Does your career feel stale and boring?
This article is an excerpt from our BizTV video, which can be viewed online, simply click this link.
For most of my career I led human resource teams at the executive level. It was a roller coaster – fascinating sometimes, excruciating occasionally. After a while the work became stale. Whenever that happened I had to figure out a way to bring the joy back into my work.
I regularly speak with folks who find themselves bored, stale, and disappointed in their current work situation. They need help figuring out a new path.
The solution for me was to become an entrepreneur, setting up my own consulting practice in 2004. It was terrifying. Sometimes it still is. I have never worked so hard in my life. The rewards are not always monetary but it is always exciting. I guess that is what I was looking for.
The decision for you might be different. Here are some tips to finding joy at work courtesy of Harvard University Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter:
- Understand your personal mission and purpose. Are you living in accordance with your personal purpose?
- Negotiate out of demands that don’t contribute to your personal mission and purpose. Keep doing your job but simplify so you can focus on the most important elements.
- Find some new aspect of your current role that can stimulate you and move you closer to your goal. Read, attend a class, or find a controversial, interesting aspect that you might have overlooked. [FIND SOMETHING STIMULATING]
- Do something different. Talk to people you usually overlook. Drive home using a different route. Read a different kind of book.
- Celebrate every accomplishment you encounter. As Dr. Moss Kanter says, “Share the joy to multiply it”.
You can take these steps without leaving your current role. Keep looking for opportunities to find joy right exactly where you are planted. Sometimes joy is hidden in the strangest places.