Do Your Job (a freewrite)

Every January, I try to come up with a theme for the year. I find it keeps me present and motivates me to look at the same things a bit differently. I find it immensely useful. I don't particularly enjoy sharing all my inner thoughts because this level of vulnerability, while it can be great content, is not something I want everyone to know and discuss.

But what is a writer if not a thought whore.

We whore out our thoughts for the world to consume so that someone out there might improve their existence ever so slightly.

But I digress.

Every year I take my theme and write it in big bold letters on a whiteboard in my room. This time, I have struggled to come up with the theme for quite a while. Usually, I already have the theme going into the year, but this year it came to me a bit late.

At first, my theme was going to be JUICE. Essentially finding new and creative ways to cultivate and propel the inner motivation that exists within me and inside all of us. I figured that if I can hone in on the things that give me juice this year, then it will be an invaluable tool to use going forward in life. It is very important to know what your own buttons are so that you can push them when necessary.

But then Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach ever, got fired. Fired! Imagine being the best at something and still getting shown the door. (Okay fine it was a parting of ways amongst mature, mutual, parties. But still, let him coach for as long as he wants, don't push him out. But props to the Patriots for having his successor lined up well in advance. Robert Kraft, good at cheese*, great at owning an NFL franchise. Still has a soft spot for happy endings, but it's almost un-American to not like happy endings.)

That's life, you can be king for a day, maybe even many days, but over time, everything comes to an end. Nick Saban also “moved on” from coaching, but I hold Belichick in a higher light because he coached in the pros. I think Saban did, for a time, coach in the pros but was not so successful.** Hence why he coached college.

So naturally, when Belichick retired, I read a few articles about him and all the things he accomplished and my light-hearted internet use pointed me to a tweet by Tom Brady.

Above all else, Bill preached one thing: do your job.

Bingo!

That's the theme for this year. Just do your job.

All of us are playing a performance sport, in one way or another. Whether you are talking about work, relationships, spirituality, or literal sports.

Everything is a performance game. You will be judged, in everything, by how you perform.

Slack off at work, and you will get passed up for promotion. Slack off in your relationship, and your partner will start looking elsewhere. That is just what happens.

If we are honest with ourselves, we know what our job is as human beings. We know the roles we have to play. We know how we should behave. We know we should work out, treat others with respect, work hard, read more, do more yoga, spend less time partying, etc.

We know these things; it is not news to anyone. But very few of us take advantage of this knowledge. Very few people do the things that they know they should do. Why?

Human nature.

I fundamentally believe that to be successful at this thing called life, you have to first have a deep understanding of human nature. Or a deep understanding of common sense. One or the other. They are the same thing.

There are many basic tenets of human nature, but the first and most important one is this one:

Human beings are fucking lazy.

Why?

Because it is easy to be lazy. You give a human an excuse to not do something difficult, most of the time, they won't do it.

There will always be an excuse to not do something difficult. There will always be tomorrow to fall back on, the dreaded “I'll start tomorrow.” That will always be there. Doing your job might seem simple enough but to do your job consistently, to take care of the things that you know you need to take care of, you have to fundamentally stop yourself from being lazy. You have to come up with a plan and then execute it daily, that is not easy.

But I do have good news.

We are all, more or less, on an even playing field. Human beings, no matter how far we advance as a species, will always be lazy on aggregate, THAT'S HUMAN NATURE. It doesn't change. AND no matter how lazy you are, there will always be a person out there who is a lot lazier than you. That is also human nature. There is no end to our laziness.

I have even better news.

IF you do make even the slightest effort to be one of those people who dot their I’s and cross their T’s, you will be vastly ahead of your own human nature, so much so that you will be well on your way to achieving all the things that you know that you are capable of.

That is the power of doing your job.

Six championships. The Bill Belichick-led Patriots weren't the most star-studded teams. They didn't win on talent***, they won on execution. They stifled opposing offenses because everyone on that defense did their fucking job. (Or that's how I remember it.) You win championships with defense, and Tom Brady.

Ah yes, this is probably a good time to talk about talent. We all have some talents somewhere. But I think if you really want to be exceptional, at anything, you would be much better off relying on your work ethic rather than your talent. Talent just gets you in the door. There are so many talented losers.

So many.

So this will be the DO YOUR JOB year.

You know what you want to accomplish, and you even know what you have to do to accomplish those things, all that is left to do is...to actually fucking do it.

You have a job to do, even if you don't have work that day.

Best of luck.

Editor’s Notes:

*Robert Kraft has no association with Kraft Foods. But I suppose that doesn’t necessarily prevent him from being—as the author put it—good at cheese.*

**Nick Saban coached the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and 2006. He had a 15-17 record.**

***Tom Brady was rather talented. So were Rob Gronkowski, Vince Wilfork, Richard Seymour, Wes Welker, Adam Vinatieri, Julian Edelman, Ty Law, Willie McGinest, Rodney Harrison, and Devin McCourty, to name a few…***