Chapter 40. Enjoy Yourself

I’m going to be blunt now. If you’re not enjoying what you do, then get the hell out and make room for someone who is going to enjoy it. Rule 41 may put things into context, but for the moment we need to get you feeling good about what you’re doing.

Enjoying work is about taking pleasure in a job well done, having an inner smile, finding something to laugh about, and not taking it too seriously. (No, this does not mean you laugh at people or fail to do your job to the very highest standards.)

Enjoying work is about seeing your job, your role, in a much bigger context. You can be hardworking and you can enjoy yourself—you can do both. You can be productive, effective, efficient, industrious, sober, reliable, and responsible—and yet still be having fun. It’s your choice. No one told you that you had to be grave and uptight. All you were hired to do was your job.

The best thing is that if you learn when to be serious and when to let up and find humor in a situation, it will have a magical effect on those around you.

And if you work in a place where serious and uptight is the norm, here is a secret just for you: No one knows what is going on inside your head. No one. Just so long as the exterior is what they want, the inside can be whatever you want.