Loving ones job is not only a “rare-to-find-nice-to-have”, no, it is essential for our entire society and for our overall well-being. The workplace is the place where we spend most our waking time and people hating their jobs is throughout the world one of the main reasons for economic downturns. If we would all use our unique talents to serve humanity (and we all have these talents!), there would be no unemployment and no stress-related illnesses. Look at the woman who makes her living by plucking eyebrows. Nothing else – just plucking eyebrows. Based in New York, she is such an amazing eyebrow-plucker that celebrities from around the world queue to avail of her services. If you can make a very good living by plucking eyebrows, you can make a living of anything! Or as Albert Schweitzer said: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
Let’s look at a scenario in a beauty parlour, where the lady in charge is poking around at the customer’s feet. Would you envy her for her job? But then if you watch closely you would see the passion with which she filed, polished, scrubbed and painted and you would understand that this passion was exactly the reason why many opted to spend a fair amount of money for the pedicure instead of doing it themselves. Isn’t it right to believe that as long as we have a disposable income we should outsource services to those whose core competency they are and who are better at them than what we are – but better is not enough – they need to love what they do. Whether they love their job or whether we are just a duty to them that has to be endured. The moment we feel that someone is miserable doing their job, we feel bad to be their customers. We try to get out of the situation and avoid the situation in the future – meaning in plain words that we can easily become a lost and therefore expensive costumer to a brand, solely because of the fact that we had one single negative experience with one of their staff. Training alone doesn’t help here. Two people can do exactly the same job and say exactly the same words – we still sense whether they are passionate about what they are doing and this makes all the difference.
You might now argue that this is only true for customer-facing service providers but it is true for everyone. Be it back-office or assembly-line, one single unmotivated team member is not only difficult to manage but can bring down the moral of an entire team. Miserable employees give others the feeling that what they are doing is unworthy, spreading a sense of embarrassment amongst those who try to be passionate.
You owe loving your job to everyone – to your customers, suppliers, partners, to your family and most importantly: to yourself! No matter how difficult your upbringing was, we are all being given opportunities again and again to create our own destiny. Or do you really want to show your children that it’s ok to be unhappy at ones job; that a life is here to be wasted? It’s unlikely that this is the kind of role model you wish to be. Or do you want to encourage them to discover their unique talents, to be driven by passion, love and a sense of purpose? Sounds more like it. The same is true for relationships. It is not very attractive to be with someone who spends his time complaining about what he/she does for a living. Content on the other hand is highly attractive. So pick yourself up and remember: Love it, change it or leave it!
“The worst days of those who enjoy what they do, are better days of those
who don’t”
– E James Rohn
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