Epictetus on Work and Character

• Dennis returns after a brief family health issues, promising career advice from his podcast "The Ultimate Podcast."

• He discusses a quote from Stoic philosopher Epictetus: "The quality of your work reflects the quality of your character."
• Character is defined as integrity, honesty, and acting in others' best interests. Good work shows good character.
• Poor work quality due to disliking one's job risks a downward spiral affecting both work and character.
• It is time to find more fulfilling work elsewhere to avoid this and enhance one's career.
• The host concludes by urging listeners to buy his book for career advice on Find a Job Thst Fits Your Life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hi folks. Well, I'm back the old jarhead with your be the ultimate podcast where I give you great career advice that I guarantee will help you at whatever you decide to do in your professional life. So just a side note, you notice I took a couple of weeks off. We had a little bit of a health issue here at home that we are taking care of and things are getting better, and so we're back to the podcast. Thanks for sticking with it listening.

Speaker 1: 0:34

I hope I didn't lose too many people, but let's get on with this podcast this week, because I think it's a pretty darn good one. So what are we going to talk about today? Well, let me tell you about a fella by the name it Epitetus, epitetus, and you're going okay. Well, who is Epitetus? Well, epitetus was a guy. He lived in ancient Rome about 2000 years ago, and he was a follower of the Stoic philosophy, and so those of you who have listened to my podcast and read some of my articles, you know I'm a fan of that. I think there's a lot to be learned from that. So he was a Stoic philosopher, and the quote that he gave that, I think, is something I want to talk about today is the quality of your work reflects the quality of your character.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Okay, say that one more time there, old man the quality of your work reflects the quality of your character. So let's unpack that a little bit, right? So let's start with character. So what is character, right? That's that trait that you possess, that who you are at your core, the things you do, the decisions you make when nobody's watching it's just you and the fact that you act honestly, with integrity, you act in the best interest of other people, not just yourself. These are all things that go into your character, right? So everybody at least everybody listening to this podcast would want to have a good character, want to be known for having a good character, right? So let's go back to that quote the quality of your work reflects the quality of your character.

Speaker 1: 2:30

So what he's saying here is you got to do good work, right? If you have a job, you're getting paid to do something. You have an obligation, and how you perform that quality of your work is a reflection of you. So if you get tempted on bad days to just, as they say, just kind of phone it in or not to do as much as you should do, you can need to realize that that reflects upon yourself. It's not just you're getting away with something, it's that people are noticing it and people are making judgments about your character.

Speaker 1: 3:11

And if you really want to be known for being of good character, of sound character, then you need to do a good job at work. So Easy, right? Well, reality is a little little more difficult than that. Sometimes your job sucks right and you hate it there, and so you're not doing a good job at work. What do you do then? Do you keep doing that? Do you keep going down that spiral? Doing a bad job, so your character takes a hit. So you do a worse job, so your character takes a bigger hit.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Nope, that's the signal there. That's a signal that it's time to move on. That's a signal that your career is not where it should be. The job that you're doing is not the job you should have, and when it starts to impact the quality of your work, which impacts your character, then now's the time to start looking elsewhere. Now's the time to think about what else you want to do, why is this job and this career not what you want it to be, and to figure out what's next. This way, you don't go down this downward spiral. So that's it for today. That's a really good quote, right A patitis, the quality of your work reflects the quality of your character.

Speaker 1: 4:32

And, in closing, if you find yourself in that position where you're not doing good work because you're not in the right place, pick up a copy of my book. Find a Job that Fits your Life. I guarantee it's going to be a game changer. And thanks for listening and thanks for sticking with me during the couple of weeks we had to take off and we're coming up on the hundredth episode of the podcast soon. So thanks for sticking around for a long time. Semper Fire Bye.