3 Reasons Smart People Make Sure to Do What They Love
Loving
what you do is not a luxury.
When
you get to your office in the morning, are you happy to be there? Do
you dive into the day's tasks with enthusiasm? Or are you counting the minutes until you get to leave?
If
you don't love what you do, no matter how successful you are, and no matter how much money you're
making, you should probably consider doing something else. Many
people seem to believe that loving what you do is a luxury. They plan
their careers on the principle that making a decent living is
necessary and that having work that you enjoy, and--more
important--find meaningful, is a nice add-on, if you can swing it.
I
think that's dead wrong. Making a living is essential, but so is
having work that you enjoy and care about, and that you believe
has real
value.
If your work is missing any of these features, and you don't see a
good prospect for things to get better, it's time to consider doing
something else. Here's why:
1. Work takes up a very big chunk of your life.
The
average American spends 47 hours out of every week working. That
means that during your working life, you'll be spending over 40
percent of your waking time at work. Or maybe much more. If you're
running your own business, or working in management or in any of
today's high-pressure, long hours professions, you likely are working
even more
than
those 47 hours.
There's
no getting away from it: Work takes up a huge proportion of our
lives. None of us know how long or short these lives will be. But we
do know that people who are dying often list the amount of time they
spent working as one of their top regrets. Working takes you away
from your fanily
and
from other activities you love. If you don't enjoy it or believe it
serves a valuable purpose, then work isn't worth that investment of
your time.
2. If you don't love your work, sooner or later you'll start sucking at it.
Oh
sure, you might be good at the mechanics of something you don't
particularly enjoy. But only for a while. Every industry is rapidly
changing, and to stay good at something you have to keep up with the
changes, which means constantly paying attention and constantly
learning.
For
most people, that means paying attention, reading, attending events,
taking courses, and generally spending a lot of time outside of
traditional work hours getting and staying up to date. It's going to
be tough to get yourself to put in those extra hours if work is just
what you do to pay the mortgage. And if you don't put that extra time
in, you will fall behind.
3. You can't fake passion.
Even
if you yourself can do a good job at something you don't like, you're
going to run into trouble when you take on aleadership or sales role.
You'll have a hard time inspiring deep caring in others for whatever
it is you do if you don't feel it yourself. That will become a real
stumbling block whenever you make a sales presentation, give guidance
to an employee, or ask for money from a bank or investor. Unless you
have superb acting skills, you won't be able to create passion in
others that you yourself lack.
So
why try? Most of us have a variety of career paths or professions
that fit both our values and desires. Over your lifetime, you're
likely to spend about 99,000
hours making
a living. If you don't want those hours to seem never-ending, better
spend them doing something you love as well.
BY
MINDA
ZETLIN
No comments:
Post a Comment