Light up your Passion
Posted: November 12, 2016 | Author: Cecilia Sim
It's just a Job. Where did my Passion go?
Are you no longer feeling upbeat, positive and looking forward to your work? Has your passion died off and you no longer have a strong inclination toward your work activity, find it least important and not worth to invest your time and energy?
If your answer is YES, you are not alone in feeling that way! Gallup's findings have shown that only 13% of employees across 142 countries are engaged at work. However, it is a cause of concern if this emotion stays for long and it makes you feel extremely helpless, frustrated and unhappy with the growth of your personal and professional life.
What can you do to get back the Passion and love what you do at work? The following tips could help.
- Discover the purpose of your job and who will benefit from it. If you figure out what work means to you and who you want to benefit from what you do, you will have the inclination to do a good job to accomplish your purpose. For example, I feel a sense of achievement whenever I help others to discover and enhance their capabilities to do well in their professional life. This is important for me in my work and the passion for making a difference to others sustain what I am doing today.
- Start with the right perspective and think long term. Not all jobs start with high ranking positions. There are jobs that you need to work your way up in a progressive manner to achieve the job positions that you desired. These jobs include day-to-day work activities that may seem unimportant, meticulous and yet relevant in helping you to achieve the final goals or positions you are trying to achieve.
- Reflection on what gone wrong at work or within yourself. Perhaps along the way, you lost your passion. Maybe you got burned out on the job, or from new changes in the working environment, or it could be your lack of capability in new roles brings in more frustrations, fear or anxieties. Take time off to figure out the issues, find out the problems, resolve each problem or issue at a time and celebrate the success which helps to re-ignite your passion for work.
- Find a passionate activity with a new shifted focus that makes you feel more fulfilling. In the career progression, experience the different areas of your work to find out which aspect of it keeps you enthusiastic and motivated. For example, you may volunteer in a company project that allows you to experience a cross-cultural diversity environment and learn to manage and appreciate the different work styles of others in the workplace.
- Having a positive attitude to become a passionate employee helps. There are ups, downs and bad days at work. Don't just look at the negative aspects of your work such as receiving negative feedback from people around you, but change how you look at your job from another angle. For example, think how fortunate you are to be given a career that further enhances your domain, or being offered to work on projects of your interests, or being given opportunities to learn and to connect with others in your industry.
- Expand your comfort zone and make a discovery about yourself. Take up a new task in your roles that provide new opportunities. Remove the negative inner voices and fears and develop a good attitude to learn from your job. For example, in the early day of my career, I wasn't in a sales role, but I took the challenge when tasked to sell courses to optimize the classroom capacity. Having the "nothing to lose but more to gain" attitude, I succeeded from the sales results, which triggered my inner motivation and passion to include sales function as part of my career portfolio.
- Take on a new role that expands from your existing domain. In order to progress to the next level of self-actualization or personal advancement, you can take on an additional new role such as mentoring which helps to enhance your job satisfaction through supporting the development of others.
- Consider the intangible benefits rather than money to rule your passion in work. "What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do (Bob Dylan)" Think about the intangible benefits derive from works such as giving back to the communicates, finding meaning in the daily interactions with customers and co-workers, bringing contributions to the other departments, and how the work itself allows you to discover your strength, learn to overcome challenges, and gain experience to do the best you can.
- Delegate responsibility or leverage on team members.Find someone in your team who you can distribute work through delegation. You can outsource or delegate works that you find least enjoyable to others who enjoy doing it. This allows you to focus on work that matters to you.
- Associate with people who have passion and inspired by their works. Connect with people in your related areas to explore new insight and gain new learning. Surround yourself with people who have had lots of challenges and yet are still full of courage and strength to pursue their passions at work.
Findings have shown that passionate people are more committed to doing their best in getting a job done, which has helped the company to achieve higher levels of performance. It is for the best of the organizations to look for people with passion at work. It is also for the best of you to develop a passion that makes your life more fulfilling than it was before.
Passion does not go unnoticed as the emotion that it carries is contagious and can be felt by people around you. It's time to take steps to rekindle your passion and create a work life you love.
