Be Awesome at Work

(Today’s guest post is by Tessa Hardiman.  You can check out her blog here.)

When I attended the Quitter Conference in September, I didn’t expect to hear that I should learn how to be awesome where I currently am. I thought I would learn that I should be really awesome only when I work on my dream. I don’t know how I thought I was supposed to be the rest of the time, but it didn’t matter. All I cared about was being awesome at my dream, which for me is writing.

I wanted to hear that just getting through the day would be good enough. You could slap the “well done” sticker on my back as I walked through the doors on the way to my car. At this point, I would start being awesome. Even as I write that, it sounds ridiculous. However, I did in fact think that way.

It’s impossible to separate the way you are at work with the way you are out of work. I know we like to tell ourselves that we’re not the “same” person at work. The truth is, though, we are still our “self.” We learn to be and act and feel the same way at home as we act at work. If we’re a Debbie Downer (or a Jesus Juker) at work, we learn to become that way at home. If we’re a positive, upbeat person at work, then we learn to be that way at home.

Jon helped me see that I need to be hustling at work, too. It’s crazy to think there is some magic switch you flip whenever you walk out of your day job, like the passion switch automatically turns on. If we start being awesome at work, then maybe some of that awesome will spill over into our dream job.