Love Your Job

Introduction What My Dog Taught Me about Loving My Job

All I really need to know about loving work I learned from Zena, my Labrador retriever. My resolution has always been to try as hard as I can to follow her example.

Start the day with gusto. Zena wakes with a mission. She’s motivated. And she’s determined to motivate me. She stands beside my bed, rests her head on the mattress, her eyes level with mine, and stares piercingly, willing me to get up.

She’s always eager to face the outside world. In fact, she charges into it, and returns to dive into her breakfast with delight. Then she’s ready for a vigorous workout to stay physically fit. That’s a 40”minute”plus walk either around the sidewalks of the city or through the woods and fields, depending on where we are that day.

Focus on a task. Zena’s singular ability to concentrate all her mental and physical energy allows her to achieve winning performance. She’s a pro at what she does, and she devotes her whole heart and all her abilities to every project. She’s absorbed with every sinew and nerve. She’s vibrant and alive.

Throw a Frisbee, ball, or stick, and she’s off, tearing down the field, knowing instinctively when to pivot and leap to catch it. She dives with abandon into ponds, and swims with the strength and pure beauty of a canine athlete, making a direct beeline to her goal in record time.

As far as I can tell, she never blocks out the pure enjoyment these moments offer by letting other matters distract her. Admittedly, ...