Once you agree to accept any assignment you need to force yourself to be all in. Don’t ever take something on only to do it half-way. Life will be full of people who give you assignments that you might not get very excited about. In fact, many of them you might even dread. But once you say you will do it, you need to force yourself to get your head in the game and get your attitude straight!
Recently I was asked to take on a particular assignment. The truth was that it wasn’t at all something I was excited about. In fact, I spent several days complaining to myself that it wasn’t something I really wanted to do and I sure as heck wasn’t excited about it. But I knew that I had agreed to do it and the last thing I was about to let happen was to let myself do it poorly. But I also knew that in order to do it well I was going to have to get my head in the game and actually force myself to find a way to care about it…not just fake caring, but actually care about it. But that worried me because how the heck was I going to get myself to care when I wasn’t feeling it? That’s when I realized that the only way I was going to get myself to care about it was to start putting a serious effort into it. So I began reading everything I could find on the subject of my assignment so I could make sure I had a full of appreciation of exactly why it mattered, who it mattered to, and what difference it would make in the lives of others if I did it well. I researched the heck out of it and I read everything I could possibly get my hands on. The more I read and the more I began to dig in to the assignment, the more I started to see all kinds of things about it that I hadn’t considered before. Then I started to really gain an appreciation for how many lives could be touched for the better if I did my assignment and I did it well. Slowly my heart began to change about it….I began to care…and the more I read, the more I cared…until finally I started to gain a passion for the assignment. I found myself getting excited about everything it could actually be with a little organization and a lot of vision for where it could possibly go. Then I started to map out a plan with my top priorities that I felt could be accomplished moving forward. And finally, I started taking steps to put my plan into action. I was taking the assignment on with the passion and caring that I knew in my heart that I needed. And now I recognize that the more I continue moving forward on it, putting in my best effort, the more I will continue to gain excitement and momentum for my assignment. But none of those feelings would have come if I hadn’t first recognized the need to force myself to care about it and if I hadn’t taken those first steps of learning all I could about it.
The next time you are asked to take on an assignment and you say yes, make sure you get your head where it needs to be so you can take the assignment on with the passion and excitement you will need to knock it out of the park! And remember that the first step toward making that happen comes from you and you alone. Get your head in the right place. Make the efforts to learn and appreciate all that your assignment can be and all those people who can be affected for the better if you do it well. Then go and knock that assignment out of the park!
Have an amazing weekend everyone!
~Amy
