Let’s start to work through what would make your job loveable. It’s critical to appreciate all the things that make up your job. Most jobs are
multifaceted, which is great in many ways. You wear lots of hats. As companies have downsized to become leaner and survive, workers are stretched not only to do the job they were originally hired to do, but those once done by coworkers who are no longer on the payroll as well.
Then, too, it may have always been that way. If you work for a small company or a fledgling nonprofit, your ability to be a jack-of-all-trades is why you were hired in the first place. Such opportunities can make work interesting, but they can also be overwhelming at times. After running flat out, you burn out.
So turn it around. When one part of your work is not going swimmingly, more than likely there’s another bit that’s still feeding your creativity.
In your journal, make a list of all of the things you love or ever did love about your job, the things about your job that make you feel alive, or used to. Allow yourself to see the entire picture of your work. Don’t dwell on what’s going wrong or making you feel powerless.
Here are some thoughts to get you started: What you love might be special assignments that take you out of your comfort zone. The best jobs are, to be honest, the ones that scare us a little at times. You get smacked with
stomach-churning dread that you might fail. Admit it—there’s a jolt of energy from nerves, and when you succeed, it’s a high. These emotions might bubble up because you’ve been asked to meet a tight deadline for a project, or have to speak in front of an audience, or lead a meeting, or create a marketing plan for a new client.
But you might love the fact that sometimes your job is so engrossing that you forget what time it is. You are one with the work. But when our jobs start to weigh on us, it’s easy to forget that we once enjoyed magic
moments like that.
The times at work when you can freely take your foot off the gas might be something else that scores high on your list of things you love, or used to
love, about your job. Employees who take a break every 90 minutes report a 30 percent higher level of focus than those who take no breaks or just one during the day, according to Tony Schwartz, the CEO and founder of the Energy Project and bestselling author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance (Free Press, 2010).
Schwartz’s firm partnered with the Harvard Business Review to conduct a survey of more than 12,000 mostly white-collar employees across a broad range of companies and industries. Employees who took the break also report a nearly 50 percent increase in their capacity to think creatively and a 46 percent higher level of health and well-being
Does your work have meaning to you? Note this in your journal, too.
Employees who get meaning and significance from their work were more than three times as likely not to change employers, according to the Energy Project findings. These workers also reported 1.7 times higher job
satisfaction and they were 1.4 times more engaged at work.
Does knowing your boss has your back make you feel good about your job?
Feeling cared for by a supervisor has a major impact on how people feel about their job, according to the study. Employees who say they have more supportive supervisors are 1.3 times as likely to not quit and are 67 percent more engaged. Sometimes it really is all about the boss. A 2014 global workforce study by the consulting company Towers Watson of 32,000 employees found that only slightly more than half of employees say their leaders inspire them and make them feel energized about their work.
Thirty percent of employees report a lack of supervisor support such as a lack of recognition and feedback, and managers not living up to their word as a cause of work-related stress.
Now let’s dig even deeper. What’s the essence of loving your job? Is it a feeling that you are in control of your destiny to some extent? Is it having autonomy and flexibility in your schedule? Is it knowing that you really do have the chops to do your job?
To begin the falling-in-love process, you need to be psychologically ready for the changes you want to make, too. It’s quite possible that you will grieve for what you are leaving behind when you start to move the pieces
around, particularly if you’re seeking big changes in your daily routine and responsibilities. When you lose the security blanket of doing what you already know you can accomplish, you may long for the comfort of the good old days.
As you begin to fill your journal, imagine that you are the architect of your career. You can transform your job into one you love. This is your
blueprint, and it’s a work in progress.