Take Time to Work

– it is the source of success

When I say take time to work I don’t mean just get up and go to work. I mean spend time on doing what you like to do.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
…Buddha

Do you love what you are doing now for a career? If you do love what you are doing, congratulations, you are on your way to being successful. If you don’t love what you are doing, why don’t you?

The first question is relatively easy to answer. Either you love what you are doing or you don’t. The second question is a bit more difficult and takes some inner exploration and digging for the real reason, or reasons, that you don’t love, or maybe even just don’t like, what you are doing.

Now I’m not suggesting that you immediately pack in your existing job because you don’t love it….particularly in these economic times. What I will suggest to you is that you look for some things about your current job that you do enjoy. Whether it is activity or people related, there is generally something that you will enjoy about what you do for a living. (interesting term “do for a living”) Make a list of those things that you enjoy about your job and about which you are passionate. If you honestly can’t find anything about which you are passionate, or that you enjoy doing, after seriously looking, then perhaps it is time to look for something else to do about which you can be passionate and love doing.

Now put down in a separate list the answers that you came up with for question two about why you don’t love what you are doing. Answers like “The jobs stinks.” don’t count. What specifically don’t you like.  Some of these examples may help you: the management doesn’t share my values, I don’t feel competent about doing the job, I can’t stand the repetitive nature of the job, nobody notices me, I don’t believe in the companies products, I’m afraid that I will fail at the task. Get to the real reasons.

Now comes the interesting part of this exercise. Next to the list of things you enjoy or love about your job write down ideas of how you can get more of it. Write down anything that comes to your mind. Now, on the list of what you don’t love about your job write down how you might avoid these things. Again write anything that comes to mind. The purpose of this exercise is to give you more scope to do more things that you love doing and less of the things you dislike doing. It will also give you great insight as to what motivates you.

The follow on of this exercise is to then ask for what you want back in the work place. As the saying goes “If you don’t ask, you won’t get.” Wouldn’t you rather do things that you enjoy rather then things you don’t. If you are good at what you enjoy doing, it would seem logical that the organisation for which you work would be happy for you to do more of it.

This exercise, by the way, can be useful in other aspects of your life as well. Can you think of any areas?