You might not think there’s a need for love in your professional life. But, I do!
I love all of my work. I love being a restart coach and a midlife champion. I love helping other people navigate midlife and helping them restart wherever they are on their journey. And when it comes to my heavy duty towing and truck repair business, I love helping people when they’re stranded on the side of the road and making sure they can get back out there to do their jobs.
That fire in me that makes me want to work hard is passion and love for what I do. In my 20+ years of owning businesses, I’ve learned that loving what I do is incredibly important to being successful. Today, I’m sharing why you should prioritize having love for your work and what love in my professional life means for me.
Love Ignites Your Professional Passion
I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea that you should be passionate about your career. But you know what? You should love what you do, too.
Passion is so important in business. It drives you to keep going, to keep working for your goals and striving to achieve bigger and better things on your professional path. If you’re doing something you love, you’re going to be passionate about it.
The power of love is what ignites that passion and motivates you to work at your job day in and day out. It’s what will keep you hungry to achieve more and get where you want to go.
Taking Off Your Blinders to Love
I’ve talked before about how important it is to keep your eyes wide open when it comes to love. It’s a strong, sometimes all-consuming emotion that can prevent you from seeing warning signs that something or someone isn’t right for you. Just like you need to keep your wits about you when it comes to love in your personal life, you do in your professional life, too.
No matter how much you love what you do, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right job or profession for you. Maybe your current role isn’t providing you the income you want or deserve, or you don’t have opportunities for you to grow. You love it, so you keep going, but you might be suffering financially or in other ways.
That’s why you have to take off your blinders and see your professional life with a full view. Even if you love going to work every day, keep a realistic perspective on all the ways your current job impacts your life. Make sure that the big picture is good. Even when you love your work, you still have to make your well-being your priority.
When Loving Your Work Isn’t Enough
I love, love, love what I do. Love it! But let me tell you, it’s exhausting. Running my businesses takes a lot of time and hard work. And sometimes, I bring home some of the not-so-good aspects of my work life. That doesn’t serve me well in my efforts to focus on being positive and grateful.
If you’re passionate about what you’re creating and doing, and you’re only bringing the good things home with you or to other areas of your life, then keep doing what you’re doing! But if your path isn’t giving you positive results, or there’s negativity spreading to other areas of your life, it’s time to pause and reflect.
It won’t serve you well to dig yourself into a stressful, frustrated, or financially-painful pit, even if you love what you’re doing.
Weighing The Good and the Bad
We all know that nothing’s perfect, whether in your personal life or professional life. What’s important is that you know how much “bad” comes with that job you love vs. the positives it creates in your life.
Any job might have bad days or bad stretches, but be mindful of whether or not it overwhelms all the good things you love about it. There might be four great aspects of your job and one negative… but that one negative overwhelms all the good. Or, maybe there are several challenging areas of your work, but there’s one thing you love so much it outweighs the challenging parts. Figure out the balance you need.
You Deserve to Love Your Work
You’ve gotta love what you do. It’s what makes you feel happy and satisfied with how you spend what is, for many people, most of your time. But you can’t be blind to the realities of that work you love, no matter how much you enjoy it.
Follow your heart, have an open mind, and make sure the work you love is serving you well. And if it’s not? There’s no reason you can’t restart, try something new, and find a new love, right? I mean… Why not?!
So, choose well when it comes to your work. Be mindful, explore your passion, and stay motivated to do good.
Live your best life,
Michelle