December 2011 ~ Loving Your Work

A good day or a bad day - it all starts with us

Resources (links, books, articles, the lighter side)

Loving Your Work

Do you love what you do all day? Many people would say "NO" emphatically. Why?

I’m going to challenge each person who reads this and say that if you don’t love what you are doing, why in the world are you doing it?

Most people forget that they have choices how to view the world. We can wake up and be happy to see the sunshine or the rain or the clouds or the snow or whatever is going on outside. Or, we can wake up and feel trapped or miserable or discouraged by imaginary problems.

We can look around us and see beauty, joy and happiness. Or, we can look around and see misery, unhappiness or unfulfilled promise.

Regardless of what our situation is, we have a choice every single day how to feel about our world, our work, our individual situation and our life.

If we choose to feel happy, our energy is lifted up and we can tackle any job with vim and vigor. We can look around us at our workplace and see all the beautiful people that are surrounding us.

We can find joy in the simple pleasures of helping someone or producing something or or creating something or resolving some type of problem. We can face each new day with wonder, expecting good things to happen. Or, we can complain or make ourselves miserable or choose to see only the negative side of life.

Every day, we make those choices – how to see our world — unconsciously. Every single day, we renew our commitment to live a life of happiness or to live one of misery.

If we start to be consciously aware of our thoughts and feelings and actions, we can realize that we have so many choices all day about how we will DO something or how we will THINK when encountering someone or how we FEEL about something. We have those CHOICES available to us every single day, every single minute of our lives.

We can choose to put a smile on our face when we greet a customer or a co-worker or a manager or a client or a patient or anyone else that might be in our work-world or our personal life. We can choose to put a smile on our face before we pick up the phone. We can choose to write emails filled with good news and positive messages.

We can choose to know that this day we are living will be a good day.

We can choose to be grateful for every single experience that comes our way – giving us a chance to show off our talents, to share our gifts with others, to learn something new, to make new friends, to feel more alive, to forgive someone, to forget something that has bothered us, to lift our spirits and to lift the spirits of someone else who has forgotten how to do that.

We can choose to experience our life as awake and aware human beings. Or, we can make other choices.

Whatever we choose, that is how our day will be, how our month will be, how our year will be and how our life will be. This is YOUR life - you created it so why not enjoy it to the very fullest?

A good day or a bad day – it all starts and ends with us.

Earl Nightingale in his recording, The Strangest Secret, reminds us that whatever we focus on, expands. So if we have positive thoughts, they expand and our experience becomes even more positive. Or, if we have negative thoughts, they also expand and make our experience more negative.

A special gift for our readers this month.

On this last month of 2011, how will you choose to spend your time – in joy and happiness and gratitude, or otherwise? Are you willing to stop complaining for the month and try choosing happiness every single day – just for a month?

When some event comes up that might have seemed disappointing or annoying in the past, this month try to see it as a gift to be unwrapped and enjoyed. Keep working until you can tap into the excitement of finding the good parts of it to be enjoyed. Practice changing something "disappointing" into something "wonderful."

This quote from Steve Jobs is a powerful reminder of what is possible for each of us:

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

We wish you a joyful December and know that happiness is possible for everyone who makes that choice.

Internet Resources

Listen to a recording of The Strangest Secret on Mark Victor Hansen's website http://www.markvictorhansen.com/strangest_secret.php (includes biography of Earl Nightingale).
The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale (audio recording & transcript) ISBN-13: 978-9562914093
On Steve Jobs and Unashamedly Loving Your Work http://www.businessweek.com/management/on-steve-jobs-and-unashamedly-loving-your-work-10072011.html
Why You Really Ought to Want to Love Your Work http://humanresources.about.com/od/careerplanningandadvice1/a/loveyourwork.htm
Why Loving Your work Matters http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/06/09/why-loving-your-work-matters
Facebook group "Loving Your Work" http://www.facebook.com/LovingMyWork
Why Loving Your Work Matters http://how-to-be-rich-and-happy.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-loving-your-work-matters.html
Eleven Steps to Finally Loving Your Work After Forty http://www.thevocationalcoach.com/_archives/_articles/eleven-steps-to-finally-loving-your-work-after-forty.htm
Three Giant Leaps: Loving Your Work http://sunshineny.com/small-businesses/three-giant-leaps-loving-your-work
Keeping Momentum and Loving Your Work http://mikelev.in/2010/10/keeping-momentum-loving-your-work/
Loving Your Work More Fun Than Driving a Jaguar http://jobjoy.com/Blog/loving-your-work-more-fun-than-driving-a-jaguar/
Learning the Secret of Loving Your Work http://blogs.christianpost.com/biblicalleadership/2010/10/learn-the-secret-of-loving-your-work-22/
Work is a Four-Letter Word http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/175/business_and_finance/work_is_a_four_letter_word.html
Loving What You Do http://amandahackwith.com/culture/loving-what-you-do/

Books - Disclosure: We get a small commission for purchases made via links to Amazon.

The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition. Dalai Lama. Riverhead, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-1594488894
Loving From Your Soul: Creating Powerful Relationships. Shepherd Hoodwin. Summerjoy Press, January 1995. ISBN: 1885469020
Meditations for Self-Discovery: Guided Journeys for Communicating with Your Inner Self. Shepherd Hoodwin. Summerjoy Press January 1995. ISBN: 1885469012
7 Personality Types: Discover Your True Role in Achieving Success and Happiness. Elizabeth Puttick, PhD. Hay House, 2009. US version: ISBN-10: 1401924565 ISBN-13: 978-1401924560 (UK & Australia versions) www.7personalitytypes.com
Income Without a Job: Living Well Without a Paycheck. Michael Jay Anthony, Barbara J. Taylor. Lulu.com, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-557-00377-8. Website: www.income-without-a-job.com. Tap into your own creativity and use your full potential. Learn how to see opportunities that others miss.

Articles

The Lighter Side

Where talents and the needs of the world cross, therein lies your vocation. ... Aristotle – Greek Philosopher

You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle. ... Steve Jobs – Founder of Apple Computer, NeXT, and Pixar Animation Studios, Commencement Speech Delivered at Stanford University, 2005

Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life. ... Confucius – Social Philosopher and Teacher

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece ... John Ruskin – Art Critic and Social Activist

The minute you begin to do what you really want to do, it’s really a different kind of life. ... Buckminster Fuller – Engineer, Author, Designer, Inventor, and Futurist

Work is love made visible. ... Kahlil Gibran

About our resource links: We do not endorse or agree with all the beliefs in these links. We do keep an open mind about different viewpoints and respect the ability of our readers to decide for themselves what is useful.

If you have comments about this month's topic, please let us know or take our newsletter survey. If you would like to receive free notices of the new monthly topic, please sign up for our mailing list. See our Privacy Policy.

This page is http://www.itstime.com/dec2011.htm Printer-friendly version

| Home Page | Top of Page |

| Contact Us | Search the site | Site Map |

Contact us

Online Newsletter