Do You Enjoy Your Work?

 

“Go ahead and do what you really love to do! Do nothing else! You have so little time. How can you think of wasting a moment doing something for a living you don’t like to do? What kind of a living is that? That is not a living, that is a dying!” ~ Neale Donald Walsh


I asked myself today, "Do I like my job?" My answer was "No". Then I asked myself, "What do I enjoy doing?" My first thought was "Singing". Oh how I love to sing! Always have. Then I considered how I could not make a good living singing. I always think that. I probably could make a decent living as a singer, but I have defeated myself on that dream. It is a dead dream.

I didn't want to focus on a dead dream, so I wondered, "What is it about singing that I like?" I knew it was the attention; the feeling I get from my audience when I am singing. First of all, everyone is listening and looking at Me. That is a wonderfully uplifting and validating feeling. And if they like what I am singing, which they usually do, then they communicate it to me by giving me more attention and conveying a feeling of love and enjoyment. That it is a wonderful feeling. They may say to me later that they liked my singing, but it is the energy that comes from the audience communicating to me that is what I enjoy most about singing. I also get a feeling of freedom when I sing.

Then I contemplated if I get that feeling from work. No. Not now anyway, but I have gotten that feeling from my work. When I first started my job I got that feeling. In my current position, when I present a lesson, I get that feeling. So, no, my job in itself is not a bad profession for me to be in. It has just been bad because 1. I have not been doing the part of it I love 2. I have worked with people that I do not connect well with - without that connection I won't get that feeling of accomplishment I need to enjoy my job.

It was nice to recognize that the field I am in is not wrong for me. My field is actually capable of giving me exactly what I need to feel alive. I just need to make sure that I am working with people whom I connect best with as well as the subject matter that I feel most drawn to. Therefore, counseling may be a very good fit for me because I will get both things - the right people and subjects I enjoy thoroughly - psychology, sociology, and self-improvement.

Sometimes life is giving us exactly what we need/want and we don't see it. We see what we focus on, which is usually that part of our lives that we dislike and so resist. I disliked my job and was not fulfilled by it only because I was resisting certain aspects of it. I resisted these things because I chose a job for money rather than enjoyment. Eventually, I just resisted my job, forgetting the original reason I was resistant. So then I got double resistance and never recognized that it was a choice that led me to that resistance to begin with! So the solution is - change the decision. Decide instead that I will not resist my job simply because I do not like certain things about it. Focus instead on connecting with people and getting to know them. Through good communication I can make connections and thus get the satisfaction and enjoyment of my job that I once had. I need to rekindle the feeling I use to get. It was there before, it can be there again.

So my question to you is: Do you enjoy your work? Why or why not?

I personally believe that we can enjoy anything we do in life. What makes happiness is not what we do, but what we believe. Our beliefs drive our thoughts and considerations. If what we believe is not aligned with our truth, then our thoughts and considerations will be flawed and no matter what we do or how we try we will run into a brick wall of defeat, failure and unhappiness.