If there’s one instrument that’s universally mocked and ridiculed it has to be the accordion.  No other instrument (with the exception, perhaps, of the bagpipe) comes close.

Yet in this video we see that the accordion can sound beautiful when handled by a master.

This brings me to something I hear a lot of people say – “I don’t like my job, I want a new one.”  What does this have anything to do with an accordion?  Well, just like the accordion a lot of us have hate our jobs.  We think that if we just had the “right” job we’d be happy.  If only we had the right job, then we’d have that elusive joy.

But would we?

I believe that if you want to have meaning in your work, that meaning has to come from you, not your job.  In short you must bring your own meaning to work.  If you look for work to provide you with meaning you’re going to be disappointed for a long long time.

In other words, we’re asking the wrong questions.  We shouldn’t be saying, “how can I find my perfect job?”  We should be saying, “how can I make this job right for me?”

This brings us back to the accordion video.  Instead of looking at getting the “right” instrument, we should focus on becoming masters.  By focusing on becoming experts in what we do, we change the situation.  The more we excel at whatever our task, the more we take something wonderful and awe inspiring.

It’s easy to play the accordion poorly.  It takes real talent to make it sound amazing.  Are our jobs really any different?

image provided by flickr user rochelle et al

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