Why You Should Work at What You Love
Copyright (c) 2009 Mary Lloyd
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