily ignored.

More useful as the idea might percolate over time and eventually become a good fit. A fit that person was able to adjust to work for them.

Public speaking comes without the drive to feel better because your friends and family love you. A speaker simply offers ideas. You don’t need to please them. You can choose to contact them for help.

That I would do, and have done for free.

Speaking is what I do. Being there when no one else is. If I say I’m there for you I am, and quite often that does me no good at all. As it didn’t yesterday. I lost a friend who never even bothered to read this blog or share it. Said my book was the only book they’d ever read three times and never reviewed it.

So one example of the sort of simple idea I love to share would be:

You can’t please someone who has their own reasons for not wanting to be pleased. No amount of decency and loyalty will work.

That’s not me being negative, it’s simply true. Not everyone sees life the same way and it’s not your job to knock yourself sideways trying to make things work.

So….

Or…