6 Ways to Find Happiness at Work Right Now

 

Finding happiness at work may feel like a tall order.

Here are 6 ways you can find happiness at work - right now!


 

We’ve all been in jobs that weren’t satisfying—where it was hard to find happiness at work, and each day felt like drudgery. Heck, we’ve probably all faced work that was downright tedious!

But the real truth is, you can find happiness in absolutely any job, no matter what you’re doing. I’ve known trash collectors who were satisfied with their work every single day. I’ve known teachers, law enforcement, and social workers who faced difficult, even dangerous situations with a smile on their faces. There are many ways to find joy in work.

Even if you’re not in your dream job, you can find happiness at work right now. If you’re hoping for more satisfaction in the 9-5, here are six tips for finding happiness at work.

1. Let Go of the Idea of “One”

I didn’t think of a career when I was growing up. I lived in a town where everyone had jobs; they might work at the bank, as a firefighter, or in a factory. I was working my first job when someone asked me, “what do you want to do for your career?” I remember it was the first time I’d really thought about the difference between a 9-5 job and a satisfying career path I could choose. It opened up a whole new world.

Not everyone has a predetermined career path. Some people don’t know what they want to do for a job until much later in life—well past their college years. Others waffle back and forth, never feeling fulfilled because they don’t feel settled on their career path or because they think they’ve missed their chance to take on their perfect career.


In many ways, the idea there’s one perfect career out there for us is akin to believing there’s only one ideal soulmate out there for us. It’s a fairytale myth, setting us up for disappointment and unfulfilled expectations. We can’t find happiness at work when we’re constantly looking for something else.


In reality, there are many jobs and careers we could feel satisfied in, but like a relationship, it’s up to us to put in the work. It’s not about the perfect job or the ideal career path, but about the quality of the work we do. We can engage in any task and find satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment.

For those of us lamenting the idea that we didn’t “follow our passion” or fulfill our dream career, take a pause and think about it. Maybe we would have found creative or intellectual fulfillment in our dream profession, or perhaps we wouldn’t. Maybe the same people and situations that get under our skin at our current job would exist in any setting. Perhaps we would still feel stuck, or eventually, we would get bored because we’re expecting a job to be “perfect.”

It’s not the work but our approach to the work that makes all the difference. We can find happiness at work, no matter what we’re doing—it’s about dedicating ourselves to the idea that we’re in control of our happiness (not waiting for our job to hand it over).

2. Lead from Where You Are

Many of us covet the corner office. We think if we got the promotion, we’d really show our boss our mettle. We’re waiting for a leadership position to appear so we can finally be in charge. We start to think we need to get ahead constantly if we want to feel happiness at work.

I’ve seen many entrepreneurs who quit their “day jobs” and took on their dream career, only to quickly discover they were in over their heads. This idea that we can’t answer to anyone, so we want to become our own boss, is a falsehood. Even entrepreneurs have a boss—their clients,  customers, and stakeholders. If they’re forgotten, no business will be successful.  We all answer to someone if we want to earn a paycheck.

Instead of looking at authority as control to buck against, what if we shift to view it as something to model? Instead of feeling bossed around in meetings and shutting down defiantly, what if you spoke up and shared your thoughts? What if we found our inner leader and lead from wherever we were in the company (even the last rung on the ladder).

I’ve seen many of the best ideas come from people in the lowest positions in the company. Often, these people have boots on the ground. They’re in the trenches, and they see what happens in the day-to-day action. They might be interfacing with customers or gaining a perspective that management doesn’t have. No matter what we do in a job, our voice could still turn the company around and head off major issues otherwise overlooked. If we see a problem—speak up!

It helps to look at our boss as a mentor. Cultivate a strong relationship with them and listen to their feedback, even if it’s tough. Dress for the next position. We should always take the time to put ourselves together, so we draw positive attention. Walk into meetings ready to speak up, engage, and lead. When we start to lead confidently from any position, we’ll begin to move up the ranks.

3. Find Your Purpose

The vital key to happiness at work (and in life) is purpose. Purpose and meaning should drive every interaction.

I’ve worked with plenty of professionals who earn high incomes. They may hold an MBA from an Ivy League school. They may own a big house, luxury cars, and designer clothing, but they’re scratching their heads, wondering why they still can’t find happiness at work.


To feel fulfilled and satisfied in any scenario, we must extract our sense of meaning and purpose. Whether it’s finding the purpose in our relationships, friendships, parenting, or leisure time, purpose is a vital component of happiness.


If we want to find happiness at work, we need to focus on how we’re working to be net givers to the world. How are we providing the world with more than we’re gaining? How are we giving to those around us and bringing out the best in our peers?

Purpose is like a switch. Once we discover it, we’re turned on and engaged. Suddenly our burdens become lighter. Work no longer feels like work because it’s meaningful. We know we’re working FOR something rather than going through the motions.

The truth is happy people are happy in most aspects of their life because they choose to be that way. If we want a great career, we should focus on being a great person. Be a trustworthy person. Be someone other people count on. As we become the person we want to be, our job and career path will align to our values.

4. Challenge Yourself for More Happiness at Work

We can develop ourselves in any environment. People have transformed themselves in dire circumstances. They’ve learned and grown in prison, in concentration camps, and in other unthinkable situations. Development comes from rising to the challenges.

So there are going to be days when we don’t feel happy at work. If the days add up to weeks and months, we may want to consider why our job isn’t sparking happiness. We may want to ask ourselves if our job is too easy.

It sounds strange, right? We all want an easy button. We all think that going through the same motions every day will let us stop thinking about work so much. An easy, stress-free job may sound fantastic, but if we want satisfaction, we need a challenge.

When we enter a new workplace, we feel challenged right away. We’re learning and adapting to a new environment; we’re discovering new ways to complete tasks. Each situation gives us the chance to learn and grow. We’re meeting new coworkers and adapting to the situation.

After a few years, we may find we’re not as excited about our job anymore. It feels routine. Instead of going on autopilot and zoning out, this is a sure sign we need to zone in. We need to level up and find new ways to seek that sense of novelty and adventure in our careers.

I was working with a lawyer who was going through these feelings of drudgery. He was even considering a career change because he wasn’t finding his career fulfilling anymore. He wasn’t finding happiness at work.

During our conversation, I challenged him to prepare for his next case like it was his very first. I told him to go all-in—cram in as much information and study as possible. He followed my advice and came back the next week on a high. He said it was the most significant week of work he’d had in a long time. From there, his career began to completely turn around.

Humans want challenges and stimulation. We orient to novelty. We want to be engaged and turned on to new ideas and activities. If we feel unfulfilled by a job, the solution is to take on a big challenge. If we can’t think of a challenging project to undertake, ask! Go to the boss and request a new challenge. I guarantee they will offer an idea. If we find this idea frightening or daunting, we may need to ask ourselves why we’re avoiding the challenge.

5. Give to Your Network

We often think of networking as a crucial part of growing our role at work. Our network is how we engage with new clients, new leads, and new customers. But networking over happy hour isn’t really building our essential connections, and it’s probably not bringing us more happiness at work.

Our connections with others become stronger when we become net givers instead of net takers. Do we give to our network? Do we provide leadership, mentorship, and advice? Do we invite new connections to share, not because we’re waiting to close a deal or warm up a lead, but because we’re genuinely interested in engaging with them as human beings?


It’s amazing how the dynamic shifts when we stop thinking of what people can do for us, and instead, we think of what we can do for them.


Instead of thinking of our customers and clients as people there to give us money, what if we thought of them as people who need to receive our service? How will we tell them about a product or service that will change their lives for the better? How would we view what we were doing if we knew it provided someone with a necessary service?

We don’t always need to think of giving in tangible ways, either. Offering appreciation, warmth, and encouragement is also part of giving to others. When we engage with others, we’re helping fulfill their yearning to be respected, listened to, to see, and be seen. Fulfilling a yearning is powerful stuff that fortifies our connections.

6. Learn from Mistakes

We all make mistakes. Many of us make big, huge, epic mistakes. Some errors feel like the end of the world, and we wonder how we will ever recover. This is especially true when our mistakes affect our work (and even worse when our boss, team, or customers rely on us).

Mistakes are learning opportunities. As researcher Angela Duckworth writes in her book, Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success:

“…Grit grows as we figure out our life philosophy, learn to dust ourselves off after rejection and disappointment, and learn to tell the difference between low-level goals that should be abandoned quickly and higher-level goals that demand more tenacity. The maturation story is that we develop the capacity for long-term passion and perseverance as we get older.”

In other words, making mistakes and getting rejected helps us determine our path and strengthen our resolve. As we test what approaches work and what approaches don’t work, we narrow our aim. We get better at our job.

It’s tough when we’ve made a blunder. We may have a hard time righting the ship and correcting our path, but we’re much more aware of the proper direction when we do. In each mistake is an opportunity to refine and hone in on our approach. When we make mistakes, we grow, and when we grow, we find more happiness at work.

If we watch kids when they learn, and even when they play, they make mistakes all the time. When a baby falls after taking a few steps, they don’t throw in the towel and give up. They get back up and keep going. Kids are resilient. As adults, we start to question our abilities to bounce back after mistakes.

Instead, keep moving forward and learning. If you want to find happiness at work, embrace mistakes as learning opportunities. Celebrate your mistakes and keep going!

For more on discovering a life of purpose and satisfaction, please visit our courses on WrightNow. We have an array of learning options to help you discover more satisfaction in your career, relationships, and personal life. Start moving toward a life of MORE today.

 


 

The Wright Foundation for the Realization of Human Potential is a leadership institute located in Chicago, Illinois. Wright Living performative learning programs are integrated into the curriculum at Wright Graduate University.

Why “Follow Your Passion” is a Formula for Failure

Do you love your job? Do you wish you loved your job more but don’t? Do you worry that you’re not in your dream job or on your dream career path?

A young man sits on a couch in a corner office working on his laptop. The advice 'follow your passion' is a formula for failure.

 


Do you love your job? Do you wish you loved your job more but don’t? Do you worry that you’re not in your dream job or on your dream career path?

Most people go through life hearing they should do what they want, follow their passion, and live out their dream. Others may feel like they didn’t follow their ideal path, and it’s led them to a job that’s less-than-exciting. The truth is, “follow your passion” isn’t the best advice for happiness.

It may sound unbelievable at first (especially since the idea to “follow your passion” has been drilled into us—particularly the younger generations—since elementary school). Still, there’s more to life and a career than simply following your bliss.

Here’s why following your passion isn’t the answer to success or career fulfillment.

Does a Job Need to Be Creative to Have Meaning?

We’ve heard for the past thirty years or so, “people need to follow their passion to find happiness and succeed at a job.”

  • Did you always dream of being a rock star? Quit your job as an attorney and join a band.
  • Did you love art as a child? Give up your career as a CEO and take up illustration.
  • Love writing? Why not quit your job as a medical professional to write full-time?

On the surface, the idea of following our passion sounds ideal, doesn’t it? We’d like to believe part of the reason we’re unfulfilled in our current job is it’s not the right “fit” for our creative side. Plus, this notion is reinforced by tales of people who left their careers to become YouTube sensations or who jumped careers to pursue their true passion.

And of course, this sounds tempting…like those who believe a fairytale romance is out there waiting to “complete” them. We all like to think there’s a perfect person; someone out there who will change our life or a job that would make all our problems melt away.


Time and time again, people are looking for a magic answer to satisfaction, and our society is busy selling them this concept that there IS a perfect solution. If we haven’t discovered the ONE, we need to look harder.


Even employers use “what is your passion?” as one of their common interview questions. For some jobs, this question might give a clue to an employee’s aptitude for the new role, but it’s a silly question in most cases. Most potential employees aren’t going to say, “selling insurance.” Or they’ll give simple answers that they think the hiring manager wants to hear. A better question would be, how do you find your passion for the job you’re doing?

John often relates a story about how a brilliant attorney came to him and said, “I hate the law!” As they started discussing why he hated his career, the real truth came out.

John said to him, “Why don’t you tell me how it’s going at your office?”

He said, “Well, a bitchy senior partner is chewing me out on my briefs all the time. Everyone is super uptight. I feel criticized and attacked. I keep thinking growing up; I always wanted to become a poet, a novelist, or a politician. I’m wondering if I went into the wrong field.”

The truth was, he had stopped stretching for the meaning in his work. Yes, he was smart and had secured a great job at a major firm, but because he was smart enough to get by and to carry himself, he’d never had to really stretch or push himself in the career.

So John said, “Do me a favor before you quit your job and go off to write the next Great American Novel. Prepare like crazy for your next meeting. I want you to go all out. Prepare as you’ve never prepared before. Research the topic until you own it. Push yourself.”

Well, low and behold, he returned the next week with a big grin on his face. When John asked him how it went, he said, “You know what? I had a lot of fun! I knew more than everyone else in the meeting, and I ran the entire thing. It was actually really great!”

After a few months of this exciting experiment of applying himself, he ended up excelling so far at his firm that they offered him the position of Chief Information Officer at an even bigger firm. The position developed into him becoming the COO, and he’s now developing a new line of contextual law.

He didn’t end up on the NY Times Best Seller list, but he ended up finding more purpose and satisfaction in his job than he previously believed possible. He discovered a renewed zest for what he was doing.

People don’t realize that to love your job and find satisfaction in your job, you must engage in your career. It’s not merely about getting paid to do something you enjoy, but about fully immersing yourself in the company. It’s about taking ownership of your role in the success of the business. A better idea is finding your passion in the circumstances rather than following an idealized version.

Loving Your Job vs. Following Your Passion

People who love their jobs have worked hard. They’ve gone through barriers. They’ve overcome obstacles, made mistakes, faced setbacks, and forged ahead.

They don’t love a job because they’ve followed their passion and it was easy. They don’t love something because they possess an innate talent or natural aptitude. They love it because they’ve disciplined themselves to become excellent. The meaningfulness of a career comes from the growth people experience as they become excellent…and the learning that comes with striving to become even better.

When people are bored with their job or feel less-than-passionate about their work, it’s often that they’re doing “good enough to earn a living,” but they aren’t striving for excellence. They haven’t decided where they want to go with their job, or they’re chasing a false idea of what happiness looks like.


Happiness isn’t the absence of struggle. Happiness comes from working through—and overcoming—challenges. Our joy and satisfaction in our job stem from our ability to do the job better and better.


Many people’s inner artist says, “I must be creative.” So they look for a creative field that’s straightforward with the opportunity to express themselves. When they don’t break into a creative field (and sometimes even when they do), they’re left disappointed and full of regret and dissatisfaction.

What they don’t understand is life itself is creative. It’s actually harder, more stimulating, and more challenging than drawing or creating something. If you want to be the artist of your life, you have work to do. Nothing that comes automatically will ultimately feel satisfying.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with creative expression. There’s nothing wrong with people becoming an artist, or a musician, or a writer. It’s not that people shouldn’t pursue a creative career. Creative careers can be wonderful. But even the most extraordinary artist will only feel satisfied and fulfilled if they’re continuously striving and working toward the next goal. If someone wants to be an artist, they should push to be at the top of their field. Don’t only create what comes naturally, create what comes unnaturally. Choose the path with the most challenges.

Most people want to feel fulfilled, but they don’t want their job to feel challenging. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how we frame it), the key to fulfillment is overcoming obstacles.

Finding the FLOW

A job is part of a larger picture. If someone isn’t providing value to others, then it’s pretty hard to earn a living. There’s real meaning in our role in the fabric of society. Look at the jobs we may write off—street-cleaning, trash collecting, or janitorial services, for example. Without these extremely valuable services, our entire society would fall apart. Every job has a purpose and plays a part in the larger world. To think a job only has value because it’s the worker’s passion or true calling…well, that’s not how the game works. To find more fulfillment at work, we have to dedicate ourselves to the purpose and meaning in the job.

Hungarian Philosopher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discussed the concept of flow and job satisfaction in his TED talk. After witnessing WWII as a child, he became curious about the idea of satisfaction and happiness. What was it that brought people joy, even in dire circumstances or poverty?


Csikszentmihalyi found that most people don’t have a greater sense of purpose in their work because they don’t have meaning and purpose in their everyday lives.


Happiness doesn’t come from money, it doesn’t come from self-expression, following our passion, and it doesn’t even come from doing what we enjoy. We derive our happiness from a sense of “flow.” Flow is the feeling we get when we’re challenged. When we’re turned on, engaged, and working toward a goal. Regardless of their job or life circumstances, the happiest people found meaning in what they were doing.

Just Because a Task is Easy Doesn’t Mean It’s Worth It

People think things should be easy, and that includes jobs. But work is WORK. Worthwhile pursuits require us to stretch and engage. It’s part of embracing a growth mindset.

Our gut tells us we should look for something easy, but easy jobs are never as satisfying as challenging ones. We can address what’s in front of us and what life throws our way and use these opportunities to learn and grow. When we do this, new opportunities continue to open up in front of us. People miss what it means to complete a task. They want to break out or escape. If they aren’t winning, they want to walk away.

When we feel like we’re ready to throw in the towel, we should challenge ourselves to become MORE engaged with our work. Go to our boss and say, “What should I do to learn and grow? What else in my job can I master?” If the boss doesn’t have an answer, then it may be time to BECOME the boss (or move somewhere else). But most bosses will offer plenty of ideas and areas to work on.

People look to get into the “right” career, but they don’t look into how they can become the “right” person for the job. Talk to any employer, and they’ll say employees who initiate and step into responsibility are critically hard to find.

Now, most of us reading this may not be the most desirable employee on the planet either. There are times when we all phone it in or slack off. Even if we think we’re giving 110%, what would the boss say? Would they feel that way if they were standing over our shoulder? There’s almost always something we can do to become better.


It all comes back to the fact that people who find the purpose, meaning, and challenge in what they’re doing are the happiest, most satisfied people—and the best employees.


We had a 15,000 piece mailing we were putting out. We hired a young man who was doing odd jobs in the community and two temps from an agency. The two temps thought the work of stuffing envelopes was tedious. They put on music and spent the day complaining.

On the other hand, the young man who had been doing odd jobs simply got to work. He made a game of it. He challenged himself to see how many he could do, how quickly he could get it done, and how he could make the job interesting. He ended up getting more accomplished than both of the temps combined, and he enjoyed it. Today he’s a respected entrepreneur in Milwaukee!

If you’re trying to figure out your passion or how to pursue your passion in life, reframe. Start to push yourself to do the best at whatever you’re doing, and your passion will find you. Love your life and create experiences for yourself and others. No matter what pursuit you’re on. Live as an artistic creator of a creative human being (yourself) who takes responsibility for your life.

For more on finding your passion for success, please join us for a webinar on WrightNow. We offer many courses and interactive webinars to help you get MORE out of your career and life. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to find MORE satisfaction and happiness.

 

Building Rapport When You’re Not in Rapport

We hear a lot about building rapport in the business world, but many of us may wonder what that even means?

Wondering how to build rapport with your coworkers and become a better leader at the office? It turns out there’s no magic formula to build rapport. It can’t be faked. Instead, we need to learn to how to listen and connect with those around us.


Is there a formula for engagement we can follow? Is there a way to “click” with others? Is there a method to build rapport?

In truth, there is no formula for rapport.  Rapport happens organically and comes from genuine, authentic interactions. If you’re chasing rapport, you’ll miss the mark every time.

Think about it—if you walk into a room and say, “I’m here to engage! Let’s connect!” How would people react? We’ve all attended seminars and meetings where someone says, “I’m here to get you excited about X,” and what happens? The message falls flat because someone was trying to force the connection.

Instead, rapport or flow happens naturally. It’s when we’re “on,” when we’re interested and enthused. It’s when we’re ready to focus on connecting with coworkers during a conversation and engage on a deeper level.

What Does it Mean to be in Rapport?

Being in rapport indicates a relationship of affinity or accord. If you are in rapport, you’re fully engaged in the conversation. To check your engagement, ask yourself:

  • Do I notice the other person?
  • Are we both present and fully engaged?
  • As we talk or work together, do we maintain our engagement?

-Or-

  • Do we seem to be getting further and further apart?

We’ve all been in a meeting where someone’s comments are off-the-wall and aren’t in accord with the room. Maybe their jokes are inappropriate or they’re affirming comments too enthusiastically. Sometimes people may try to fake their way through the connection by repeating the last word of the other person’s sentence, nodding or saying, “okay,” “yeah,” or “uh-huh,” after every comment. Other times they go off on a personal story or anecdote that doesn’t quite seem to tie into the rest of the conversation.

While these actions mimic the appearance of engagement, it’s actually disruptive to the flow of the conversation. At times it simply comes off as distracting. Other times, this type of “faux engagement” even demonstrates and insensitivity to what’s happening.

If you’re waiting for another person to finish their comment, just so you can interject or share your own story, you aren’t truly listening. We’ve all had these types of conversations and they’re often awkward and uncomfortable.

We call this being out of rapport.

You can be physically present, but not involved in the flow of the conversation. There’s a misconception that listening is all about being demonstrative: making eye contact, nodding, smiling. But if you’re not truly listening, you’re not fully engaging in the conversation. You’re simply going through the motions.

The Beauty of Building Rapport & Genuine Engagement

The beauty of building rapport is it brings a creative and generative aspect to the interaction.

We’ve all had the joy of conversations where we’re clicking and connecting. Both parties are listening to each other. Both are relating and experiencing the hum of being in-synch. We call this flow.

When we’re experiencing flow and rapport in conversation, our interactions become both exciting and challenging. We’re able to move into new space and chart new territory. In fact, we can move from the shared areas where we’re engaged and naturally connected and forge ahead into areas where there is less common ground.


This is the space where new ideas are born.

When we’re in rapport we can generate new concepts. Subjects and ideas emerge requiring us to be sensitive to each other, but open.


The best spot for this type of high-level engagement is in a room with grounded leadership to pave the way for the conversation. It’s the responsibility of a leader to establish and build rapport. Great leaders sense what’s emerging and help facilitate that emergence. Leading with vision allows for each person to contribute, share and add to the ideas being generated.

It’s wonderful that each of us can become visionary leaders. The ability to build rapport, engage and grow in conversation, doesn’t come with a title or position in the company. It comes from honest sharing. It comes from respecting the ideas and concepts brought forth by each person in the room. It comes from being open to agree and disagree, responsibly.

You see, being in rapport, doesn’t always mean we affirm every thought raised or concept floated. It takes bravery and responsibility to share disagreements and counterpoints. Yet, it’s conflict that’s part of the constructive process of engagement.

As we write in our book, The Heart of the Fight, “Life = Conflict.”


So let’s not kid ourselves and look at the reality. Everyone has conflict. EVERYONE. Conflict is a fact of an engaged life. As each dance partner does his or her own steps, they step on each other’s toes. In order to get really good at relationships we need to bump into each other…
…Evolutionary biologist, Elisabet Sahtouris (2000) points out the conflict is part of life, beginning at the cellular level. Mitosis, the process of cell division, is a continual cycle of conflict and resolution. A cell begins as one, but this original sense of unity is broken as it divides into two, competing for available resources and creating tension, until a new union or harmony is formed. And then they divide again, creating a new tension in the quest for available resources until another union is formed, beginning the ongoing cycles of unity, tension, diversity, and new harmony. Similarly, a relationship is a constantly growing organism marked by alternating conflict and unity. For the relationship to keep growing, things need to keep breaking apart and reforming.
-The Heart of the Fight

While we may think the ideas around conflict only apply to romantic relationships, they also apply to our social constructs. Whether we’re at home, at the office, or on a date, conflict—breaking apart, tension and harmony—are part of building rapport.

Rapport can’t be forced, but it is something we can and should be open to in every interaction. When we walk into a meeting, we should prepare to listen to the ideas of those around us. We should be willing to form and share our vision with others. We should appreciate and respect the viewpoints of those around us, but not feel afraid to respectfully disagree either. Conflict is a natural part of building rapport, because, at the end of the day rapport is simply honest, genuine engagement.

If you want to build greater connections at the office, maintain and grow your rapport with others, ask yourself if you’re being honest. Are you expressing yourself—likes AND dislikes?

When we’re in rapport with ourselves, we build rapport with those around us.

For more on leadership and growth, please visit the Wright Foundation. Join us for an upcoming More Life Training. We’re also happy to announce we’re offering many of our courses for download at a special introductory price. Don’t miss this great opportunity.



The Wright Foundation for the Realization of Human Potential is a leadership institute located in Chicago, Illinois. Wright Living performative learning programs are integrated into the curriculum at Wright Graduate University.

New Year, New Start: Revive and Refresh Your Career Passion

When we ring in the New Year, we often feel an excitement and zest for the potential of what’s to come. A New Year means 365 days of possibilities, new connections & opportunities to learn, connect & thrive.

The new year brings new starts and a new opportunity to create new career goals. Learn to revive and refresh your career passion.


 

Do you love what you do for a living? This question often comes up this time of year, so we start doing some self-assessment.

Sometimes we can also feel reflective and even a little sad or nostalgic. We might have regrets from the past year or unfinished goals we set out to accomplish but came up short. Even if you don’t subscribe to the tradition of setting “New Year’s Resolutions,” it’s impossible to avoid the sense of putting the prior year to bed and moving into a new beginning where you anticipate new actions you’ll need to take.

The New Year is full of untapped potential just waiting for us.

Revise Resolutions All Year Long

Resolutions aren’t simply for the New Year, though. When we only visit our vision and goals one time a year, we’re surely setting ourselves up for some missed opportunities and regret.

To operate at peak performance, our brains prefer constant learning, growth, and stimulation. When things get stale and stagnant, our brains actually become dulled and subdued. We have to have new experiences, master new skills and professional development opportunities, and seek out chances to stretch ourselves and find our spark.

Our resolutions, whether for the New Year or otherwise, give us a chance to set goals and push ourselves toward the things we want. They give us a chance to check in with our inner “coordinator” and self-governance. Are we really working toward the things most important to our hearts? What steps are we taking to achieve what we want and to get to our next goal?

We should constantly and consistently be revisiting our goals and focusing on our vision to keep moving forward to the next peak. Our vision is our big-picture map and guide.

ENGAGE and Get Back to the Fun Side of Work

When we discover new possibilities on the horizon or when we’re at the beginning of a journey, we must first identify what we want: the deep drivers that we call our yearnings. If our vision is the big picture, then our yearnings are our inner-GPS.

Yearnings are deeper than simple wants. I might want to make money at my job, but I yearn to be recognized as successful. We yearn to be seen, to connect, to succeed. We yearn for safety and comfort. It’s meeting those yearnings that fulfills us.

Once we’ve identified our yearnings (which is no small task), we start to engage. Engaging is responding to our yearnings and ceasing to repress or ignore these important drivers. As we engage, we start to change our behavior, connect with others, and feel like we’ve ‘jumped in the game’ of life.

Engaged people are in the game. They’re going for what they want. They have a sense of purpose. If there’s something they don’t understand or know, they speak up. They embrace conflict and see it as a way to move themselves forward. They don’t shy away from tough situations or challenges. To feel passion and vigor, we must be engaged.

For many, this awareness of a need to reengage can come after a period of feeling sidelined. Maybe those around you are achieving their goals and you’re feeling behind, or maybe they don’t even HAVE goals and they’re just satisfied with the status quo. If you’ve surrounded yourself in an environment of goal-getters and driven engagers but you’ve lost your passion, it’s time to reengage and figure out how you can meet your yearnings. Use their engagement to inspire you and drive you. Ask them how they do it, and listen to what they have to say.

If, on the other hand, you’re at a job where everyone seems to be lackluster and phoning it in, maybe you need to rethink your role and position to find something that meets your energy and stimulates your mind.

Revelate

If your office staff and coworkers fall somewhere in between engaged and lackluster, surround yourself with those who are really going for it and pushing themselves. At the same time, figure out new ways you can ignite not only your passion but also the passions of those you work with.

The best way to become a beacon of engagement in the office? By refocusing on your vision—the articulation of not only your goals as an office but your ultimate ideal as a company. If everyone’s stressed out, burnt out and sick of each other, coming in at the New Year after a holiday break can be a great time to really hit the ground running.


Revelating is a term that describes both the awareness of ourselves and of new possibilities as well as the act of revealing ourselves in expression. Revelating can be inspirational, like discovering a new possibility for a course of action…We realize we’ve been managed by…limited thinking that has been holding us back, restricting our happiness and fulfillment. As we start to act differently, revelating helps us start thinking differently.

Transformed! The Science of Spectacular Living


The New Year is a great time to revelate! In fact, the New Year is synonymous with revelating. Now is the time to revelate, discover the new possibilities and how to get there, and look at what you can do to start thinking and acting in a way that will propel you to a year of success!

Work on Your Vision

As you work on revelating and igniting others around you to do the same, let your vision be your guide. Think about your company values. How do you see your role in the company changing this year? What is the big-picture vision for both your career and life in general, and do they sync up?

When we have a vision, it guides us and keeps us in line. It helps us to know if we’re serving our customers and clients, and if we’re actually making a difference in what we do. It’s that knowledge—the awareness that we’re actually mattering to the world and doing something positive—that’s so powerful and motivating. No matter what your line of work, from artist to non-profit coordinator to commercial banker, you have to identify the bigger “why does this work matter?” question, answer it, and work toward that continued goal.

Go forth into the New Year with a renewed sense of focus and a clear vision in your mind. What do you want your life to look like at the close of next year? What changes do you hope to make, and how will you be discovering your yearnings, engaging and revelating by this time next year?


Happy New Year! If you’re looking for more ways to grow and unlock your potential, please join us for our upcoming MORE Life Training, where you’ll learn the skills to unlock your best self.