Last Thurs­day, I picked up lunch from the Whole Foods near my office and sat out­side to eat. I was wedged between two tables with peo­ple actively engaged in con­ver­sa­tion. I couldn’t help but over­hear both conversations.

Sit­ting at the table to my left was a young woman speak­ing to a guy. From what I could gather, she was recently hired by Whole Foods (Whole Foods’ regional office is in the office next to mine). She was talk­ing to the guy about her out­look on how to do her job, and gave her a lot of, what sounded like, con­struc­tive feed­back and advice on how to exe­cute. How­ever, just before left the table, the guy dropped a few cau­tion­ary words about work­ing with cer­tain peo­ple. Oddly, the entire “zen thing” the guy had vapor­ized when he spoke about the cul­ture of this woman’s new divi­sion. Quite a sour note to end a conversation.

Mean­while, at the table to my right were two women who spent a lot of time talk­ing about a new per­son in their office. In a nut­shell, both seemed to like the woman who joined the office, but were in lock-step in think­ing that the young woman needed to grow up and real­ize that work is not all fun and rosy. Both women said that this young woman needed to real­ize that the time for fun in the office was over, and she was going to start doing the crap work. One went on to say that this young woman needed to fur­ther under­stand and/or real­ize that as she moves up in the office, and takes on more respon­si­bil­ity, the crap work only increases.

Wow!

I think just about every­one has heard the quote about dis­cov­er­ing your passion.

Do what you love, and you never work a day in your life.

I won­der, though, how many peo­ple actu­ally take that sen­ti­ment to heart. I firmly believe in the quote, but freely admit that I don’t love what I do for a liv­ing, and day­dream, often, about what I’d really love to do. Sadly, this has been the story of my work life for the last 20 years. I think that I have fallen into, or moved around from, one job to another, never really tak­ing a sin­gle stride toward find­ing my pas­sion and mak­ing that what I do for a living.

With that said, aside from occa­sional “Oh my god…I hate my job!” moments, I don’t sit around think­ing that I’ve pulled the short­est straw. I think about how to immerse myself in the job I’m, become more versed, and make the most of where I find myself.

While think­ing about this post, the notion of “crap work,” an old adage came to mind.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade.

The objec­tive read of this quote sug­gests that peo­ple should make the most of what they have. It chal­lenges one to see beyond the obvi­ous to get to a bet­ter place.

The sub­jec­tive read of this lit­tle nugget (the “crap work” women) is that you’ve been given a bag full of crap, and that’s just life. Learn how to make the most out of the sour yel­low ovals life has put in your hands. Keep your head down and squeeze.

Though I haven’t had my epiphany and real­ized my life’s pas­sion, I have a real prob­lem with view­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties asso­ci­ated with a job as crap work. That think­ing imme­di­ately sours a person’s per­spec­tive and out­look on work. Hon­estly, I think if you view the tasks that come with your job, even those con­sid­ered drudgery or mun­dane, as “crap” there’s a chance that your growth and advance­ment will be seri­ously lim­ited. I couldn’t imag­ine work­ing for some­one who told me that I have to stop being happy and buckle down for the crap work. Talk about tak­ing all of the wind out of my inspi­ra­tion sail.

I am, in now way, sug­gest­ing that even if you pur­sue the thing you love that tedious, non-sexy, and cum­ber­some tasks won’t be par for the course. I merely think one’s view of these tasks will be tem­pered by their aspi­ra­tional goals. If you love what you’re doing, it is more than likely that you will be will­ing to get your hands dirty early or often, if needed. Fur­ther, pro­ject­ing your dis­plea­sure with encoun­ter­ing “the crap” on the road to some­thing bet­ter, poten­tially robs the other per­son of his or her joy. I sus­pect that one of the lead­ing causes of this per­spec­tive is a desire by some/many peo­ple to leapfrog the trenches and land on higher ground. So many peo­ple want the higher job, the higher pay, the higher stature in the office or orga­ni­za­tion, think­ing that defines happiness.

I dare say that most peo­ple, and I include myself in that group, aren’t really on a path to pur­su­ing our true pas­sion. We make excuses and jus­tify walk­ing around like plugged in souls in the Matrix. I used to talk myself out of enter­tain­ing the idea of becom­ing a full-time pho­tog­ra­pher, writer, or any­thing else I’ve dreamed of becom­ing. Life’s in the way. Bills. Kids. Respon­si­bil­i­ties. Life just gets in the way. There’s not time to day­dream, let alone find time to bring a pas­sion to fruition, right? Not so fast. Check out this video by my friend Gary Vayn­er­chuk.

The mes­sage? Stop mak­ing excuses. The first step, though, is dis­cov­er­ing what really gets you going.

The con­ver­sa­tions I over heard have been cir­cu­lat­ing in my head since last week. Inter­est­ingly, the neg­a­tive energy ema­nat­ing from that table inspired me. Those con­ver­sa­tions, cou­pled with start­ing the book Alone Together, have really forced me start think­ing about my out­look on my cur­rent job. I spent most of the week­end try­ing to see if I can put my fin­ger my true pas­sion, as well as focus­ing on engag­ing with peo­ple in a more mean­ing­ful, tan­gi­ble and gen­uine way.

As for crap work, I’ll leave that to these guys.