Trying to climb the corporate ladder? Warning:This can be a dangerous distraction. Promotions don't always increase your job satisfaction or fuel your passions. In fact, this added responsibility could take you away from finding meaning in your work, because you're too busy to think about it.
Americans in particular are under immense pressure to be chronically busy. Last year, 55% of the American workforce left 658 million vacation days unused. If you enjoy advancement but never know if moving upward will help bring your passions to play in what you do, you may lose all sense of purpose. This is not an uncommon problem; less than 20% of organizational leaders feel passionate about their individual purpose, and many don't even know what that purpose is.
Related: 3 Ways I've Created a Culture of Passion
How do you find passion that can fuel you through distractions and a grueling pace?
1. Write down how challenges make you feel.
Even if you love your job, some aspects of it will be difficult or unpleasant, because as the saying goes, that's why it's called work. You need to understand how these challenges make you feel. Are the parts you hate the norm or the outliers?
Connecting your work to a larger personal goal can help you avoid procrastination or laziness. Finding a job that you are so passionate about that every task seems easy isn't a bad idea, but it's a very high bar to jump. But it's important to remember that the obstacles ahead of you are worth overcoming for reasons beyond salary.
To gauge how I feel about my daily challenges, I use a simple 2×2 matrix :high or low energy, and positive or negative mood. High/positive (in the zone) or low/positive (calm and relaxed) are the spaces I want to be in as often as possible. Something that I feel very energetic and positive is a passion, while something that I feel very energetic but negative is usually a major stressor. By consciously assessing the patterns that emerge, I can identify aspects that I want to adjust or recalibrate.
If you're feeling low in energy and negative but need to push through, try my solution:I'm heading for a email folder I titled “Fuel” where I save emails from grateful employees, students, and happy customers. These inspire me by reminding me Why I do what I do:have a positive and tangible impact on the lives of students by helping them unlock their potential.
2. Actively create opportunities for reflection.
At the end of each day or project, evaluate how you feel about how you spent your time. You probably won't be exuberant and energized every day. But if you ever If you feel this way, or you regularly feel frustrated and tired, you can look for a new job – or you can rely on deeper commitment to impact a larger goal that is deeply and personally meaningful to you.
Thinking in this way will help you see patterns of likes and dislikes, which will help you navigate a maze of opportunities to find the kind of future you want for yourself. In a study demonstrating this phenomenon, adults participating in a puzzle-solving game performed 18% better than their peers on consecutive attempts when given time to reflect on their past performance. This method of thinking has helped me make wiser career moves.
Related: 10 career tips for myself 21 years old
Realistic example:During my career, I have worked for six companies. During three of those five job transitions, I took several months off to reflect on my passions and assess whether my next job would align with them. Often the next opportunity I took was to take a cut in salary, level of responsibility or title – all of which conventional wisdom advises against.
When I left my job as a management consultant to starting my own business, I traded a hefty salary, office, and executive assistant to work from my apartment with my co-founder, with no support and essentially no pay.
Reflecting on my goal, however, I found ways to calibrate my passions with what I would do for a living. This understanding allowed me to immerse myself in my work wholeheartedly, even when moving sideways. With that kind of enthusiasm, pay raises and promotions naturally followed.
3. Tap your inner circle for a reality check.
Ask your partner, friends, or family members for candid feedback about their perceptions of how you feel about your career and passions. What topics do they often see you really excited to discuss? When do they see you turning on and going into a “flow”?
You might think everything is fine, but our loved ones are often better at understanding what drives us than we are. Take advantage of their years of knowing whether they see your passions aligning with your work.
For example, let's say you really want to be excited about a promotion you recently earned, but feel more suspicious and anxious. Your close friends may be able to help you be more honest with yourself and discover where the disconnect lies.
Although you cannot change the world or your life every day, by integrating your passions in your work using these strategies you can always take incremental steps in the right direction. If you're dedicated to finding your passion – and following it wherever it leads – you'll never leave your desk at the end of the day wishing things were different.
Related: 5 steps to turn your passion into your profession
