Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Ann Wilkinson 

How much time do you spend thinking about the ways your job annoys you?  How much time do you spend listening to friends and family as they grouse in great detail about how much they dislike their work?  We complain and then we envy others who seemingly do “what they love” for their livelihood and wish we could be more like them.

What would it be like to design the kind of job we truly want?  We don’t always have that luxury.  So, it’s up to us to take the framework we have and make it work for us to love what we do on a day-to-day basis.

Honestly, if you could work at the things in life that you are really passionate about, do you think you would still love them?  Would you be able to truly reap the financial benefits of that passion? 

Instead, why not try and take a look at your working life and try to figure out what it is that attracted you to your job in the beginning? 

Surely you had to think about your particular skill set and your talents and strengths when you thought about the job you sought.  What happened when you sat in the interviews you had to undergo before you were offered your position?  What did you talk about during that conversation?  The chances are you were able to muster up some measure of enthusiasm for that job, and the chances are that you came into that job with an ability to make a solid contribution to the company you work for now.

As the days roll along from one to the next, have you stopped and thought about what you yourself have to offer to the person you are working for – your customer, your market, your co-workers?  What can you bring to their life every day to add value and meaning?  Can you save them their hard-earned dollars?  Can you make their lives easier?  In other words, what are you doing every day to make a positive contribution to the lives of those around you?

We are told that in serving others we will find our true self.  It is true that when we are feeling the worst about ourselves, the best thing we can do is to reach out and provide a service to others. 

If you can take the time in your job to really reach out to your customer, your client, your team member, and give some piece of yourself to make their life easier, be it a smile, your ability to truly listen to their needs, your sense of empathy to understand their difficulty and the desire to ease their situation, then maybe you can start to love what you do on a daily basis.

So, just for today try doing something that shows you value yourself and what you do.  Here are a couple of ideas:

1- Clean out the coffee cups from the sink in the employee kitchen.  Or empty out a shelf in the fridge of discarded food items.  Don’t tell anyone you’ve done this.  And, it doesn’t matter if these were your things, your mess or your job duties.

2- Listen.  Really try to listen to the customer who calls with a problem that needs to be resolved.  Keep your hands and eyes off the computer and keyboard while you hear them talk.  Don’t respond with any words until they have finished saying what they need to say (see Make the Days Count article on Active Listening for more).

3- When a customer approaches you at the check-out counter take a moment and actually look them in the eye and smile and say hello to them.  Receiving acknowledgement means a great deal to all of us.

See how doing this makes you feel! 

If you do something small every workday, you will surely find a renewed sense of enthusiasm for your work.  This spirit will not only give you a deep sense of satisfaction and happiness, but you might also reap some benefits by doing a better job (and maybe even a well-deserved raise)!

“I find that a man is as old as his work.  If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look forward with the work.”
-William Ernest Hocking, Wisdom for Our Time

“People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are.  If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant.  If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous.  We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works.”
-Meister Eckhart

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