Do I have a great job, or what?!?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006 Filed in: Personal opinions
You probably know it all too well. You get a little tired of your job, find it difficult to work up the enthusiasm you once had. You don't want to get up in the morning to face the "same old grind", and your productivity suffers.

Happens to the best of us. I, however, found a way out of the malaise. No, I'm not some sort of motivational genius; it just happened. I was just smart enough to capitalize on the situation!

You see, the last few months have been a period of low productivity for me. While the quality of my work didn't suffer - I'm proud enough to make sure that if it leaves my shop, it's as good as I can make it - the quantity sure did. It's hard to describe the feeling, other than simply being tired of the routine. This is a serious concern for all self-eployed people, as we don't have the kind of external motivation that those who work in busy offices or factories have. (In fact, that is the number one reason people give up self-employment for the womb of corporate America. That, and the health insurance!)

I wondered if I had really made the right career choice. During one such self-indulgent pity session, for some reason I thought back to the times - more than a decade ago - when I would read the gun magazines and look at the delicious custom guns, salivating as the editors no doubt expected me to do. Those memories came flooding back to me as I sat daydreaming in front of my workbench, a pristine Python before me awaiting my ministrations.

Then it hit me - I have the privilege of playing with the finest handguns in the entire world, each and every day! What sat on my bench, and what would come out of my hands, would be the equal (if not the better) of anything I'd ever read about. Whether it's a custom that I built, or the finest offerings from Colt and Smith & Wesson, I spend my days surrounded by the kind of craftsmanship and beauty that others dream about today. How cool is that?

Out to the range I went, with a couple of Pythons and a custom Model 60 that need their live-fire test before shipping. There was - serendipitously, as it happens - one other fellow on the range that morning. He came over to exchange the customary pleasantries; I noticed his eyes widening as he surveyed the guns arrayed in front of me. "You're lucky to be able to afford such fine machinery!", he said. I just nodded knowingly, loathe to disturb his daydream - but my trip back to the shop was substantially happier for that short exchange.

The weeks that have followed this mini-revelation have been some of the most productive I've seen in ages. I've put out more work, of uniformly high standards, in the last month than I've done in the last six. Amazing what a small change in attitude, a slight adjustment in perspective, can do!

It's time for me to stop typing and go back to work. I don't have to - I get to! I love my job again!

-=[ Grant ]=-
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