I recall this quote: “If you can be successful doing something you don’t love, imagine how successful you can be doing something you love?” – author unknown.
It has stayed with me because it is so true. When I reflect on my own career I related very well with this because while I was successful in what I did, it was not always satisfying. Often I did not connect with the overall purpose of the work. There were pieces here and there that I enjoyed very much, but I did not love it as a whole. There is an enormous difference between loving something and liking something. Liking is fine however loving is great. That is where career coaching comes in.
Career coaching takes someone who may like what they are doing but recognizes that they want to love what they are doing. They are good and they want to be great. It’s a mindset change where, through exercises and self-exploration, we will uncover what is truly important to the individual. A natural progression would be that the client would then begin pursuing work that he or she is both passionate about and interested in.
Can you imagine what it would feel like to say, “I love my work and feel great today”?
It is OK to love what we do. The conflict is that many of us are doing something out of obligation or because we started along a certain path and never changed. We did not recalculate our course.
I recall a conversation from years ago, with another coach, who said that what was important to me at the age of 20 probably won’t be at 30. That is the truth of the matter. We are in a continual state of change and growth, but often we find ourselves sticking with the same patterns and career. Falling out of love with what we are doing, wondering, when did it all go wrong?
Since we spend so much of our waking hours either working or at work shouldn’t that time be enjoyable and resonate positively with us? The positivity in our professional life will naturally carry over into our personal life thereby adding to our overall satisfaction.
That is the difference between liking what you do and loving what you do. If the quote is true then imagine the possibilities of success. I would also imagine that the work would not feel like work. Isn’t that an added bonus to be energized by what you do?
When you have found that you know you are truly doing what you love!