I Hated My Lawnmower

Actually, I abhorred my lawnmower.  Abhor, according to dictionary.com, means “to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.”  But after making one little change on Saturday afternoon, I came to actually like my lawnmower again.  If you abhor your job (or, if you have ever typed “hate my job” in a search engine ;)), then read on – this might help.

A couple of years ago I took the bag off my lawnmower to throw out all the grass clippings.  Somehow, the spring that keeps the bag on “broke.”  From then on, anytime I mowed the lawn, I’d get a healthy spray of grass and dirt right at my face.  I’m sure it was a funny site (for others) to watch me pushing a lawnmower and getting a straight shot of stuff flowing right at my head.  Funny for them, extremely frustrating for me.  It was like self-imposed torture. 

I put up with it for years.  Dozens of mowings.  Grumbling, unhappy… even abhorring.

But on Saturday I finally decided to see exactly what the problem was.  I’m not very mechanical, so if something doesn’t work right I’m not inclined to stick my head in it and try and figure it out.  I don’t have the right tools, or know-how, and usually end up making it worse. 

Except this Saturday – I was in a “do it yourself” (DIY) mood.  I looked down at the spring on the left (the bad spring), and compared it with the spring on the right.  Guess what?  Nothing was broken at all!  The spring on the left just wasn’t secured like the spring on the right… !  All I had to do was get some plyers, secure it, and I should be good!  I did that, and five minutes later I was cruising along, liking my lawnmower, and perhaps on the road to *loving* my lawnmower!

I was amazed that something so small and easy to fix was such a thorn in my side for years. 

I was neglectful, and didn’t take proper ownership of my lawnmower.  I did my job begrudgingly, not stopping to figure out what could have made it better.  I took the default, not even trying to empower myself.

I wonder, how many of us do that with our careers?  Maybe we loathe, hate, abhor, despise our jobs… but we just sit around and do it, accepting by default what is given to us.  Perhaps:

• … we hate our work hours.
• … our coworkers are not the right team members.
• … our projects aren’t challenging enough.
• … our pay isn’t up to market level, or what we should be pulling in.
• … we don’t have strong relationships with people in our office.
• … we aren’t getting proper recognition for our amazing accomplishments.

In a job search, perhaps:

• … the recruiter isn’t calling us back.
• … our resume isn’t getting us into interviews (my resume was keeping me out of interviews, big time!).
• … our interviews aren’t getting us to the next level.
• … the people we network with aren’t giving back, just taking, taking, taking!

In our personal career management, if we just accept the default we are given, we may never know what career bliss could be. 

I challenge you to find that one tweak, whether big or little, put your CEO of Me, Inc. hat on, and take charge of your job, or job search.  It may make the difference between abhor and love, and it will be worth it!