10 reasons why some people love their jobs

There are many people who get out of bed each day looking forward to their work. David DiSalvo asks what’s their secret?

WHY do people love their job? I don’t mean they never have a day when they’d rather be doing anything else, but that they are consistently content with their work. These people get up thinking positively about work that day, minus the dread many of us have as we’re brushing our teeth. They wake up to a challenge; and we can learn from them.

1. They feel connected to their initial challenge.

Though their career paths may have swerved, people who love what they do remain connected to the initial challenge — the motivating juice — that compelled them toward their field. Sure, at times it’s harder to focus; but people who love what they do never lose sight of the challenge and the purpose that drives them; they fight their way back toward it, because it’s the thing that gets them up in the morning.

2. They’re remarkably well-attuned to the early years.

Cognitive science tells us that all of us conflate memory to varying degrees (our brains reconstruct memories, combining shards of what happened with pieces of imagined ‘realities’).

While we can’t change how our brains work — and we cannot change that recollection is a reconstruction — we can all dig for the faintest memories of what once fuelled our passions. People who genuinely love their jobs have done this — in fact, they do this all the time — and are in touch with that kid who loved to write, or tell stories, or envision amazing buildings.

The important part: what these people are doing in their jobs now may not be (and usually is not) a carbon copy of those passions, but they’ve successfully integrated elements of those passions into what they do.

In effect, they’re energised kids with the seasoned perspective of adults.

3. They are portfolio thinkers.

Psychology research has made an important contribution to understanding how to effectively manage failure — and it has everything to do with what’s in your personal portfolio. Portfolio thinkers know their careers will combine positives and negatives. They ride the waves of both, navigating their way closer to what they want.

4. They don’t care what you think

People who love what they do don’t allow others to talk them out of what they love.

Imagine someone who wanted to work with animals and then, one day in school, a career counsellor tells them that it is fanciful. People who make it through impasses (guarded by naysayers) are more likely to love what they do than people talked into a contrived conventionality. But even if we took bad advice back then, there are still opportunities to get back to what fuels our passions.

5. They are born succession planners.

This means that for every person deeply synched into their position, there’s another person in training to do that job when the time comes. And the time always comes, because things always change. People who love their jobs not only know this, they embrace it and actively look for others with whom to share their passions, in hopes that they’ll want to do that job one day, as well.

6. They will stay, but they’ll also leave.

Why will they leave? For people who love what they do, organisations are important — since they provide the infrastructure to do what fuels their fire — but no single organisation has a monopoly on providing that fuel. Passion always supersedes the functionality of infrastructure and organisation, and that’s part of what makes it such an essential part of who we are.

7. They won’t be stopped.

For a passion-driven person who loves what he does, he can’t be dissuaded. You can’t hold him back. Passion-fuelled tenacity will win in the end, even if it means taking some hard knocks in the short-run.

8. They draw people to them without even trying.

Excuse the cliché, but passion sells. People want to be around others who are passionate about what they do — it’s infectious. So, let’s take the person who loves what she does and place her among a group of people far less directed, far less passionate, and a little confused about why they do what they do. They’ll start feeling a strange, uplifting sensation about coming to work. That’s the infection of passion, and if you’ve ever worked somewhere without at least a little bit of it, you already know how miserable the days seem. People who love what they do pass along ‘contagions,’ and just a few drops can change an office.

9. They live in the now

People who love what they do are not shortsighted thinkers, but they’re also not going to wait around to see if ‘the pieces come together’. Sure, they know it takes time to pursue one’s vision of fulfilment. Nothing just happens without work and time. But if you think you’re going to convince a passionate person that an array of external forces must align before she can act, you’re wasting your time. The ‘now’ for someone who loves what she does is precious because it can disappear in a heartbeat. And that is one of the most important lessons such people pass along to the rest of us.

10. There’s no limit to their competitive vision

Highly-effective people don’t see the ‘pie’ as having a limited number of pieces. Instead, they see a pie big enough for everyone, and it doesn’t bother them when others get a slice. There’s a difference between healthy competition and petty pursuit of selfish ends. People who love what they do are competitive; they wouldn’t be able to reach their goals if they weren’t.

But they don’t invest their time and energy in scheming and undermining. Loving what you do — no matter how competitive you have to be — does not require stepping on others.

People who love what they do know that intuitively.

*This is an edited version of an article from Psychology Today.