As a notion goes; work to live, not live to work; but ‘living to work’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you truly love what you do! Now I’m not advocating making your whole life revolve around your job. Work life balance is of course important. However when you love what you do, the burden caused by that task becomes less burdensome. Ask anyone who cycles 25km on weekends or goes to the gym every morning before work. The pain is insignificant compared to the enjoyment and sense of achievement at the end of the activity.

This kind of enjoyment also translates in to the work sphere; we all have those friends who over lunch spends half the meal talking about the exciting things they’re doing at work. You can see the passion and fervour in their eyes, which is slightly bewildering considering they’re talking about a new administration process which is going to save their company £5,000. I mean it’s the kind of stuff which would cure most people’s insomnia. However they’ve found something which is right for them “work beauty” is in the eye of the beholder.

So what’s the key to this work happiness? Well firstly we have to look at why most people leave their jobs and look for fresh opportunities. Over the years, many of the professionals who I’ve coached cited reasons for why they’re looking for a move and below I’ve listed some examples.

“I didn’t like my boss”, “didn’t like my colleagues”, “found it boring”, “inflexible working hours”, “long commute”… the list can literally go on and on. One thing which came up consistently was the fact that they were very clear on what they didn’t like about their job but when I asked them “what do you enjoy”, things weren’t as clear. Once having paused and giving me 2-3 reasons. I would ask the question “Why?” and this would flummox them completely, since most didn’t know.

And this is the Key!

When you ask yourself ‘why’, you are essentially carving out a better understanding of yourself as a person and what really makes you tick. Once you start going through this process you might start to realise that the job or the career path that you’re on isn’t right, and a different path or job is actually what you require. This process allows you to identify the deeper root causes of your desire to leave your current job and dissatisfaction at work, For many of my clients over the years it’s quite a daunting experience however at the same time empowering and liberating.
Now in your new job, the things that you don’t like become less relevant; you might have a larger workload, but you don’t seem to mind so much. That irritating Boss becomes far less irritating and those colleagues you don’t like, well they become a distant noise in the back ground. Not only that, guess what! You’ve become that friend who cures insomnia over a meal.

Self-reflection, contemplation and asking the ‘why’, is something in a modern bustling society we’ve slightly forgotten. Our brains are constantly occupied by watching TV or browsing the net. Even the once self-reflective commute on the train or bus is now preoccupied by Candy Crush, forwarding memes and thinking of a witty comment to write on a friend’s Facebook wall. Now I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with these things, we all need time to relax, socialise and disengage, but it’s important to give some time to reflect and ask yourself these questions.

This process could take you as much as day or even months, but it’s better to go through this and identify the root causes and give yourself that clarity. So when it comes to changing your job instead of running away from the things you hate, run towards the things you love, because when you love what you do; you do it well! The success itself will inevitably follow.

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