It’s Valentines Day – what do you love? Usually this is the day that hidden thoughts of love, affection and passion are declared for all to see, albeit anonymously! It can be fun preparing something special for a loved one and exciting to receive something unexpected.
For many, the day holds an air of expectation and a possibility of disappointment. Many people looking at the office door frequently to see whether a courier is bringing flowers, and perhaps a spark of jealousy if he is … for someone else.
A day fraught with danger if the two parties expectations are horribly mismatched!
And yet … and yet I wonder if the enthusiasm for today gets shared for the next day, and the next, and the next. I ponder whether on this Valentines Day you are able to declare your love for your work?
You see, for most people, their day is spent at ‘the office’. If they run their own business their office might include the kitchen table, a coffee shop, a client’s site or indeed their own office. For others it might be a long commute to their organisation’s premises, whilst glued to your smartphone answering email. In any event, ‘office hours’ in 2020 is more likely to mean, almost round the clock attention and an inability to escape the smartphone or the laptop. Technological advances was suppose to free us, not enslave us.
It’s Valentines Day – what do you love? What is it about your work that you love, and how can we tell? When you love something you enthuse about it, you get excited and your passion bubbles over so that everyone can see. You become highly influential because you clearly enjoy what you are doing and what you do is bigger than yourself.
Does that sound like how you feel about your work? Are you so enthused, and passion filled … you love it? When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ are they listening to someone who is in love?
When you are in love with what you do, you:
- Don’t do the work if you are not comfortable with it. A surprising number of people are working in roles they don’t like or with clients that are too difficult.
- Ensure that every task you undertake, you do it intending to do a ‘job well done’. You can’t feel passionate about something that you don’t care enough about it, to do a good job.
- Show your love by studying it. You are continuously searching for more data or knowledge to have a more immersive experience. How often are you pushing yourself to learn more about what you do?
- Become a master. If you aren’t on a path to mastery, why would anyone want to work with you, or have you in the organisation?
- Talk about what you do in a way that makes others want to do it too! When you are in love, you can’t stop talking about your beloved. When you talk about your work is it exciting enough to make someone want it?
- Never want to stop doing what you do. When you love what you do you never what to stop.
If you aren’t in love with what you do, I would invite you to ponder why that is – and how long will you keep doing it?