Drag your feet to work?
Moan all day long?
Traipse home feeling deflated?
Here are 3 tips that have unlocked the secret to job satisfaction for me personally, and I can guarantee that no matter where you are in your career, they can work for you too.
1. Focus on the impact you’re having right now
If you’re a millennial and the following phrase rings a bell:
“I hate my job. I’m not having the impact I want to have on the world…”
Read on.
Many of us won’t allow ourselves to feel happy or satisfied in our jobs until we’ve had that promotion, pay rise, award, or solved the latest political/social/ economic/global crisis.
The problem is, if our happiness is contingent on an event in the future, we set ourselves up for a lifetime of dissatisfaction.
So, whilst you figure out which road you’re going to be taking to get to your destination, figure out the impact you have right now day-to-day, embrace it and use it to fuel you moving forward.
For example, I don’t believe for a second, you’re not having a positive impact:
- Focus on how you’re helping the company you work for at the moment. Not enough for you? Figure out how you can do more.
- Assess how you’re helping your line manager (you know, the one that barely has time for lunch?) how are you lessening the burden on her shoulders right now?
- Appreciate how you’re supporting your clients/customers- they need you, so support them and let that boost you.
Because there are hundreds of opportunities a day where we can make someone’s life easier whilst we work towards building a better future for ourselves and the world in the long term!
2. Do your best work
By doing our best, even if we think the job is beneath us, we boost our self-esteem.
Think about how good you feel every time you work through a task and obliterate it versus when you offer the world a half-baked attempt.
Giving our best even if the job is temporary and poorly paid, is crucial to achieving that feeling a sense of satisfaction day-to-day.
In addition to that, having high standards often leads to positive feedback from others: “What a great job, thank you.” Those words reinforce the positive cycle and reality we create for ourselves.
On the other hand, if we are cynical, it’s a slippery slope down to Sad City. We begin not to care if we’ve done our best work or not, our self-esteem plummets and the negative cycle becomes impossible shake.
Make this your motto: Do your best. Always.
3. Float above office politics
Offices can be toxic environments.
Float above the “he said/she said” sagas as they always result in multiple casualties.
Better to observe the battlefield from a bird’s eye view than get dragged into anyone else’s mess.
In the words of Tolstoy: “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
Ultimately by focusing on the impact you’re having now and letting that fuel you, doing your best and floating above office politics, job satisfaction is yours for the taking.