Ep. #202: Motivation Monday: Whatever You Do In Life…Don’t Forget Your Broom

[00:00:00] The only degrading type of work you can do is work that you know is subpar. Rushed, sloppy sweeping. When you leave dirt and dust bunnies for somebody else more befitting of such a job.

Hey, this is Mike from muscle for life and welcome to another episode of my podcast. This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed motivation Monday. Yes, I know. So creative of me. What can I say? I’m just a genius. I’m a genius. Seriously though, the idea here is simple. Every Monday morning, I am going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead.

Because it’s one thing to know what you want to But it’s something else altogether to actually make yourself [00:01:00] do it. And I hope that this series gives you a jolt of energy and encouragement to go ahead and do all of those things that you want to do. So if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment.

As usual, let’s start this week with a quote, and this one comes from Howard Thurman. And he said, don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Many people think that success is some kind of utopia. They think that once you’ve arrived, it’s a, an endless beach paradise.

With all the beautiful people and with the golden sands and foamy shores. And my take on it is this is much more fantasy than fact. Yes, the beach [00:02:00] is private and it’s pretty, but it’s also a mine field and If you navigate it skillfully, then you get to stay and you get to enjoy the luxuries and you get to have a good time.

But if you make too many missteps, it will simply blow you to pieces. And you don’t see any corpses, but they’re there. They’re just buried right below the surface. And most of these poor souls are people that committed the cardinal sin. And that is, they came to the beach to play, to have fun in the sand, to frolic in the waves, but they forgot their broom.

And just like that, they doomed themselves to certain death. And yes, The broom. The broom is the key to it all. In this world, it’s not the towel that you have to never forget, it’s the broom. If you lose your broom, or you lose your respect for it, you are done for. [00:03:00] You can sit very still, and you can forestall the inevitable, you can make it take longer, but eventually, you’re gonna move, and then, boom, there goes half of your leg, boom, there goes the other leg.

Boom. Your arm flies into the water. Boom. It all goes black. And now you’re back in the real world. And, I know people that have learned this lesson the very hard way. I know one guy who lost 70 million dollars of his money of cash in five years. One bad investment at a time and all the while his broom which could have saved him was just collecting dust in the closet I know another guy who burned through almost 13 million dollars in legal fees in a very misguided and very unsuccessful mission of corporate revenge and he thought he could trade his broom for a club in win and He got clubbed dead To death.

And I [00:04:00] know another guy very well who went from a humble business owner and millionaire to a delusional megalomaniac who now has nothing but burned bridges and millions of dollars in debt. And he now absolutely despises the broom and everything it stands for and refuses to ever touch one again. Now, what am I talking about here?

Why do I keep on talking about this broom? What is this exactly? And what is the moral of all these stories? Now you might be thinking that this lesson has to do with work ethic or persistence, but it’s actually a lot more than that. Sir Henry Royce, who co founded the Rolls Royce company, He knew at least one part of this lesson very well.

Here’s how he put it. He said, whatever is rightly done, however humble is noble. And so what I’m saying is that the broom symbolizes the willingness to do any and all [00:05:00] work with dignity and pride. If you’re someone who thinks that your current station in life is below you, I’m sorry, but chances are you are a deluded, self absorbed asshole.

And if you do somehow find your way into the minefield of success, you are not going to last very long. Now, Andrew Carnegie, who has one of the greatest rags to riches stories of all time, although I’m not actually a big fan of his because of how greedy and unsympathetic he was when he was the richest man in the world, when he had a fortune of in today’s dollars somewhere in the probably around 200 billion range, he had people in his steel mills working six days a week, making just enough money to survive.

Like subsistence level pay and injury and mortality rates were like shockingly high simply because he hadn’t invested the time [00:06:00] or money into making his mills safer and making the work safer. And for what? So he could make another. In today’s money another billion dollars to add it to, so now you’re worth 201 billion.

But anyways, I’m just ranting. I did what he had to say here though, because it shows that he absolutely revered the broom. He said, but if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning, the boy who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom.

I was one of those sweepers myself. And who do you suppose were my fellow sweepers? David McCargo, now superintendent of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, Robert Pitcairn, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Mr. Moreland City Attorney. And that really resonated with me because I really do believe that the only degrading type of work you can do is work that you know is subpar.

Rushed, sloppy. [00:07:00] sweeping when you leave dirt and dust bunnies for somebody else more befitting of such a job. But when you can sweep a room with the same verve and care as you would negotiate a million dollar deal, then you have learned this lesson very well. And it’s going to serve you very well in your life because no amount of money and no amount of recognition and no amount of praise and admiration satisfies the soul.

Like a job well done, and this is backed by scientific research as well. There’s been quite a bit of research done on job satisfaction. What they found is regardless of the type of work that you’re doing, whether or not you ultimately find it satisfying and inspiring and motivating depends in a large part on why you’re doing it.

And in terms of why’s. The purposes that seem to inspire people most are those that involve giving to others, [00:08:00] not taking from others. So it’s not so much about what the job is getting you. It’s more about what it is doing for others. And this holds true for All kinds of jobs that you wouldn’t think would hold true for for example, in one study that was done with hospital janitors who spend most of their time cleaning bedpans and mopping up vomit and stuff, which does not sound like a fun job or a job that could ever be very satisfying.

What they found is that some of the people that were doing this actually really did enjoy their jobs. And they found their jobs very meaningful and very satisfying while others hated their jobs and were doing it simply because they felt they. Couldn’t get a better job doing anything else. The key difference between these people though, was simply how they viewed their work.

So the people that actually enjoyed their jobs and look forward to work every day. And yeah, some of it, obviously they didn’t particularly enjoy, didn’t give them pleasure to do some of the things they were doing in a hedonistic sense, but they found it meaningful and satisfying. These people viewed themselves and the work [00:09:00] that they were doing as an integral part of a team that was helping heal.

People. And that’s what they really liked about it. Somebody has to do the dirty work. It has to get done. And it is very important that it gets done. So why not them? And in my personal experience, nothing really changes in this regard, even when you move to the other end of the economic spectrum and the spectrum of the types of work that you might be doing.

So in my case, I have a couple of businesses. And I have the freedom to do whatever work I want to do and I make plenty of money. But still, even for me, none of that is enough to really get me fired up. Simply being able to do whatever I want. and make a lot of money doesn’t really inspire me. It doesn’t really motivate me.

It needs to go deeper than that. Or eventually I would lose interest, lose enthusiasm, and probably just burn out. Let’s get back to talking about our little broom because it has more that it can teach us. Now I like my broom because it [00:10:00] doesn’t care what I’ve achieved, doesn’t care what I’ve got planned for the future.

It doesn’t want or offer compliments or favors. It really has no agenda. Other than one simple little request, grab me and get sweeping. There’s work to do and someone has to do it. That’s what the broom is all about and that resonates with me. So when I pick up my broom and I start sweeping, it reminds me that I’m only as valuable as I can continue to do the job at hand.

And that I think has helped keep me grounded and has helped keep me focused on what really matters. And that is what I’m doing right here and right now and how well I’m doing it, not what I’ve done previously or what I can brag about or why people should cut me some slack or let me take it easy or anything else.

The reality is just because I could sweep really well at one point doesn’t mean I still can, just because a general one. Many of his previous battles doesn’t mean he’s going to [00:11:00] win the next battle. And in fact, the assumption that past success guarantees future results is actually very dangerous.

I think both in business and life landmines litter that path in the sand.

So really what I am getting at here is the broom symbolizes humble appreciation, respect of the challenges of the work at hand. Frank Gehry, who is one of the most celebrated architects of all time, he still embraces this lesson even after decades of acclaimed work. Work. Here’s what he said. He said, for me, every day is a new thing.

I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did. And I get the sweats. I go in and I start working and I’m not sure where I’m going. If I knew where I was going, I wouldn’t do it. Now stop for a second and consider. The fact that the man that said that has received over a dozen honorary degrees [00:12:00] from universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

And he’s also designed some of the most famous buildings in the world. Vanity Fair called him the most important architect of our age and. What does he do every day? What is such an accomplished person do? He picks up his broom and he starts sweeping as best as he can. And there’s one last lesson here that I think is worth sharing.

And it has to do with the nature of the tool. The very nature of the broom. And that is that a broom is crude. It’s inefficient. It doesn’t have any technological advantage. In fact, no technology is involved at all, at least by today’s standards. And without your effort, the broom is absolutely useless.

But if you’re willing to put it to work, if you’re willing to do the job. Then it’s reliable. It never breaks. It never malfunctions with your trusty broom. You can get the job done every time. So I think that the broom also symbolizes the reality that there’s simply no [00:13:00] substitute for just doing the work.

And I’m going to end this with a quote from Henry Miller that I really like. And I think articulates this last lesson perfectly. And he said in this age, which believes that there is a shortcut to everything. The greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.

Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

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Lastly, if you didn’t like something about the show, then Definitely shoot me an email at mike at musclefullife. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

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