If you feel your job is draining your energy and passion, there is a simple solution that you can implement straight away!
If you feel you are committing more of your time and energy and getting few rewards, it is time to make a change. If you are feeling weighed down by an ever increasing work load or all the external demands on you, I will show you a way to lighten things up – so that you can enjoy the rest of your day.
Start straightaway by identifying and listing your values. This is a vital quick exercise.
Then shift your mind and focus on developing a plan that will reignite your passion for work in line with your values.
Then start working towards getting what you REALLY want.
Let’s take a look at how to do just that.
Before we start making the necessary changes, first, let’s explore the changes between now and yesterday. Today’s jobs tend to be more complicated and complex than those of 10 years ago. Working flat out or ‘being slammed’ with work has replaced the out-dated term ‘I am busy’. As expectations on workers have dramatically increased, work literally consumes you and puts you at risk of complete exhaustion if you’re not careful.
Common causes of lost passion for work
Current working habits, styles and patterns often start with a good intention or belief that eventually goes awry. Workers often start off by delivering excellent service, doing loads of extra hours or expanding their job functions after ex-colleagues’ redundancies or departures. However, actions that once made you feel positive and valued have slowly turned into unspoken demands and expectations of you and your time. The end result is that your work simply doesn’t inspire you, make you happy or deliver the returns you were originally seeking.
And over the past 7 -10 years, the work landscape has undergone a dramatic change. Global competition, cheap labour and emerging companies have meant that each and every business has to work harder to survive, let alone thrive. Businesses, in general, have to offer more benefits to attract and maintain customers while making greater investment in capital equipment and technology. The people left inside the organisation are under more pressure to take on extra tasks or re-train to accommodate new working practices. Is it no wonder that things don’t turn out as you wanted or wished?
Who is missing out?
Whilst the majority of businesses are focused on their global brand, image and reputation the people inside the organisation are often forgotten in the process. The popular phrase ‘Put people before Profit’ is no longer reflective of what many workers actually perceive these days.
To put things into perspective: in 1900 Britain life expectancy was about 47 for a man and about 50 for a woman. The first state pension Act passed in 1908 and paid out in 1909 was for people aged 70 or more. Therefore the pension seemed to be set at an age many people were not expected to reach and therefore enjoy the benefits.
Keeping that in mind …
How do you thrive and remain physically and mentally healthy in today’s pressurised business environment so that you enjoy your work life up to and beyond retirement?
Listed below are three tips to help you to ignite your passion for your job and life’s work.
1. Energy doesn’t wear out
You can’t destroy energy. However, you can recycle it. So if you’re consistently tired at the end of your work day, something isn’t quite right. The human mind and body are very good at doing what they’ve practised over and over again, including the negative things. So if you constantly think about what went wrong and what disappointed and upset you during the day, you will train your mind and body to respond negatively to work situations. Because your mind and body work on auto-pilot, you may start to feel tense, miserable and fed up. In effect, your thinking has become a habit and you’re creating your work reality by re-living past moments.
To avoid this trap take time to relax during your day. Make time to let your body go limp and feel relaxed and make a point of getting up from your desk every hour. Check in with yourself and ask, ‘Am I making this task harder than I need to?’ Adopt positive self-talk to boost your self-esteem and self-worth by focusing on what you do well.
2. Identify your Values
Let’s be practical and focus for a minute on what matters to you. Who are you doing this for? What really matters to you? What is your internal voice saying to you?
If you want to be happy at work, you need to do what makes you happy rather than what other people expect you to do. Chances are you may need to stick up for yourself and remind other people if and when they break your boundaries. It’s about putting yourself first and reclaiming pieces of yourself you have neglected. You don’t have to be nasty about it or feel guilty about putting yourself first, you simply have to be willing to speak up and to ask for what you want both at work and home.
3. Make a Cross-over Plan
Having a cross-over plan helps you to stay on course for the future. It’s relatively easy for most people to identify what they want career wise but sticking to the plan is the tricky bit. Instant gratification, an unwillingness to accept help and feeling uncomfortable in the unknown will hamper any career change you need to make.
Making a cross over plan is all about getting in touch with your spirit and exploring what’s possible for you. Use the creative part of your brain and to try lots of different ways to move out of your current thinking state. You need to imagine at least five different routes to getting from A to B and spend as much time as you can raising your energy through physical exercise and listening to uplifting music. Draw, paint, dance, sing, make things and keep focusing on how you want things to turn out. Pay attention to any changes in your life and any inspirational thoughts or ideas that you may have.
If you need any help to ignite your passion, we offer lots of different career exploration and career change programmes. They’re designed to help you change job or to create your own digital on-line assets and business so you can live the independent life of your dreams.