By Todd Tillinghast
Here are portions of a talk I am going to give this weekend for a company here in Panama
“To love what you do and feel that it matters---how could anything be more fun.” Katherine Graham
Now let’s face it. We all have to work. And my guess is that none of us with the possible exception of self made millionaires or ice cream tasters enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day at our jobs. Even if we are passionate, most likely we get tried. Most likely there are days that we don’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning let alone going all the way to work.
I remember the wonderful experience I had a couple of years ago of teaching middle school for two semesters. There were days when it seemed like the students were getting it, they understood and were participating and I really felt like I was making a difference in their lives. All was well with the world. Then there were other days when I felt like everything I was saying was hitting an invisible wall right in front of them.
The reality is that there are days like that for all of us no matter what we do for a living. We get tired, we get bored, we get sick and tired of the same old thing day in and day out. In fact, we might be surprised to know that recent studies indicate most people feel this way about their jobs most of the time.
Curt Rosengren from Passion Catalyst says this about the difference between job satisfaction and job passion:
“only 45 percent of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) with their jobs. At the same time, a much lower number actually feel very "engaged" by their jobs. Only 20 percent feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent agree that they feel strongly energized by their work; and only 31 percent (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.”
Now maybe it’s a good thing to be satisfied maybe it isn’t. Maybe being satisfied is what holds us back. At any rate satisfaction is one thing passion is something else. I think that you would agree and I know that your managers would definitely agree that a passionate employee is better than a satisfied employee.
In fact, I would argue that a passionate employee is a more satisfied employee than just a satisfied employee. In other words, if your goal is to just be satisfied with your job then your productivity and your enjoyment levels will only reach a certain point.
they will only rise to the place where your job is tolerable and maybe even a little satisfying and that will be enough. So the satisfied employee gets up, goes to work everyday, does what is expected of them and prays for the weekend to get here as quickly as possible.
Now I know that managers aren't interested in hiring someone like that. There are no satisfaction level employees in job interviews. A potential employee doesn't say to his potential employer in the interview "oh I want to tell you that I will promise you that I will do just enough for me to be satisfied, nothing more and nothing less." But life has a way of wearing us down and just the sheer routine of our jobs begins to take their toll and cause us to become mediocre just trying to get through the week and get to the weekend.
There is something that I believe can turn your working attitude around. It has the potential not only to raise your production level making your boss happy but also of making you happier which will make you happy. And the added bonus of injecting this ingredient into your daily work life will afford is that it will make your entire work environment better which will make the people you work with happy.
--It all comes down to one simple word…… PASSION
Now you may be thinking, "Passion, that's not a word that belongs at work. Passion is a word that applies to things like:"
- Soap operas
- My boyfriend
- My girlfriend
- Food
- The internet
- Movies
- parties
- Friends
- Family
- Church
You may still be thinking " When I am at work... well I’m not even supposed to be passionate am I? That’s why I have all of these other things in my life outside of work that I am passionate about because all week long while I am at work I'm board out of my mind."
So the great working man's (or woman's) 64 million dollar question seems to be;
"How can I be passionate about my work when I'm not passionate about my job?"
Actually I am going to submit to you that in order to be passionate don’t try to be passionate at all. That’s right, I am telling you that if you really want passion in your life you can’t focus on passion. Passion is the fruition of something else. We can never produce passion by trying to generate it out of thin air.
Rather than trying to be passionate about something that you aren’t already or inherently passionate about why not learn to connect what you are doing at your job with the things that you already care about, the things that you are already passionate about?
To illustrate this I will use an example from my own life. I hate dishes. I can’t stand doing dishes. But guess what? My wife doesn't like doing them either. So we have an agreement that whoever cooks at any given meal the other person gets to do the dishes. So usually both of us try to be the one to cook because neither one of us likes cleaning up. There are times when we are very busy and neither one of us are able to get to the dishes and they may build up in the sink for a few days.
Now let’s just say that I am walking through the kitchen one day and I pass this stinky, smelly sink full of dishes. Now what do I do? Well you know and I know that I don’t like doing dishes. So maybe I should leave it for my wife to do because certainly she must remember that I was the last one to do the dishes a few days ago. So it’s her turn! Let her stick her hands down into that disgusting mess, it serves her right! Or the loving thing for me to do as a loving husband, rather than making my wife run the risk of breaking a nail , I should get in there and get it done.
So how am I going to get motivated enough to really get in there and do a passionate job on these dishes? Can I convince myself that I really want to do the dishes? Of course not, that day will never come. I will never, ever want to do the dishes. Can I go to my happy place and pretend that I am really giving some cute, adorable puppy a bath instead of doing the dishes? Not likely.
Maybe I should just rush through the job and throw all of the dishes in the garbage and just clean the sink. That way I won't have to wash them. I'm sure that would make my wife as happy as a peach aren't you?
No, what I do is, I don’t focus on the dishes, I focus on my principles or the things that matter the most to me. What matters to me in this situation is not doing the dishes but my wife. I am passionate about her and my relationship with her. So I can do the dishes to the best of my abilities and actually be passionate about it because I know that by doing the dishes I am:
- Making my wife happy
- Showing her my love for her
- Making her life easier
- Demonstrating leadership in my home
- Making the home environment more pleasant to live in
When I can make those kinds of connections and those kinds of commitments everyday to do my best because I value excellence or because I value character or I value my family whom I am providing for then suddenly the circumstances surrounding my job are not as important. It doesn’t matter! My job actually becomes a means to an end not just a means to a paycheck.
In other words, My job and my work become the stage from which I can live out my values and principles producing the passion that will create the excellence in productivity that my boss wants and the increase in enjoyment that I want.
Why wait any longer. Start being passionate about your life now. Wherever you are, at work or at home. Tap into the values that really make you tick and live them out.
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