Are you doing the work you were born to do? Do you even know what that is? For you?

So, last week I gave a careers presentation at a local group in Wigan.

Here is the text from my speech ..

On Monday morning this week, if you listened very closely, in offices up and down the country, factories and shops, you would have heard the sound of disappointment, confusion and regret…

·     “I should have booked this week off work”

·     “I just can’t wait for the Summer now”

·     “I’ve forgotten how to type!”

Ha! but it’s January you say! What else would you expect?

And not looking forward to going back to work after the Christmas break doesn’t mean we hate our job. Inertia after a relaxing break surely comes into play here?

But now imagine you’re standing outside a busy bus station and you are observing all the buses departing for various destinations.

After several buses have departed you notice something interesting is happening.

·     Some passengers appear relaxed, happy, quite contented, chatting to other passengers.

·     But, some passengers are trying to change seats, maybe they were sat near the front and now want an upstairs seat

·     And, a third set of the passengers appear to be in state of agitation and in discussion with the driver because they are not even on the right bus

This metaphor pretty much describes the UK employment scene

·     The people who are enjoying their job, are in the right seat and on the right bus and are contributing effectively to the organisation

·     Then there are those that enjoy working for the company or organisation – they are on the right bus but are in the wrong seat/ the wrong role - technical experts who get promoted are a good example of this

·     And finally, there are those that in the wrong role in the wrong company or organisation - they want off the bus!

You see, not everybody loves their job and loves going to work, and that’s a pity because not only are you going to be spending a long time at work - in fact one third of your working life, but research shows when you enjoy work you make a better fist of it.

When you enjoy your job:

·     You benefit - you’re enjoying what you do

·     Your family and friends benefit - because your happier

·     Your organisation benefits - when we are happy at work we are more effective and productive

·     Society benefits

So why do about a third of us not enjoy our jobs?

Well, think back to when you started your current role. If you were lucky your strengths, values and interests would have all aligned with the job you started doing. You probably enjoyed your job and felt good about your role in the workplace.

But as time goes by two things start to happen:

·     Our job changes in some way - we might get a promotion for example or our job is redesigned.

and the second thing is,

·     We change intrinsically. Yeah, crazy isn’t it, we don’t stay the same! Things we enjoy doing change, we value different things and at the same time we develop new skills and grow as a person

This can often mean that we become mis-aligned at work - the job and you no longer fit as well - both things have changed but not together

The way we experience this is that we enjoy work less - work becomes a bit of a drag!

So, at this point you might be thinking, well that is ok because work is errr, called work. It’s not meant to be enjoyable!

Now, I realise that NO JOB IS PERFECT but equally we are living in the twenty first century - we now have more choices about how we can make a living than ever before.

AND I URGE YOU TO CHOOSE WELL!

Great, but how do we go about making the right choices and changes? Maybe it’s not as simple as speaking to the bus driver ...

Glad you asked that ….

Because as it happens there is quite a lot, we can do.

Firstly, we can try and understand ourselves better, reflect on who we are and what we want.

-      Where do our passions lie? For example a nurse who loves knitting and sewing leaves her job and creates a website selling haberdashery. 

-      What is important to us? When we start out in work our work life balance isn’t always so important to us. Family commitments or health challenges can completely change our perspective ..

-      What did we enjoy doing? The accountant that loved art at school suddenly has an urge in his forties to do something more creative at work

-      What impact do we want to have on the world? Is this important to us?

-      What sort of organisation do we want to work for? Do we like working for a big organisation or have we got tired of the bureaucracy and want to work for a smaller organisation or better still work for ourselves, from home!

Such career analysis is uncommon, but it shouldn’t be.

If we understand ourselves better, we can match ourselves to the jobs that are better suited to us. 

Imagine a darts player playing with a blindfold on. No idea where the dart board is. When we take off the blindfold the target is there before our eyes!

You might think that is all far-fetched but consider this, the following are real jobs:

-      Video games player

-      Private Island Caretaker

-      Toy Designer

-      Ice Cream Taster

Wouldn’t it be great if what we heard on the first Monday after Christmas was:

-      “Couldn’t wait to get back to work”

-      “I love what I do”

-      “What we are doing here is amazing”

We are in control of how our careers turn out!

Make enjoyment and job satisfaction a priority - review your career regularly 

I urge you to choose well!

Thank You