‘Being passionate’ and ‘staying passionate’ are two completely different things. It is not necessary that what you started out being passionate about, won’t lose its charm over a period of time due to its repetitiveness, familiarity, and consistency at work. So although you have brought yourself to work today, I want to ask you: “Have you brought passion with you to work today?
One can almost equate work to a relationship. Just like the way a new relationship is filled with passion when it starts out, one must admit that it starts dwindling as time passes by. This does not necessarily mean that you have stopped loving the other, it’s only that the relationship has matured and your passion looks different from what it was. So how can we bring back the passion for our jobs which have otherwise become mundane, monotonous and tedious?
3 Ways To Bring Passion Back To Work:
1. Find Something New To Do:
It is a known fact that there is a high correlation between starting something new and passion. Get involved in a new project, think of moving to a new role or if its too soon at your workplace to do this, start doing the same things in a new way.
Most of us just dose-off during company meetings or are busy catching up with our personal lives on our phones. You will be amazed at the information that you get when Leadership teams and Management teams relay their vision for the company, declare a new acquisition or relay their success and failure stories. Be mindful of what is happening at work around you. Be the first to identify an opportunity or to take on additional responsibilities or apply for a new internal role that interests you.
If you have lost your passion very early on of joining the company, then find new ways of doing the routine things. For example, as a Recruiter, all I have done for the last 8 years of my life is call candidates and talk about the company, job role, their current role and so on. What can you do differently? So I lose my passion very easily and within weeks of joining an organization. Then I realized what gets me excited and enjoy the most about recruitments, was to headhunt people for the right role and able to convince passive candidates to actively be excited about the opportunity I was sharing. Hence, I would change my sourcing strategies, find new places to find the right match and explore new avenues to attract them to the role. Also, I got more involved with social media marketing and branding to make candidates more aware of what opportunities we have. Similarly, first find what aspect of your job excites you and then work towards adding new flavor and route to reach your goal.
2. Find a Mentor or Be One:
The longest job tenure-wise, I ever held was at Synygy and the only reason I stuck around for close to four years with them was that I had a great Mentor. I was fortunate that I was blessed with one rather than having to go find him with a lamp in my hand. Nonetheless, I say out of experience when I say that a good Mentor will help you keep the fire of passion alive for your work. A good Mentor will be able to detect when you are slipping into a comfort zone or unhappy at work. They can help you get to the root cause of this feeling and they have the necessary tools to help you address the same. Is it a lack of promotion, lack of appreciation, or not enough challenging work? Either way, they are the ones who can help you address these problems. So if you don’t have one, go find that person in your company who you admire, trust and would like to learn from. Be honest with them and allow them to help you.
On the other hand, if you have been around in an organization for long and were mentored well, it’s payback time. I remember I was told that it is time that I have to stop receiving and start giving instead. Don’t let your Mentor become your crutch. Give back what you have learned. Take on younger colleagues and help them to recognize their potential, passion and help them achieve their career goals. The satisfaction of seeing someone bloom and do well at work because of your guidance is a reward unmatchable.
3. Take A Short Sabbatical:
This would usually apply to someone who has spent a good number of years in the industry and has tried all the above course of action to truly keep themselves motivated and passionate about what they do. When all fails, the only thing left to do is break away from the routine. They say that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. So maybe it is not such a bad idea to take a short sabbatical to figure things out and join back with gusto and a new found enthusiasm.
Sometimes, us not being passionate may have nothing to do with our jobs. In some way, after a while, you enjoy the stability, monotony, and security at work. These too could be your reasons to be passionate about what you do. Hence, losing your passion could have its roots in your personal life too. Not having a good work-life balance, fatigue and stress are some of the work-related reasons for losing passion or it could be something completely personal or self-ignited. Family problems, depression, taking care of ailing family members or struggling with self-doubt, feeling of underachieving etc, can be some of the reasons we lose our passion at work and instead get into a rut. Hence, the best thing to do during those times is to get away for awhile. Take a short trip with family or alone. Get involved in a hobby you always wanted to do but had little time for. Make new friends, or catch up with the old ones. Spend this sabbatical doing what you love to do and also confront yourself with the difficult questions. Take this time out to rejuvenate yourself and come back to work ready to fall back in love with it and yourself.
While most of us are conditioned to take our jobs as just that, jobs, we know that today that is not a good enough reason to remain motivated. Surprisingly, I have seen many a times in my career, people choosing less paying jobs but offering good work. While money continues to be a huge motivator to join an organization, it fails to keep you passionate and motivated at the job, if the work is not good. I have realized life is too short to be unhappy, doing things you don’t want to do and be stuck in a workplace that does not edify you. If you are not growing or learning at work, you are dying a slow career death. So each day learn to be passionate about what you do, learn to daily consider how your work impacts others, learn daily to be thankful for a good paying job and learn each day to do your very best and nothing less. These are reasons enough to stay motivated and passionate at work, but the above three ways can be used as your walking stick to help you cross over to the happy place when you need it.
You may also want to read other article written by the same author ‘Be aware of your emotions and its effects on you‘ , ‘How to be your own goal keeper‘ , ‘What is the best way to say No to Office House Work‘ , ‘ Finding your work life balance‘ , ‘Six top challenges women leaders face at work‘ ‘ How to master the Art of Assertive Communication‘ , ‘ How can you make your resume standout ‘ , ‘ Honest Comparision Between Freelancing Project or Full-time Job‘ , ‘Good Interview Skills Leave a Lasting Impression ‘
About the author:
(The author is a guest blogger at Her Second Innings. The opinions expressed are those of the author.)
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