In our little town, there is a breakfast place we frequent. When we first started going there, we consistently got this one waitress, and about the third time she waited on us, she seemed to know what we wanted even before we ordered! She’d bring out our drinks the first time she visited the table – she remembered what we drank from last time! She asked us for and remembered our names and relationships to each other. Right away, I felt like I knew her personally – like a friend. But you know? We didn’t even go there daily or every week back then!

So, one day we asked her how she remembered all these things about us, knowing she had literally hundreds of customers. And do you know what she said?  

She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I’m a waitress. That’s what I do!”

And that brings me to this. Isn’t it wonderful to see or hear about someone who takes absolute pride in and ownership of what they do – no matter what they do? How much respect does that give me for her? A whole lot!

It’s a lesson, I think. Whatever you do, you should absolutely do it the very best you can. How proud she should be of that! Heck, I’m proud for her! Imagine if you did your best with everything. And what if you assumed that doing your best was a choice you didn’t have to consider again? And imagine if you lived your life to its fullest, and then when someone asked you how you did it, you said, “Because I’m a citizen of the world!” Like, well, of course, I would do this. What else would I do?

Let me just say there are a lot of people doing the waitress/waiter server jobs, but there just aren’t that many that take any pride in the work. How much time have they been wasting?

I’ve always told our boys if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. It’s so wonderful to have really seen this in action. When I make my bed in the morning, I ensure it looks perfect. I adjust the pillows and even out the edges. Possibly no one but me will see that bed made or care about it. So what? I do it for me. And so, I commit to applying this principle to everything in my life.  

Jobs aren’t something to be done to pass the time or to earn money. Jobs are what we are doing with our lives. And how you do them speaks volumes about your life. Excellence is a choice you make for yourself.