Put Joy into Your Work

Put Joy into Your Work

Sabrina Schleicher, Ph.D.

 
Have you been feeling the doldrums with your job lately? Do you find yourself procrastinating with certain tasks? Is it hard to get up in the morning to get to work? If you answered “yes” to these questions, chances are there is incongruence between your job and your life purpose. And, the good news is, you don’t have to quit your job to address this incongruence (unless you really want to!)
 
In my Coaching Groups, we work on articulating our life purpose as a means to increasing our joy in our work. Yes, you have a life purpose. No, you don’t have to create it out of thin air. You already know what it is, even if you haven’t put words on it yet. You have been living out your purpose all of your life. Your life purpose is about the essence of who you are. It is who you can’t help but be.
 
There are many ways to identify your life purpose. One way is through art. Art is a powerful tool for self-exploration. Art bypasses words and language. Art allows us to express the core of who we are, even when we can’t find the words to do so. And, you don’t have to be artistic to benefit from using art for self exploration.
 
Try this: Make a collage using magazine pictures, photos, or any random items that capture your interest.  As you are selecting things to include in your collage, the key is not to think too much. Just select pictures or items that you are drawn to.  Arrange them in your collage in whatever way feels good to you.

Once you have completed your collage, ask yourself these questions:

• What feelings come up as you look at your collage?
• What themes do you see?
• What colors or patterns stand out?
• What does your collage say about who you are?

Write your answers to these questions. Put your collage aside for a day or two. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself thinking about your collage off and on. What thoughts and feelings come up? Jot these down.

Then come back to your collage. Notice what is in your collage and what you have written down. To take this one step further, share your collage with a trusted friend or colleague. Ask for their feedback as to what the collage says about you. 
 
What words or phrases come up repeatedly? Use these words or phrases to write a few sentences about your life purpose. Start with the words, “I am…” and go from there. See what comes up. Play with this.

How do you feel as you read your life purpose aloud? You may feel what you have written is only partially done. That is ok. Articulating your life purpose is an on-going process. By doing this exercise, you have begun to develop a sense of your life purpose, and that is sufficient for looking at how your life purpose relates to your job.

When you feel lagging energy for your work, what is happening in your job that may be incongruent with your life purpose? What options are there for dealing with that? How are you expressing your life purpose in your work? What might you do this week to bring your life purpose into your work?

Answering these questions AND taking action on your answers will put you on the path to bringing joy into your work.

 

Working with Passion

Everyone needs passion. If I am not passionate about what I am doing, I am not eager to get out of bed in the morning. At first I thought my career and my children were my passion. After 30 years working at the same career, I realized I didn’t have that fire left in my gut. So, I looked around at my kids, and they were getting ready to leave the nest. I thought about it quite awhile and then realized that although that saddened me, I would have been much more upset if they didn’t get to the point of wanting the leave the nest!

After that notion sunk in, I realized I had to find something that I was passionate about to do during the day. So I went through a process of figuring out what that would be by listing the things about prior jobs that I liked (and that I didn’t), looked over the myriad of assessment tests I  had taken in the corporate world, and realized that I really liked helping people do things they never thought they could do. I liked mentoring people to help them progress in their careers. I wanted to give something back to the universe.

In hindsight, I probably would have been a good teacher, but I wasn’t about to go back to school to get an education degree. I already had a BA in psychology, but ended up in the computer industry since it was my minor. I never left.

I started studying coaching with Franklin Covey and I found that I felt jazzed again!

Give yourself a chance to slow down if you feel you are running out of steam and take a hard look at what you do each day. Does it help anyone? Do you feel good about it? If not, do yourself a favor and get a coach to help you figure it out and live your best life again!