I recently finished a book, admittedly the first full book I’ve finished in a while. I am a fan of true stories and biographies, so when I saw The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku, an Auschwitz Survivor, advertised, I quickly ordered it. It was an intriguing, almost unbelievable story of a man who survived unimaginable things under Hitler’s rule.

There were so many great lessons intertwined in the pages of this book, but one thing I picked up that made me reflect on my current job was this, “If I went to a hospital and saw instruments that I had made and knew that they were being used every day to make life better, this gave me great happiness. The same is true of every job you do…. Perhaps you do not love your job, or you work with difficult people. You are still doing important things, contributing your own small piece to the world we live in”. 

In that moment, my perspective changed. The main focus of my position at the moment is recruiting for a healthcare company. Sometimes the position can be frustrating, overwhelming, repetitive, etc. But then, I thought about how my own little piece of the pie helped make the organization and the community a better place. It made me think of all the lives my path has crossed, how I’ve helped some employees attain their career goals, how I’ve helped others get in the door and start their own path towards a desired goal, and how my help with staffing the organization has helped patients address their needs. It has indirectly helped our patients, my neighbors, people of my community physically function to their fullest.