Sometimes doing your job the best you can is what makes a huge difference in many people’s lives. Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River in January this year demonstrates the importance of doing your job well. The crew of 1549, including Captain Sully Sullenberger, saved all 155 people aboard that plane by keeping a cool head and performing a water landing perfectly. Then his crew performed their jobs flawlessly to get everyone off the plane and onto rescue vessels.
Here’s a recreation of the what happened as it happened, synced with the cockpit voice recorder:
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Loving your job and being one of the best at it is really important in the overall productivity of this country and the world, let alone that it might save lives.
Even in this down economy and horrible job market, if you don’t like your job, maybe it’s time to look for a new career. There are a lot of things you can do while working at what you don’t like paying the bills to find the career you can’t wait to get up to every morning. You can do research and reading in your off hours, take a class, or work with a placement firm that will assist you in figuring out what you want to do as well as finding a job where you get to do it. You can volunteer in fields you may find interesting or you can get a part-time job doing something you think you might like but are unsure about.
Whatever it takes, you owe it to yourself and to society to love your job. Not only will you look forward to work and be a far happier person, you might end up doing something above and beyond the call of duty. You may save people’s lives, catch the next Bernie Madoff before he gets away with a Ponzi scheme, find the cure for HIV or diabetes, or break up the next AIG or Citi Group so they aren’t too big to fail and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. You may help troubled teens graduate from high school instead of becoming gang members and thugs. You may invent the solution to our energy crisis or you may find the best answer to our health care problems. You may find the best solution to poverty and end it for good all over the world.
So take a long, hard look at what you really love and start figuring out ways to make a living doing it.
flight 1549, love your job, sullenberger, video synced with voice recorder
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:51 am
thanks for the encouragement on changing jobs if you don’t love what you are doing. i don’t love the work i do (though i do love many of the people i work with — not, unfortunately, including my boss). i have been struggling with the question for some time now, and lately have felt “stuck” because of the economy. that’s not the right way to look at this — after all, i’ve only got this one life, right? so i really appreciated reading this post.
jackie sheeler’s last blog post..RICO: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
April 1st, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Jackie, best of luck with finding what you love. Remember, you can go at it piecemeal if you can’t afford to just quit. You can do a lot very part-time and keep your day job until you are financially ready to make the switch. You can also try different areas before you make a commitment.
I was laid off, so my time to choose a new career became abundant. I tried a financial planning business, but it really didn’t fit me, and I was really dumb about it so now I have some unwelcome financial challenges.
I got a part-time job as a math/science tutor to help pay the bills while I grow my online business. Fortunately, now I love both my business and my part-time job. When my business is making enough money, I plan to keep tutoring, but for fewer hours a week. I never knew I would love teaching or working with teenagers, but it turns out I do.