10 Lessons My Father Taught Me About Work

After 32 years in the same job, with the same job title, with the same boss, and the same employer, my father hung up his dental loupes a few months ago. My entire childhood I planned on being a Dentist like my father and grandfather. However, after spending a few days looking over his shoulder in college, I realized that the only teeth I'm interested in are my own.

Even though we never worked together, I learned a lot from dad about work. Here are ten lessons I learned from Dr. Curtis Clifford. In no particular order.

1. Make the most of your morning - almost everyday for 32 years, my dad woke up around 5 am to cycle, 6:30 am was family prayer and scripture study, 7 am breakfast, and by 8 am, he was at work. No matter how work went, he already had accomplished so much by 8 am.
2. Give your best self at work, but more importantly, at home - so often we perform at the highest level at work, only for our family who we come home to, to receive whatever is left over of us. My dad gave my Mother and his kids the attention, patience, and kindness (customer service) that would make Amazon envious.
3. Give back - for my dad, giving back was part of any professional success. Donating to charitable causes, involvement in Rotary Club, building homes for the less fortunate, coaching sports team, and acting as a Boy Scouts Leader. He always seem to donate a few hours each week to others.
4. Find a way to fit in exercise - my dad believed in consistent and sustainable exercise. He believed that a healthy body leads to a happy soul.
5. Treat everybody with respect - no matter a person's job title, socioeconomic background, race, or age, he spoke to everyone as if they were a friend.
6. Make the most out of vacation - work is difficult and stressful, so make vacation fun. Go somewhere new, fill the day with activities, be active, and enjoy the time doing things as a family.
7. Be frugal and live within your means - order off the dollar menu, stay in hotels that serve breakfast and take a few muffins for lunch :), eat trail mix and granola bars for lunch on vacation to save time and money, have all six of your kids drive the same car, etc.
8. Dinner time is together at 6 pm - It's easy for work to drag on into the evening. For as long as I can remember, our family sat down for dinner at 6 pm. As us kids got older and were involved in more extracurricular activities, it wasn't always everybody. But for those that could, they were expected to be home at the dinner table, to eat together and talk about their day.
9. Be happy - life always presents challenges and difficulties. Every person and family has lots of them. In high school, I created a lot of my own! My dad always found a way to look at the positive. He chose to navigate challenges optimistically. He chose to be happy.
10. Be present - when my dad came home from work, his phone was never in plain sight. When he was home, his focus was 100% on my mom and his kids. If we needed help with homework, he would jump right in. His number one job and priority was his family until the kids went to bed. Who knows what happened after that, probably lots of Seinfeld, David Letterman and a bowl of ice cream. With six kids, deservingly so.