Arbutus Coaching’s Blog

Welcome to Because Life Isn’t a Dress Rehearsal, a blog written by life and business coach Kathy Santini, owner of Arbutus Coaching. This blog contains coaching tips and advice to help you become the most self actualized, effective person you can be, both personally and professionally. If you’re serious about “growing your possibilities,” and transforming your life, then you’re in the right place. My goal in writing this blog is to help you create a life that is easier, bigger, richer and more rewarding than the life you’re living now. So let’s get started shall we, because life isn’t a dress rehearsal and time’s a wastin’.

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Love Your Job like Tony Bennett Does

By arbutuscoaching | October 8, 2009

I had the incredible privilege of seeing Tony Bennett last night. It truly was one of the highlights of my life, as Tony Bennett is my favourite singer. It’s something the chairman of the board (Frank Sinatra) and I have in common, as Frank believed Tony was the best singer in the world. High praise from someone like Frank, a fellow Italian, whose last name also ends in a vowel.

The span of Tony’s career is mind boggling, as he demonstrated by the names he dropped throughout the evening. Discovered by Bob Hope when he was playing with Pearl Bailey, Bob suggested that his real name, Anthony Dominick Benedetto might be too long on the marquise and consequently renamed him Tony Bennett. He counted Frank Sinatra as his best friend and told numerous stories about Count Basie, the famed American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer, widely regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time,

What’s more amazing than the lives he’s crossed is the enthusiasm that he still has at 83 about his vocation. In Tony’s case, his vocation is a vacation. It’s not a golden handcuff like it is for many people.

A recent Canadian study of 1,100 employees, polled across North America, found that one-third loathes their jobs. That’s loathe, as in detest, hate and otherwise despise. I used to be one of those people. Now, my work seems like play, because I’m so passionate about it. Hours go by at the speed of sound, not the speed of the ice age, as is the case for many others.

If you find yourself in a job that doesn’t leave you excited about getting up every morning, it’s probably because the job requires skills that aren’t your strengths. Because they aren’t where you excel, you probably don’t enjoy using them.To find out where you do shine, you might want to purchase the book Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath. When you purchase it, you also get access to an online assessment, which identifies your top five strengths.

Why is this important? Because studies indicate that people who have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general. If you’re like most people and spend 40 hours a week at a job, wouldn’t it be preferable to be engaged at what you do, rather than just putting in time? Wouldn’t it be better to be Tony, than like a prisoner, just doing time?

Topics: work |

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