3 ways to love your job

Let’s face it, most people don’t love their jobs. Enjoying your work is critical to being happy because, like most people, you probably spend half or even most of your day working. You may wonder what you can do about it. You may feel resigned about it. And...you may love your job and simply want to know how you could love it even more. Here’s how:

1. Do what you love for work. For some people this may mean taking a radical step and switching careers. For others it doesn’t. But, thinking this radically may be necessary because we spend so much time working.

2. Bring what you love to work. For example, if you are a big people person but work in front of computer, you can emphasize the aspects of the job that involve working with others, or if you’re really into yoga you can focus on things like your posture and your breathing as you are working (Yoga is an elaborate discipline, aspects of which can be brought to any activity.)

Maybe you can bring your cat to work (if that would light you up), or play the music you like (which can really change your mood at work). You get the idea; bring the things, qualities and activities that you love into your job no matter what it is. This has limitless potential, but requires creativity.

3. Spiritualize your work. This rarely occurs to people, but is actually the most important. Let’s stay with the Yoga theme. Yoga, although usually looked at as a form of exercise, is actually a spiritual discipline involving concentration and meditation. Concentrating and focusing on what you are doing is a spiritual activity. Meditating doesn’t need to mean sitting in lotus position with your eyes closed focusing on your inner self. Many forms of meditation are done while engaged in an activity. That activity could be anything, even what you do for work!

When I lived in a Zen monastery we did meditate while sitting, but we also meditated while plowing the fields, while cooking and even while relating to each other. It changes the quality of the experience totally. You even get better at whatever you are doing because you are more focused. For this purpose, I will summarize meditation as ‘focus on your awareness’. No matter where you are at about your work this will add to your experience of joy while working.

Having a structure of support for these critical activities makes all the difference.