Love Your Work

​As a coach helping people with career transitions, it’s become very clear to me how crucial it is for us all to find work we love.  Most of us have deep desires for work that allows us to tap our creativity, do something good for the world, or become so deeply absorbed that time no longer exists.  And of course it’s important to accomplish or produce something.  In fact, a career coach will remind you to keep track of and document your accomplishments for your future resume and interview-answer repertoire!
 
Finding work we love is of utmost importance.  But also worth considering and often overlooked is this: finding love for our work.
 
There are many ways to love your work—here we will spotlight the pleasure of the process of work.  This requires taking notice—as it is not often talked about and isn’t valued much.  Instead we are thinking of our deep longings around work, or are focused on the practical side (such as how much salary we make), or we stick to the typical association of work and pain (Thank God It’s Friday).  Talking of simple pleasures may sound light, and it’s true that they can be subtle, but they deserve some recognition for their potential contribution to the quality of our lives.  Beauty and pleasure play a role in job satisfaction, fulfillment, and contentedness. 
 
It’s part of Spirit to crave lofty goals and peaks of success, but it is the Soul that wants the present, the tangible, the ordinary, and a rooted attachment.
 
Some simple pleasures:

• The beauty of the architecture, interior design, or surrounding landscape of your place of work
• A favorite nearby restaurant
• The sturdy feel of a well-made desk
• A lively city view from a 12th floor office
• A customer you enjoy
• The feeling of being comfortable, or “at home” with certain fellow workers
• Handling and using the familiar tools of your work
• Doing the activities of your job

 
These types of joys may be passing, even rare rushes.  Relishing them doesn’t mean you ignore problems at work or that these pleasures will be enough.  But they just might help lead you to a life work, or make it more likely to find your life work.