Loving your work

To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun? Katharine Graham

Ideally, everyone must get to do what he/ she loves; unfortunately life rarely offers this luxury to anyone and in any case there will some aspect of every job that we are bound to dislike. It is also good thing that we don’t always get what we want for that would make life quite boring. The challenge still remains how does one the job that has been entrusted to you?

The trick to enjoining any task is believing that the task is important. The moment one looks at a task as a waste of time we get demotivated, we seek shortcuts to minimize the work load, we don’t feel guilty of doing a shallow job and worst of all we try to avoid the job. Enjoying the task is possible if we don’t look at the task in isolation but see its criticality in the overall scheme of things. If the security guard at the bank didn’t feel he was a very key member of the team, he would when the time came to really put his life on the line, prefer to take the rap for dereliction of duty for the price paid then would possibly be a lot less. On the other hand a policeman on duty or a soldier on duty knows the dangers of his job and yet takes pride in his uniform and his responsibility and so they never bat an eyelid when confronted with ultimate challenge of having to put their life on the line.

While it maybe relatively easier to recognize that the job function you play is vital, it might be harder to get to love the job day in and day out. Monotony of the job routine is the first culprit followed closely by disagreeable specifics like paper work and poor working conditions and it could also be because of job insecurity, lack of quality leadership etc. This is where intrinsic motivation plays a vital part. You need to look at the excitement of the job, the little things in the job that make you feel happy and proud, seek out specifics in your job that you love. It could be the wonderful colleagues, the responsibilities in the job, the work environment etc. Once you have found the right motivational mix, you must not let trivial day to day issues interfere with your enjoying your job. A simple test of how much you love your job is to see if you love Mondays and don’t crave for Fridays consistently.

Once you find your job fun and also realize that you play an important part in the whole process then work takes on an altogether new meaning and you will always have spring in your step and take pride in telling about your job to others. More than that is the realization that you are so blessed to have the most wonderful job in the world. Add value to what you do by simply being more polite, more courteous, more committed, deliver more than what you promise and suddenly your job becomes as important to you as your life. Just observe the way your favorite waiter goes about his job or how the most popular boss at work goes about his job and you will find one thing common in both; they both enjoy what they do. Your designation, your earning, your position in the hierarchy etc. all become secondary to the fact that you love your life and your job.

Remember: “Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.” Dale Carnegie

Try these:

Make a list of things that you can do, to make your job even better both for those who deal with you, your colleagues and your boss. Start implementing it from today. Observe the difference it makes to your life.
What are those things in your job that you dislike or detest? Can you see why those tasks are important in the context of the job. How will you get to like the job or get someone else to do it? If you feel your job sucks then ask why are you still doing it? The answer may help you move on to another job or get you to appreciate your job better.

This post is courtesy www.actspot.com