Loving Your Career

by Andrew Bryant
Executive Coach and Leadership Trainer

How often do you hear someone say, "I'm doing what I would rather be doing"? Our conversations at work are more likely to be along the lines of, "Thank God it's Friday" or "When my lottery numbers come up I'm out of here".

Confucious said, "Man who loves what he does, never does a day's work in his life".

If you are about to choose a career, are about to change career, not happy in the one you are in or you manage talent this article is for you. Of course if you know someone in any of these categories you can always forward this article to them.

Is it possible to love your career? Do you know someone who does?

Often when we think of someone who loves their career we think that they are engaged in a vocation rather than work (think doctors and nurses).

Aristotle said, "Where talents and the needs of the world cross, therein lies your vocation." Today we might use the word passion rather than vocation.

The needs of the world are not just for excellent health care, but also for excellent customer service, sales people, accountants, technicians, builders etc. etc. etc.

It all starts with choice. The choice is to find Engagement and Meaning.

Engagement

Psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied thousands of people and discovered that we bounce between two extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, while during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. The key to happiness is therefore to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment and to become fully engaged in these activities.

When we are fully engaged in an activity we enter into a state of 'flow', a state where time goes away and the task seems effortless. We tend to experience such 'flow' moments when playing a sport or engaged in a hobby. Imagine skiing down a mountain with all of your attention focussed on making the turns, you are unlikely at this moment to be worrying about trivial issues. Another aspect of a flow moment is that feedback is immediate; the mountain climber knows he or she is one step closer to the goal.

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So how do we create more flow moments in our career?

1. Constantly find challenges that will stretch your skill level, especially if it requires learning something new.
   
2. Set goals and request feedback that lets you know how you are doing in the short rather than long-term.

Meaning

A craftsman knows why he does what he does. The industrial revolution, with its souless assembly lines, robbed many workers with the sense of meaning for what they do. Victor Frankl, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, suggested that we can stand any "what" if we have a big enough "why". Find the meaning in what you do; what does your work mean to you? To others? To the world?

For example a teacher might find meaning in that they get to share what they have learned and the more they teach the more they know about the subject. Their teaching impacts a generation of students and those students will change the world, even if only a little bit at a time.

To find meaning at work, ask yourself the following questions:

• What does this work mean to me?
• What does it mean to my clients, customers?
• What does this work mean in the context of my life?
• How can I give this work more meaning?

When we combine meaning with our actions we become self-actualised, our life has purpose and passion and we can truly love our work.

Find out how coaching can assist you to find engagement and meaning in your career. Come and see us at this year's Careers' Expo in Sydney - 17th and 18th June.

Public Programs 2005

Careers Expo Stand
Sydney 17th-18th June
Click here to find out more about it

Coaching Essentials
Sydney 2 July - 3 July
Click here for brochure

Accessing Personal Genius
Sydney 4 July - 6 July
Click here for brochure

NS NLP Practitioner
Kuala Lumpur 1 Aug - 7 Aug
Click here for brochure

NS NLP Meta Masters
Singapore 10 Aug - 24 Aug
Click here for brochure

Accessing Personal Genius
Singapore 19 Aug - 21 Aug
Click here for brochure

Meta-Coach^TM Certification
Singapore 7 Nov - 13 Nov
Click here for brochure

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