Find your Passion for Work

You wake up every day excited for work, right? Every Monday is basically Christmas morning for you right? You wake up in anticipation of the greatness that is the day that lays ahead? Oh, no? You actually can’t remember the last time you were that excited to go to work? Perhaps that is because you don’t have passion for the work you’re doing any more. Maybe you never were passionate about the work. Not all of us are lucky enough to have run toward a career that excites and inspires us. That can be really hard because it can feel like we’re failing. People feel like they are unfocused on their tasks or in general they feel lazy or unmotivated at work. I have heard from so many people lately about how they struggle with parts of their jobs not because the work is too challenging but because they have just become apathetic toward it.

One woman I know has struggled with this for years, we’ll call her Susan. Susan started out in a field that she thought she would love. She wanted to be a nurse and care for people in some of the scariest and hardest times of their lives. Susan started at the bottom doing this work while going to school until she realized how poorly people were being treated who worked there. Susan decided to use her skills in a different way and aid people through the process from the insurance side. She had been doing the work for 8 years when I met her and, while she was really good at her job, she was incredibly unhappy. She wasn’t getting the intrinsic rewards she originally wanted from helping people in need. Nor was she getting rewarded corporately in a way that was fulfilling. She just assumed that it was normal to coast through this life and stressed out at work waiting for the weekend was good enough. She felt like it was OK that she wasn’t really motivated for more because she had hobbies and a family that she could be fulfilled by. She told me once that no one likes work and you don’t just throw away 8 years of work to do something more fun.

If Susan’s sentiments sound like maybe you’re reading your own story, this little section is for you. You do have a passion for work. It is meant to be enjoyable. You are motivated and focused. You are not lazy, and you can make a difference in any line of work by focusing on where your passion lies in the first place. Like Susan, many of us know (or did at one time) what our passion is, we’re just ignoring it. Today you’re going to identify your passion, start to understand your personal mission, and determine where to go with it. No, you don’t throw away 8 years, but you don’t continue down the same unhappy path for the next 10 – 20 either.

Let’s start with finding your passion, when was the last time you worked and were really excited about it? Don’t box yourself in, think of any kind of work you were doing. Think back to a time that you were blissful working. I don’t mean at your current job or at any job really, though it certainly could have been a time at a traditional job, it could have been something completely separate. It might have been while teaching your baby their numbers, organizing a room, planning a trip, listening to other’s problems or offering advice, building a chicken coop, or researching the best options for anything and sharing the results. What work did you love any why? Now ask yourself why again and again until you get to the root of it. Were you good at it, I’m guessing you had some natural talent for it or you wouldn’t have started? What reward did you get out of it? What were you able to help someone else accomplish or complete? Why did helping them achieve something make you feel great? This is likely one very specific moment or a collection of a few very specific moments. Let’s stick with Susan for a moment. She told me once that while she was a CNA she went into the room of an elderly woman to change out some supplies and was able to talk with the woman while she was in there. The woman said it was her first visitor in days and went on to say how thankful she was for their visit. Susan’s passion came from making people in their time of need feel loved and cared for.

Now that you’ve identified your passion, consider creating a personal vision statement around it. Start with how you want to help others and why, consider how you want to help yourself too. For Susan her personal mission might have been to bring comfort to those who need it most and support healing. For Fay in last week’s post, Should I Quit My Job, it could have been to develop lifelong learners and support my family through their lives’ endeavors. For Carrie it could be, to educate the whole person, mind, body, and spirit one student at a time. (Click here to read more about Carrie and Fay.) Writing your life’s mission down will help you to focus on it. It will give you clarity in moments where you need to prioritize and take the next right step.

Once you know what you’re passionate about, act like it. Start finding ways to do it and actively work toward it and live out that personal mission or vision every day. There will be opportunities at work but having it in the forefront of your mind will also help you recognize opportunities that come your way. So keep your eyes open and be ready for the little nods to use your talents to carry out your mission and serve with passion.