I was talking with my hubby last night as we sat sipping beers at our favorite happy hour spot. We were talking about loving what you do for work and the difference it makes in your home life and overall outlook. I’m constantly amazed at how simple ideas become so complicated or even worse, so very cliché. We hear all the time, love what you do; do what you love; work with passion; etc, etc, etc.

As just a fun little exercise I went to Amazon.com and typed in the words “love what you do”. Holy guacamole!! I couldn’t believe how many books showed up titled that very thing! Apparently, this is a popular subject. I would assume its popularity is due to the concept being so right-on but the reality being elusive. That leads me to ask “why is it so elusive’?

We started to talk about the first 10 years of running a staffing firm for creative professionals. It’s not that I was passionate about staffing, quite the contrary. What I was passionate about was how I got to go about doing my job. I was in love with what I accomplished in that job. I loved building a business that had my personality stamped all over it from the grass mat ceilings to the walls painted a vibrant orange appropriately called ‘Hawaiian Passion’. I loved walking in each morning to see what we had built. I loved talking to people and helping them find a career path not just a job. I loved working with high-level design thinkers strategizing on how to best build their organizations. I loved mentoring my staff and promoting the company through a strong brand experience. Ahhh, that’s loving what you do!

I guess all this is to say that it’s not your title or your niche; it’s how you approach your day-to-day. Does it excite you, make you smile or better yet laugh? Do you fill euphoric when you’ve accomplished a task you were working on? If you fill dread in place of excitement and weary in place of euphoria, you’re not in the right place. It doesn’t take a book or a magic formula to decide whether you love what you do. It takes looking at your heart, how you breath, how you rest, how you feel. That’s it, you know. Now you just have to figure out what to do about it!

Tags: career, inspiration, work place

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 10:23 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.