When I was toward the end of my High school days, life was quite spectacular. I mean, I had no responsibilities except to pass my final exams and attend class. Other than that, I did whatever I wanted. I went and socialized and partied with my friends. I had a girlfriend so that was an extra bonus. I stayed up late, wasted tons of time watching tv and in particular live sports and when all that was done, I might have had to clean my room or the dishes from time to time. Not bad huh? What a sweet deal.
But wait, it got better. Because a few months later I went off to college, solo, on my own and completely independent with no parental supervision. When I said goodbye to my mom and brother I was a bit scared about starting from scratch again and walked back to my dorm unsettled. As I walked through the hallway I immediately was approached by a couple of guys who handed me a flier. It said: Jello shot party! Then I met my dorm neighbors and well, you guessed it. I was off to a vodka induced jello spectacle I’d never forget.
Responsibilities? not really, not many. Just go to class, pass the test get an average grade and we are good.
So who would allow such poor life management choices? That would be I.
You are your own boss now. You decide how to manage your time, who to spend it with, what your priorities are. You are the boss of you. Would you hire you for a job? probably not. You know yourself better than anyone and you know that you like to waste a ton of time doing what amounts to nothing much. I know, because I’ve got a Bachelor’s degree in that!
Fast forward to the twilight of 2018 now. I am an adult, I mean a real one not the pretend 20something one I was back then. I can choose just like then to waste my time, party, socialize, do a whole-day movie marathon on the coach (those were actually quite fun 🙂 ) or try to be a good boss. One that is a bit strict, with some discipline, with some goals, some aims, some responsibilities. One that learns and trains because it will help you grow and improve your skills in life and work and reward you with job satisfaction and maybe some sense of achievement. One who manages you by speaking to you with respect, by showing you some respect and by getting you to develop yourself. That boss is there, in us, and it’s up to us to get that boss working.
Would you work for a boss like that?
We shouldn’t be surprised or cynical about someone who achieves success their own way. We shouldn’t be surprised when someone studies on the weekends and works on weekdays to get a master’s degree. And we definitely shouldn’t be surprised when someone decides to start from scratch again, reset and begin anew.
It seems that there are few things as important as training our boss to be the best they can be, because it’s you after all.
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