Remember when you first started your job? You were thrilled with the work, stimulated by the people and just couldn’t wait to get there? Well… you can feel that again.
How to get excited about going to work again
I want to go through some simple techniques that you can use to get excited about work. They might not work for everyone but they should serve as inspiration for you to develop your own techniques.
1. Shift the focus to others
“Build your reputation by helping other people build theirs.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo
One of the best things I ever learned about work was when I was the Himalayas and I was having a cup of tea with a buddhist monk. He asked me what I did for a living and I told him that I was working as a cleaner while I worked my way through college. He asked me whether I enjoyed it and I said “not really”. After a while he said something that changed the way I looked at work forever:
“The worst thing you can do is go to work for money. When you walk to work you could think that you are going there to benefit everyone you encounter. When you are working you should think that every action you perform is for the benefit of others. That way, if you do that well, you will go home at the end of the day feeling content and happy.”
I tried this pretty seriously. I would keep my mind on benefitting others. When I cleaned the windows I would think “May all beings have clarity” and when I swept the floor I would think “May all beings be free from obstacles”. After a while my work became a meditation on helping others and I enjoyed it.
2. Connect with the people at your work
The worst thing you can do at work is make enemies with your work mates or boss. If you do that your work will be hell and you will think about it all day long. Recently my girlfriend’s work changed owners and within a few months everyone was depressed and angry. I watched it happen as if in slow motion – each day the workers hated the boss more and more and in doing so became more and more unhappy. They thought that by talking about him and pointing out his faults it would make them feel better – it didn’t. It just made them feel worse.
The funny thing was that the only worker that was happy was the one that made the effort to make friends with the boss even though he was a bit weird. It worked wonders.
The people at your work can become your best friends if you put the effort in. You see them everyday and you will have lots of things to talk about as the office is such a busy place. Try and make the effort and be the “bigger” person. You will be glad you did.
3. Become mindful
Mindfulness really is one of the keys to being happy. If you live a mindful life you live a life in the moment. A lot of stress, depression and unhappiness comes from thinking about the past and the future and not resting in the present.
Staying mindful at work means that you should stay focussed on your work without letting your mind wander to other things. How many time are you sitting at work thinking about being somewhere else? If you’re anything like me – most of the time! However, if we can bring the focus back to our work we will be much happier people.
4. Challenge yourself everyday
“Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.” – General George S. Patton
One of the best ways to bring the excitement back into your work is to set challenges for yourself on a regular basis. They could be simply ones like trying to get more work done than you did yesterday or they could be more long term ones like trying to work your way up into a new position. If you have a challenge like this you will be more focussed and driven.
5. Be thankful for the opportunity
One of the great things I learned when traveling in the slums of India is how damn good my life was back in Australia. I had health, wealth and education. I could quit my job today and probably find a new one by tomorrow. I have all the opportunities in the world.
One way to really shift your mind is to remember all the opportunities that you have in the job you are in. It will help you become excited about what you have as opposed to stressing about what you don’t have.
Originally posted on March 14, 2008 @ 2:44 am
