Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Jeff Goins of Goins Writer.
In our world today, we are overwhelmed with promises to quit our jobs and chase our dreams. We are told that we deserve to be happy and that if we buy enough things that it will eventually happen. We are told to work for the weekend and plan that next vacation. But why can’t we be happy with the life we have right now?
We live in a culture that prizes leisure over labor and longs for a “four-hour work week.” Sadly, like many things in our culture, this promise is an illusion. The truth is you don’t have to hate your job. Work can become a source of fulfillment for you if you choose to see it that way.
For my recent book The Art of Work, I interviewed hundreds of people who had discovered their purpose in life. And as I spoke with these people who had found their callings I learned several lessons. Here are three of them.
1. Hating your job won’t make you any happier.
We don’t have to hate the work we do even if that work isn’t ideally suited to us. Everyone I met who found their calling in life ended up doing something that surprised them. Which means that connecting to your purpose is more about perspective than circumstance.
During World War II, Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl discovered an important lesson about human happiness: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Frankl learned this from living for years in a Nazi concentration camp. Everything was taken from him. His family. His work. His well-being. And yet he realized there was one freedom he could never lose: his.
If you choose to change your perspective, how things look will begin to change. You don’t need to win the lottery to find contentment. In fact, sometimes the very things we think will liberate us will actually only further prison us.
The easiest way to do work you love is to start loving what you do. This is a choice we all have. So let’s stop making work the enemy.
2. Do better work and the work will become more enjoyable.
One way to enjoy your work is to become better at it. It should be no surprise that we find greater fulfillment in activities that we are skilled at doing. But how much this is true is startling.
Laura Carstensen is a psychologist and the director of the Stanford Center on Longevity where they study what makes people live longer and happier lives. What they found was that people who continue to learn enjoy their work more and actually live longer.
Education, according to this study, is the single greatest predictor of lifespan. So you want to live longer? Be happier? Learn a new skill or get better at the one you have. And why not start with the place where you probably already spend eight hours a day?
Once we reach a basic level or proficiency, work that was once tedious may now be enjoyable. As Daniel Pink writes in his book Drive, mastering any skill makes the activity intrinsically more motivating. So if you are struggling to want to go to work in the first place, try doing better work.
3. Realize your whole life is a form of work.
Whether or not you have a day job, you go to work every day. You watch the kids or clean up the house. You mow the lawn or go grocery shopping. Every day, you are working, whether it’s at an office or at home. Whether you are retired or just beginning your career.
We all have important work to do. And that work is our life. Your magnum opus is not just one great thing you did. It is more like a body of work that you are constantly contributing to every day.
In that respect, we all get to decide what kind of job we have and how much we enjoy it. Of course, there are some things that are within our control, like our perspective, and some things that are not, like our circumstances. Your job is to learn to let go of what you can’t control and embrace what you can.
One important lesson about being happier with your life and work is learning to make trade-offs. It’s the dream of many people to want more of everything. More money. More stuff. More time. But you can’t have all three of those all at once.
So decide what’s most important to you. You can do almost anything you want in life but not everything. If you’re not doing what you want, you can quit. But that choice has consequences. You can stay where you are and there is a cost to that as well. One choice isn’t necessarily better than the other, so long as you realize you can’t have it all right now.
There is, however, something beautiful about not getting everything you thought you wanted. Constraints create contentment. Because in those constraints you realize what’s really important.
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Jeff Goins is the author of four books including the national best seller, The Art of Work. You can find him on Twitter or follow his award-winning writing blog.
Abbie says
Currently I am a mom full-time. A friend recently commented how she was working to change her attitude by saying “I get to do laundry and dishes and cooking for my family” instead of “I have to …” I have now taken this one step further to “I choose to do these things to serve my family” and it makes quite a difference in how I feel about what I know I am called to do.
And on the improving aspect, I was thinking of learning a musical instrument and trying new recipes!
Thanks for the thoughts and ideas!
krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui says
Absolutely! This shift in mindset can help us live with far more joy.
Jeff Goins says
Love that perspective!
Annie Sev says
I love my job, I just hate the people there.
Jeff Goins says
Sorry to hear that. People are an important part of most jobs and enjoying your work.
Thea Dunlap says
Great article. The key points are spot on for me. Helpful and informative since I work from home and had to manage may actual work and work at home :|
M. C. Higgins says
Although this is a well-written piece, it doesn’t take into account that for many people, they LOVE their jobs and find a great sense of purpose from them, but they work in a toxic environment with petty tyrants who rob them of their pleasure. People quit bosses, not jobs. Also, Michael Argyle finds that life satisfaction is highly correlated with work satisfaction. In other words, if you are generally a happy person, then you will tend to be happy with your work.
Jeff Goins says
Good point, MC. Thanks for sharing!
Brent says
I think the employer attitude shifted. Way back when unemployment rates were low employers had a hard time finding the quality employees they needed so they were very nice to the ones they had. When the unemployment rate rose to bad levels employers could hire among many qualified applicants and their attitude towards their employees became dismal. Lately I have worked for two employers of whom I have no respect as a person. Employer attitude is probably why many now dislike their employers and their jobs and I would expect productivity to also drop as a result. Now as employment rates are getting better. Those good hard working qualified people looking for work now are being turned down because employer attitude is running behind the curve. The employers who treat their people right and have had respect for their employees should be the ones to collect a good work base and prosper in the years to come if employment continues to improve. Their are some nasty employers out there right now.
Judy says
Brent, I had a great job that I loved. Corporate hired an insane boss. Literally. He was either on drugs— or badly needed some. I left there because of management. I’m glad I did…because the job I have now is even better…but I totally get how awful it is to work for a bad employer. ——Eventually, he just stopped showing up and walked off with all the money in the safe and cash registers…never to be found again. He skipped out on his rent too, and all his belongings ended up on his front lawn. The store closed down altogether about a year after I left. The stories I could tell you!!! This guy was downright scary @@
I wonder what his deal was!!!
J.S. Allen says
Living simply and encouraging others to do the same will change the nature of work.
Mark says
A job is enjoyable when its purpose far exceeds the paycheck we receive. All the money in the world cannot make a job without purpose enjoyable.
Jeff Goins says
Agreed. Well said, Mark.
Nagaraju says
Nice one!
Especially those three lines at the end of the post:
“There is, however, something beautiful about not getting everything you thought you wanted. Constraints create contentment. Because in those constraints you realize what’s really important.”
It’s a very good read!!
Jeff Goins says
Thanks for reading!
Shawn Lim says
Hi, Jeff, great to see you here. I’m inspired by your work from your books and blogs. In fact, you inspired me a lot to become a writer.
And your article here is very informative and helpful. I can’t agree more when you say do better work and the work will become more enjoyable. I found that whenever I published some very quality content, and people love it, I felt fulfilled and enjoyed the reward. I will enjoy the process even more, the next time.
Again, thanks for sharing and I’m looking forward to talking to you more. :)
Jeff Goins says
I love that, Shawn! Good for you.
Tracy Davis says
I like the perspective that everything we do is work. And that is not a bad thing. As a homeschool mom, my work never ends. It is up to me what attitude I approach that work with. I am inspired by your post to get better at what I do.
Jeff Goins says
That’s true. Hardest but most rewarding job in the world right there. Thanks for the work you do, Tracy!