I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
Sonia SotomayorRead
Sometimes it gets boring. No justice is supposed to say that. But, you know, there's drudgery in every job you're going to do.
Interpretation
Every job has its tedious aspects, and it's important to acknowledge the less exciting parts of work.
Sonia Sotomayor's quote reflects the reality that all jobs, even those perceived as meaningful or prestigious, come with monotonous tasks and responsibilities. Acknowledging this boredom is a part of the human experience, emphasizing that even the most dedicated professionals encounter periods of drudgery and routine that can be uninspiring.
In practice
Using this quote during a team meeting to address work morale.
I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
This wealth of experiences, personal and professional, have helped me appreciate the variety of perspectives that present themselves in every case that I hear.
I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't imagine someone else's point of view.
The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn't have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.
As you discover what strength you can draw from your community in this world from which it stands apart, look outward as well as inward. Build bridges instead of walls.
There are uses to adversity, and they don't reveal themselves until tested. Whether it's serious illness, financial hardship, or the simple constraint of parents who speak limited English, difficulty can tap unexpected strengths.
The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.
A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.
When you start to confuse Freddie Mac, Sallie Mae and Fannie Mae with members of your family, and you remember 2,000 stock symbols but forget the children's birthdays, there's a good chance you've become too wrapped up in your work.
Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits.
I get to go to work and come home with something interesting or enriching or astonishing.
I go through periods where I work a great deal at all hours of the day whenever I am around a typewriter, and then I go through spells where I don't do anything. I just sort of have lunch - all day. I never have been able to stick to a schedule. I work when there is something due or when I am really excited about a piece.
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