How to love what you do, or choose something you do!

I believe that when you love what you do, your success is inevitable.

I find that many people have a love/hate relationship with work.   Doubt and struggle is common and very much in contrast to how to improve your overall experience of work, life and success consistently.

Making change without knowing the inner dynamics can often see people continuing to repeat their patterns because the patterns don’t change, only the external environment changes.  It’s effectively only a surface level solution which can results in past experiences continuing to play out.

What I do know for sure, it is possible to love your work and be successful.  Whether it’s where you are, or somewhere new!  Meaningful adjustments can result in big turnarounds.

I recommend that people experience what this means for them through my 3-step process before making big decisions or drastic changes so their move isn’t short-lived.  If you do decide to move, the decision is for the right reasons and more sustainable and life-changing – in the best of ways.  You can experience this turnaround sooner than you think.

This concept changed my life and took me from doubt to thriving and experiencing my best results ever.   I see it work in profound ways in my client experiences too.

At the time I was feeling stuck and frustrated, thinking I was overlooked for a role.  Earlier that year, I was also unsuccessful at another role because the manager said I was ‘too honest and edgy’…

Realising that anything that took me away from what mattered most for me (even if it made sense for someone else), only made me feel more pressure with less ease – and that was not what I was aiming for!  Comparison is not the way.

Wellbeing has always been a priority for me, I use my energy as my guide as to what is working and what isn’t if I am unsure.

With the foundation of knowing yourself and what works best for you, decision making and progress comes with more ease.   It simply makes sense.

Here are two ideas I share with clients so they can start to gain awareness of their options:

1/ What do you want and what are the gaps?  Let’s look for solutions.

2/ What do you love, enjoy and are good at, how can they be infused into what you do?

 

Here’s an exercise to work with:

1/ Ask: What do you want and what are the gaps?  Let’s look for solutions.

If you did love your work, what would that look like for you? What would you be doing and who are you working with?  What do you want from your work-life?    We can hold on to old versions of ourselves, what others expect of us or the experiences we have carried over – not always by conscious choice.

Client story:  A client once shared that she valued loyalty and found it difficult to consider leaving her job.  In the scenario we discussed, the loyalty to herself was missing and this was the gap that she needed to fill.  Changing your personal view and dynamics can have a profound impact on not only you, those around you too.

It can help to write your ideal work environment in list form, making notes of the experience you want.   What do you want and how does having this make you feel?

Example:

In my ideal ‘love my work’ scenario, I would be:
(Practical requests and wants results in how this makes you feel.)

With your list of ‘love my work’ what is missing now?  Highlight where you see the gaps.

Often, when we are feeling unfulfilled or success is not coming easily, it comes back to what we allow ourselves to think and tolerate.  This can relate to what we want and value and how we put ourselves at risk to external sources versus actually living through our values by conscious choice.

With awareness of our basic criteria, we get the opportunity to address what we want with more clarity.

The first step to change is awareness.  Albert Einstein said, ‘You can’t solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that created it.’  How can you view the situation from a ‘solution’ view, rather than the ‘problem’ view?

You may notice the very thing you are avoiding is the key to getting to your next logical step, rather than staying stuck in a dynamic that doesn’t work for you.  What is a solution, rather than focussing on the problem?

 

2/ Ask: What things do you love and enjoy?  Do they show up in your current work-life? 

Are you energised or depleted by what you do?  Put simply, if you spend more time doing things that take your energy rather than energise you, you will naturally feel this.  This is useful to work with and understand.  From here you can revise how you do things so you can experience more enjoyment and flow.

Optimising your energy, improves your experience, attention, focus and results.

Client story: This client made a change 2 years earlier and returned to his previous job because the change didn’t work out.  Very quickly he felt unsatisfied and drained in his work again.  Within 3 months of working together, he was clear about what his dream role was and he started the process of building a clear strategy to make it happen.

Making change can feel hard.  So is staying in a dynamic you don’t enjoy.  Ironically, what is familiar feels safe to the brain.  Learning how to work with change or something unfamiliar is the key to making change in a way that feels more aligned and inspiring.

And from this process of seeing what you CAN do, it’s possible to ‘step-by-step’ upgrade your overall perspective and feel good about making moves that are aligned for you.

Would you like to get inspired, narrow your focus and expand your possibilities?

Here’s a fun video of fear explained by Will Smith.  While my process isn’t so much ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, it does offer a way to work with personal growth and success which includes fear and uncertainty to move more comfortably into the ease and success you truly desire.

 

Will Smith’s explanation of fear

 

Lisa de Laroy is a Personal Success + Business Coach.