Passion in the workplace doesn’t only refer to illicit love affairs, slyly conducted clandestine convergences organised around the water cooler. What we’re talking about here is being passionate about what you do, about how you can love your business.
In 6 Top Motivations That Drive The Best Entrepreneurs, Martin Zwilling quotes a talk Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. According to Jobs’ talk, How to Live Before You Die “Work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
There is, however, still much debate about whether one should pursue a career directly related to one’s passions, or whether one should find the internal motivation to feel love for what you do. There is no question that doing something you love correlates to the emotional enjoyment derived from it. This enjoyment – in turn – fuels motivation, enthusiasm, and the personal drive to continue in the face of adversity. The old adage of money buying happiness is true in some cases, but not in others. The pursuit of profit, therefore, does not guarantee loving what you do.
Find the passion to love your business
In an article published by Forbes, the question was asked whether the corollary is true – in other words; can you love what you do, rather than doing what you love? In a combined study conducted by Forbes Insights and the O.C. Tanner Institute, it was discovered that those who have not followed careers in what they love have nonetheless found satisfaction. This feeling of satisfaction was in part due to loving what they did. But how do you love something that isn’t your passion?
In cases such as these, “work was focused on making a difference that someone else would love, instead of the person performing the work. .. on the recipient of their work – their customer, their colleague, their leader, the community.” This job satisfaction may, in turn, result in derived satisfaction and a genuine love for what one does.
In the study, they found that the turning point for many who were doing a job that wasn’t necessarily their dream vocation or a result of shifting their hobby into work was zooming out a bit to see the whole picture. By keeping in mind what the end result of their work was, and how that would be received by others, they could harness a passion. While the day-to-day activities and responsibilities might not stoke the fires, thinking about the impact that your work could have on others works wonders.
In the end, the best advice is: “If you don’t totally hate your job but find you’re not that happy with what you are doing, try this one little simple activity: Go and see your work being received. See how it impacts someone else”. You may find that the results are worth the effort. Shifting your perspective to see who benefits most from something might just be the catalyst you need to love what you do.