Confucius said:
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
I was wide awake at 2 a.m. this morning. By 3 a.m. I hit my home office. Feeling sorry for me? Don’t! As I return from a week in the north woods of Wisconsin and time away from all electronics, I was excited to get back to work! Not because I spent a whole week with my teenagers, because I am thrilled with the projects and clients we are working on right now. 
I realize how fortunate I am…so many of the professionals I work with are not excited to start their work week or their work day. They dread it. And that is why a focus in our training and assessment work is to increase confidence and competence in skills AND help sales and service professionals fall in love with what they do (and the value they bring)!
When we love what we do, we:
- Have more energy. We all have 24 hours in a day. Within those hours, each of us has a finite amount of energy to expend. When we love what we do, our energy expands!
- Are more successful.
- Have higher levels of happiness.
- Do not dread our “work”.
So, what if you aren’t loving what you do today? What can you do about it? This isn’t about finding another job – though you may decide that in the long run. Sometimes we might not love what we are doing today. And that is okay. But if you have a larger need to increase your love of your job/career:
- Consider why you are doing the work you are doing. Is it a need to? Or want to? Or a dreaded-to? Sometimes moving through the dreaded duties, allows you more energy to focus on the want tos. A couple of weeks ago I had a “To Do” Item that I put off the entire week. As Thursday rolled around, it was still staring at me. At 5 p.m. on Thursday it was still there. I had to get it done because I was delivering a workshop the next day. I took the 20 minutes (kind of embarrassing that’s all it took me, I probably spent 3x that avoiding it for 4 days) and finished that task. I then had so much energy I spent several more hours on things I wanted to! It was energizing to know that obstacle was out of the way.
- Spend time defining the value of what you do or what you offer. Refocusing on the bigger picture can be helpful! Most anything worthwhile has some drudgery to get there. Drudgery isn’t as bad when it gets you where you want. My home has a lot of painting details and plaster work. I have done it all myself and am often asked if I will hire myself out. They assume I must love painting and plastering. The truth is…I don’t! I love the outcome and am willing to do the work that gets me there.
- Reflect on why you are in the job you are in. A question I ask sales groups “Who chose a sales career?” 50% or more do not raise their hands. Wow that is a lot of people on a path not of their choosing. But you can choose to stay on it … or not!
- Spend time with people who enjoy their work. Ever notice the company you keep affects your feelings? Spend time with complainers and someone who hates what they do and it starts to rub off. Spend time with successful, productive people and it helps!
These actions just scratch the surface of things you can do to find the benefits of loving your work. What else have you done to fall in love with what you do?
P.S. No the blonde in the photo is not me 🙂
