Friday, June 15, 2012

Day 167 of Your Year to Wellness; Loving Your Work


You can’t get the job you want until you love the job you have.

You may be wondering why the topic of Loving Your Work would even be in a blog about wellness and transformation; well, take a moment and think about it. You spend at least 8 hours a day at the job you have, if you don’t like it and it doesn’t like you, then you  already know that it’s affecting your well-being.
When friends call to complain about their job, I don’t tell them to be grateful that they have a job (I think it, but I don’t say it out loud,) I tell them to think back to the day when they first got the job. I ask them to imagine the feeling they had when everything was new and wonderful.  I remind them that they were ecstatic; calling everyone to share their joy. “I got the job!” they exclaimed.
Back then they had the excitement of a young couple in love before bills, snoring and that smacking sound he makes when he chews (sorry, I had a flashback.) You get my drift; act like you did when you thought that everything was possible and your position at your place of work could make a difference there and in the world.
We fall out of love with our job the same way we fall out of love with each other. You cheat on the job by going home and telling everyone who will listen how horrible the job and the folks there are and then you go to work to talk about the folks at home; and we wonder why we have no work/life balance.
Even when you have a job that is not your dream job, you should learn to love it. You should learn to appreciate some aspect of it well enough that you come to believe that it is your life’s purpose.
When I was still a kid, I cleaned banks after school. At first, I hated it; it was dark and scary and I kept waiting for Old Man Jenkins from the Scooby Do cartoon to jump out from a dark corner. I hated the job so much, that I became anxious about going. One day, I decided to change my thinking. I began to imagine that I owned the bank and I was cleaning my own property. I was a young teenager, but I had made the connection between the mind and the will. Now that I think about it, it was most likely my youth that enabled me to do so. When we are young, we believe that all things are possible.
Even now when I have to do a job or event that I’m not excited about, I find some aspect of it that can give me joy.
Here are a few tips for learning to re-love your work:
·         Think about the lives you are affecting. When I think of the end user; the person on the other side of the product, I am less likely to think of my own complaints. Imagine how you have changed the life of someone else because of what you do.
·         Remind yourself that you are needed.
·         Be grateful. Gratitude goes a very long way. Look around and appreciate the job you have, the people you work with and then appreciate yourself.

You can’t get the job you love until you love the job you have.
Be you, be well, be great.
Bertice Berry, PhD.


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