Early Warning Signals to Help You Know If You Are Losing Your Passion for Work

How do you recognize when you are working too much and for the wrong reasons?

Who today truly keeps their perspective of what's normal or acceptable when it comes to work? Surviving the economic crisis of 2009 has pushed the limits of what is normal working behavior. The rules are changing, and more and more of us are working longer hours, giving up weekends, taking on impossible deadlines, doing work we hate -- because of downsizing and fear of being laid off. And none of this is satisfying or rewarding; it's the work equivalent of the Bataan Death March.

Can you remember when you worked lots of hours because it was fun? Can you remember how it felt to finish a high-quality project on time, even if it meant long nights and weekends? You walked away from those moments knowing you had created something important, and most likely, you had done it together with your colleagues, so the shared experience of success was even more rewarding. In the months that followed, "Remember when we knocked that project out of the park?" would bring a smile to everyone's face and a renewed sense of energy for the task at hand.

This energy is the fuel for sustaining your passion for work. Without it, work is hard and definitely not fun. There's a series of questions you can ask yourself to see if you've emptied your work gas tank and are running on fumes:

1. How will you feel when this (project, task, trip, event) is over? Exhausted or energized?
2. If you didn't need the paycheck, would you still do this? And if you would still do it, would you truly enjoy doing it?
3. How many of your work hours, in percent of time, do you spend looking forward to the tasks at hand, or dreading them?
4. Said another way, out of one hour, how many minutes are you happy?
5. Is Sunday night the worst night of the week? Do you dread hearing the alarm clock ring on Monday morning?
6. Do you find yourself settling for "good enough" when you used to take pride in the quality of your work?
7. Do you fantasize about getting sick or breaking your leg just to get some time off from work?
8. Do you get disproportionately angry when work intrudes on your time off? (Also known as "Why are those idiots calling me now?")
9. Do your family and friends see this reaction and wonder what happened to the person they used to know?
10. Do things you used to take in stride now overwhelm you?
11. Do you negotiate with yourself about quitting --"If (your most painful thing) happens, then that's it, I'm leaving!" -- and yet you never seem to pull the trigger?
12. Do you negotiate time not working with yourself? "I'll just watch the Today Show for 10 more minutes, and then I'll work on emails." Have you regressed to when you were five years old and you wanted to watch TV just five more minutes, Mom!

Any one of these questions can be true at any given time for all of us. It's when two or three or four are true that it's clear that our passion for work has been replaced by a sense of obligation and even dread. Obligation is a bad coach; it never inspires us or gives us the energy we need to be happy at work.

Published on www.ezinearticles.com on Feb. 19, 2010 and in my book.

 

 

 

Comments

[teabagmetos]

02:09 AM on 02/13/2012

My job used to be profitable and thereby fun, I couldn't wait to make the next buck. Now half of the customers are gone and the other half are broke. Nobody can afford the stuff they need much less anything they want. So now the job is depressing and a daily grind. The money barely pays the bills. None dare call it a depression but there seems to be no end in sight, and Republicans want to make it worse .A min wage job beyond the end of the driveway isn't worth the gas to get to it. Pretty soon most jobs won't be worth the the effort.

[tacevad]

11:22 AM on 02/12/2012

for years I kept a picture in my vehicle, every morning on the way to work I would look at it and remind myself that that was WHY I was headed to a job. strangely enough even after the house was paid off and the wife left ( at least partially because I was so busy concentrating on earning a living to provide for her...catch 22 ) I continued to work because my goal then became retirement. Working in Construction for 30 + years took a toll on the body but allowed me to be retired at 60 comfortably.
I see it as setting a goal and working towards it. The Best IS yet to Be!

[KarmaPatrol]

09:42 AM on 02/12/2012

Sounds like most jobs, frankly. Best to be able to retire early.

[ParagPandey]

02:45 AM on 02/12/2012

Nice article. If one has to jog, say, for 1 mile, then it's better to stop at the half-mile mark to catch one's breath, before resuming the jog to the mile mark. Better than running upto 0.7 miles and giving up altogether since it no longer remains enjoyable.
If you wish, you could read my post on the subject - 'marching song' - at http://eyeseework.blogspot.com

[RealistBC]

05:47 PM on 02/11/2012

When one supports four adult relatives who can't find sufficient work income to support themselves, there is nothing one can do but keep the nose to the grindstone until it's cut well past the spinal column and one's head falls off.

[WI Patriot]

05:42 PM on 02/10/2012

If you don't like your job, please quit - there will be 100 people that probably will like your job.

[tacevad]

11:38 AM on 02/12/2012

I once worked with a salesman who thought laborers were a dime a dozen much as you , As soon as the non union minimum wage guys started dropping out of the job he gave them (some within hours none lasted two days) while the Union guys finished the job we were on he opened his eyes to the fact that not everyone is capable or suitable to those jobs. Yes there are 100's of people out there willing to do this work for $5/hour as he put it... but none of them could! Pride in Craftsmanship = Union Workers

[formontoya]

01:38 PM on 02/10/2012

It's called "work" for a reason...if it was truely fun it would be called play and you would not get paid for it. However, some do enjoy what they do for a living...but it's still work and you still have to be there if you want to get paid.

[dan007]

02:07 PM on 02/10/2012

i have learned that if you enjoy what you do you dont work a day of your life , if you hate it it seems like an 8 hour day is a 16 hour day , find you pasion and run with it , money is not everything , dept will pin in a corner and force you to do things that you hate .