The Curious Case of The Skipping Waiter

My eyes were bloodshot and I was sitting with two men that were twice my age. We were solving their organizations issues on 5 pieces of paper and 3 different coloured pens. It was a frenzy of power struggle and politics. I was dodging the undercurrents of tyranny and hoping to bring about an amicable solution that would catapult the organization the the next global level. I was rigid, intense, trying so hard to add value and hoping that when I did it would be given a medal.

Then after hearing the two of them talk back on forth on an idea I presented about "simple internal systems" I lost track of everything. I consciously fell asleep and drifted into my coffee cup. And took a big sip. I looked up all of a sudden and saw a waiter coming to work. He was skipping in to work. SKIPPING! Excited to serve people croissants and coffee. His face had a slapped-on smile that wouldn't go away. He probably rode to work on a bicycle.

I had never skipped to my office. I didn't smile when I greeted my secretary. I didn't care about serving coffee. My accountants had thrown me into the pit of the "bottom line". It's all I could see and pretty much all I could think of. Why didn't I SKIP to work. I mean after all despite the sheer extra physical exertion involved and the fact that skipping has the potential to look undignified there was something about this guy that excited him about his work. He just looked like he wanted to be there.

It got me thinking about my attitude.

Let your attitude be one of giving value. Giving a smile that costs you no more than allowing a few muscles to work. Incidentally the act of smiling has been scientifically validated to improve your happiness. Go on, try it. Smile for 30 seconds. See the emotional change in you? You serve people because you are making their life better, not because you are trying to fill some impossible quota set by the accounts department. You work because you are making a difference in the universe, making it a better place for the rest of us to enjoy with you. That is the sort of attitude that will get you skipping to work.

Declutter Your Life

Eliminate the waste.

Declutter everything; business, home, your equity spread.

Go through your schedule. Cut the meetings that achieve nothing and where you have no contribution.

Keep a travel diary for a week. See where trips can be combined or cut.

Do you really need a sugar filled dessert every night, letting that go may declutter you waistline.

 Go through your investments; where can you cash in those odd little percentages that are doing nothing for you.

Shift through your wardrobe and toss out everything you have not worn in the last year.

 A warning, do not throw out the wife or children during this exercise (unless perhaps the children are 34, drive a better car than you, and still stay at home).