New Straits Times

FINDING PASSION FOR YOUR WORK

GETTING our purpose drive and priorities right are the main source of motivation for a growth-oriented career. This, coupled with a healthy dose of passion, is absolutely vital.

As a business owner and employer, I know that these are the traits that I look for in my team when hiring new staff.

Only energetic and passionate team members can guarantee continual performanc­e gains for an organisati­on.

They are also the ones who have the resilience to withstand constant market challenges as well as disruption­s.

But even though this is what employers seek, many employees don’t get it. The irony is that people want to get promoted and expect regular salary hikes and bonuses but are not at all passionate about their job.

“Passion for work means you feel excited about what you do. You find meaning and purpose in your work. You tackle each day with focus, never making excuses for why you can’t get things done,” said the world famous motivation guru Tony Robbins.

“Passionate people get out of bed every morning feeling energised and alive. You’re completely engaged and get lost in your work. You’re always thinking about how you can do more, be more and contribute more — and you work hard to achieve those goals.”

From my experience, passions bring you the following benefits:

Concentrat­ion

“Passion” is a state of mind. If you are passionate about your job, you will be interested in the outcomes of your work-product. Consequent­ly, you become more absorbed. And, this helps you function effectivel­y and accurately while executing your tasks.

Creativity

Working with passion ensures that you have more highs, rather than lows. It increases your engagement levels, which results in you being more creative. This allows you to generate better ideas, and solutions.

Quality

When you do your work with passion, you become vested in excelling at your tasks. When this happens, you will always be performing at the optimal levels.

Energy

Passion provides us with the energy to go towards our vision. It is the drive or yearning to do something, and also emotional force to do something. It helps us to bear the discomfort of doing things that are out of the norm.

Manage Stress

If you have passion at work, you tend to be less stressed out. Passionate people like the work they do. When they encounter problems, they are able to deftly navigate around them. They do not get bogged down and wallow in self-pity. As a result, they manage stress far better than someone who is dispassion­ate about their work, and feels like a victim.

Workload Balance

The reality is that most of you will spend the majority of your waking hours at work. Surely, doing something that you are passionate about is a prerequisi­te for making these hours pleasurabl­e. The trick is to do work that doesn’t seem like a burden. You will never have the “Monday Blues” if you actually like what you do.

Accomplish­ment

Ask anyone who has ever achieved anything significan­t in their career, and they will tell you that they have had to fend off all kinds of problems and obstacles.

If you look back at your achievemen­ts in life thus far, I am certain that you will remember moments when you have had to dig deep into the reservoirs of personal resilience to overcome problems. It is your passion that kept you going because it fortifies you against pressure and fuels achievemen­t.

Upskilling

When you are motivated by passion, you will keep learning new things. Your ability to upskill is predicated on your desire to learn. And being passionate about results helps you understand that you only get paid for your skills and knowledge. This will motivate you to become serious about learning.

Attitude

The most successful people I know care deeply about their work. They have self-imposed benchmarks about what results they need to deliver. This type of passion ensures that your outlook is founded on purpose. And this directly affects your attitude towards everything.

Immersing yourself in your work will help cultivate a passion for your duties. Add this passion on top of taking personal responsibi­lity for making your company more successful, and your engagement will increase greatly along with the job satisfacti­on.

Remember, the mindset you choose to take on when working is very important.