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Earlier this week, I was listening to one of my podcasts and an article was discussed. This article followed a young intern around in New York City. The young woman makes $25 an hour, receives a $1,100 allowance from her parents/grandfather and her parents pay her rent.

The most troubling aspect of this article were her thoughts during her workday. She really didn't do much work and even shopped for stuff during her grueling work day. Below are a few of her comments on her work days:

"I spend most of my morning working on a small project, online shopping, and journaling. Perk of being an intern is that I don't get too much work assigned in a day. But I do find myself bored occasionally."

"1:05 p.m. — I sit around and do nothing until my 3 p.m. meeting."

Comments from another work day:

"I sneak into the conference room to watch the France v. Belgium soccer game. Happy this will keep me entertained for the afternoon."
"I snack on cheese and an apple. Now to figure out what to do for the next hour I have at work. I've spent most of my day researching podcasts for 'living your best life.'"

The above quotes were found in the article, "A week in New York City on $25 per hour and a $1K monthly allowance" found on Refinery29.com. This article followed this intern around for 7 days, I only shared 4 quotes from the article.

Immediately, I had a couple of questions.

How could it be possible for someone to work so little at a job?
Is this a personnel problem or is this a lack of work problem?

Of course, I can't get answers to these questions from reading this article, but I did some research and I found some interesting statistics. According to a 2015 Gallup poll only 32% of U.S. employees are actively engaged at work. This data included 51% of U.S. employees that were disengaged and 17% that were actively disengaged.

What is a disengaged employee? Gallup's definition is listed below:

"They show up and kill time, doing the minimum required with little extra effort to go out of their way for customers. They are less vigilant, more likely to miss work and change jobs when new opportunities arise. They are thinking about lunch or their next break. Not engaged employees are either "checked out" or attempting to get their job done with little or no management support."

I can't even fathom an attitude of disengagement at work? I can't even imagine an attitude of disengagement at home? How can somebody just sit around and do little to nothing all day?

Why do we have low test scores? It's because 68% of the teachers are disengaged. Why do businesses struggle to make ends meet? It's because 68% or their employees are disengaged. Now, I'm not going to go on a large societal referendum, but it's crazy to think that all you need to do is show up to work and do your job.

Just doing your job is exceeding in America today. Just arriving on time and maybe taking on an extra task is exceeding. That's sad to say, but based on the stats is true.

What does this mean for you? How does this affect you in your life?

I have to believe that unmotivated people at work are also unmotivated at home. This means that 68% of Americans are just going through the motions each and every day. They get up, go to work, do 'some' work, go home and fall in front of the TV. They have no goal or higher reason for earning that income. They just keep treading water.

On the other hand successful people have a goal, a vision and even a mission. They know that they are working for a reason. They don't go to work dreading their job, instead they go to work and put in the full effort! Whether they are working in a job they love or working for a goal outside of their job, their hard work is hard to miss.

Basically, I have one message from today's article:

Be Intentionally Focused!

This means that you spend your time at work wisely and are focused on work at work!

This means that you make sure to show up to work early every day.

This means that you stay a little late to get your work done.

This means that you make family time a priority!

This means that you are focused on your family during family time.

This means that you set goals for yourself.

This means that you push yourself to meet those goals.

Set a schedule for doing and tracking your goals, whether its working out, reading or praying. Put it on your daily to do list!

My question for you: Are you being intentionally focused in every aspect of your life? Are you engaged at work? Are you engaged at home? Are you engaged in your health?