Much has been made of the negotiations between Disney and the services union, so I’m not going to get into that discussion very much. However, I would like to add my own perspective to how I approach things that I don’t like but need to do for my job.
The other day I was driving to pick up my daughter from school, listening to one of my favorite Disney related playlists on my iPod – the music of the Sherman Brothers. I was thinking at the time about how things are kind of crazy for a lot of people in their job environments. Some people have jobs, but don’t like them; some people don’t have jobs at all, and would love to have one; some people want to improve their job but can’t because of the economy. As for me, I like my job, and am not looking for another, but there are still things about it that I don’t like to do. For example, I don’t like getting caught up in the political battles that erupt at my place of work; unfortunately, I have been caught up in them a little too much lately. Anyway, I was thinking of my most recent battle that I have been working on when the following song came up on my playlist:
“A Spoonful of Sugar”, as sung by Julie Andrews during the movie “Mary Poppins”.
As it started playing, I was immediately drawn to the opening words of the song:
“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun, and SNAP—the job’s a game!”
It instantly hit me how right Julie Andrews (and by extension, Disney) is in this assessment. No job is fun 100% of the time; in fact, for most people, it probably isn’t even close. However, that isn’t the point. The prospect of work is that it is a necessary evil for us to be able to move on in our lives, to be able to support our families, and to be able to allow us to enjoy the time off that we get to do the things we love to do. The quicker we find the fun in a task, even if it is just the simple satisfaction of being able to look at the end of the task to know that it is done, the more we will be able to move past it.
It continually amazes me how much in the way of life lessons Walt Disney and his creative genius have given to the world. Now, when work isn’t going as well as it should, I immediately take five minutes to sort through my thoughts, think of a favorite Disney song, play it, and immediately my mindset is adjusted to make the task I’m working on manageable so that I can complete it. If only all of us were able to find something to take our mind off of that difficult task we need to perform.
Thank you, Walt Disney, for the leadership you showed your team as you created the Disney empire for all of us to enjoy.
[…] here of his passing. I love the music that they created, everything from the music from the movie Mary Poppins to a lot of the music for some of the Disney attractions. We even purchased a soundtrack of the […]