The prospect of retiring soon–or ever–has dimmed for a lot of us. If you’re going to be in the workforce for a very long time, there is one thing that’s absolutely essential: LOVE WHAT YOU DO.
Once we’ve been at something for a while, it’s comfortable to just keep doing it, even if it never was fun. But it makes heaps more sense to do what you love.
If the thought of doing what you are doing now until the day you die feels like drinking a large glass of vinegar, please make plans to do something else. Here are five good reasons to use that strategy.
JOB SATISFACTION: The first reason is, of course, that it makes your life more satisfying. When you love your job, you go to work happy and you come home happy. That translates into better health. Let’s not kid ourselves. No job is perfect all day every day. But if most days have you humming while you grade the papers, adjust the machine, or flip the burgers, you’re onto something.
If, on the other hand, just pulling into the company parking lot makes you want to throw up, you have a little remodeling project to take on. You need to make your work match yourself or you’re going to miserable 24 hours a day.
This sounds simple, but quite often it isn’t. Often, you get to “That’s it. I’m outta here” before you realize the problem. Being “outta here” without a plan for what you want to do next isn’t such a good idea in this economy.
There are good books to help you figure out what you really want. (Books by Martha Beck, Barbara Sher, and me all offer help with this.).) You can try a life coach. Or do a Vision Quest. You can contemplate you left thumb for fifteen minutes every morning until the light starts to dawn if that’s what works for you. Do SOMETHING to discover the kind of work that thrills you when you think of it.
The best clues are how you feel when you encounter the work that’s really yours. The idea of getting involved in it will be energizing. You will have a calm sense of confidence as you start to explore it. Be sincere in looking for YOUR answers. And be open to what comes. You will be amazed.
TALENT MATCH: When you do what you love, the probability that you are truly suited for it goes up exponentially. I have a long time friend who was a good geologist. He could also sell salt water in the Mariana Trench. When he linked his natural sales skills with what he knew about rocks, his prospects skyrocketed. He sold mining and construction equipment quite successfully.
PERCEIVED VALUE: People like to work with those who are happy at what they are doing. When you do what you love, you do it well. Customers or clients will love you. The people who love what they are doing are the ones who get asked to be on the company dream teams, too.
This is not a case of faking it for the sake of advancement. There’s an intuitive piece to this that you just can’t counterfeit. If you like what you do, people like working with you. Period. So find what you like. Find what you LOVE.
JOB SECURITY: Loving what you do will not guarantee you never get laid off. Not even working for yourself guarantees that anymore. But when you love what you do, you find other ways to use what you know to be able to keep doing it.
If you are told they don’t need you as the team lead manufacturing elephant harnesses and you love leather, there are other ways to work with it. If you love to work in a kitchen and just got let go as a short order cook, you may hire on with a caterer, or make nightly meals for clients who can then look forward to your delicious deliveries after a long day of their own work (also at something they love, I hope).
LONGEVITY: You can try to MAKE yourself like what you are already doing, but that doesn’t work for long. The real answer is to find something you love doing whether you get paid for it or not. That solution gives you one last plus–something you will be happy continuing to do–in some form–for as long as you live.
Including for money if you need to. There are lawyers still active in law at age 99; a favorite centenarian story was of a woman still proofreading for the St. Louis Dispatch after her 100th birthday.
Do what you love and use it to thrive–for a long time
Copyright (c) 2009 Mary Lloyd
Mary Lloyd is the author of Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love. She offers seminars on how you can create a meaningful retirement for yourself and consults to help your business attract and use retired talent well. She is also available as a speaker. For more insights on how to live well in retirement and before it, go to => http://www.mining-silver.com .
Article Source: Why to Love Your Work
