How To Find Work You Actually Love

If you’re like most people, you spend the majority of your time working. For many people, work takes up more than eight hours a day, five or six days per week. For that reason, you want whatever you’re doing to be satisfying. 

Unfortunately, that’s not always how it works out. Jobs that feel great to begin with start to lose their shine after a while. Eventually, you find yourself wishing that you could do something else. 

Job satisfaction is currently at the lowest rate that it’s been since people started measuring it. There is more work available than ever before. Yet people aren’t satisfied with the options available to them. They want a better life. Around 60 percent of workers would choose a better job if they could. 

So what’s driving this lack of satisfaction? For many, it comes down to a poor work-life balance. Workers find that their jobs are too draining and that the pay that they receive in return is not worth the effort. Many low-paying jobs are going unfilled because they ask too much for the money. 

More than a quarter of people feel rushed all the time too. They never get time to slow down during the day, making their lives feel even more manic. 

Myers Briggs personality tests are supposed to tell us which careers we should pursue. But more recently, these appear broken. Matches are not good. And so relying on traditional psychology doesn’t always work. 

So what’s the solution to finding something that you love doing? 

Make Use Of Your Talents

Trying to push your way through work that you don’t enjoy naturally is a tall order. You can often become quite skilled in something over time. But if there’s no natural talent there, it is always tough to actually enjoy it. 

Think about whether there is any overlap between your talents and what the world needs. For instance, people currently require teaching to give them the skills that they need to thrive in the modern workforce. You could check educational companies and see if they have any openings. Reading Teach for America reviews is a good place to start. 

Do A Job That Has Flow

As workers, what we care about is the minute-by-minute experience of a job. Your role could have the best title and most compensation, but if you aren’t enjoying it, then it will never satisfy.

The trick here is to find work that allows you to slip into a state of flow. When you are in this frame of mind, time seems to disappear. You’re just totally absorbed in your work and what you are doing. It’s enjoyable because you forget yourself and focus solely on the task at hand. 

Find Work Where You Have Autonomy

Having a manager breathing down your neck all day long is a dreadful experience for many people. We don’t want somebody giving us instructions all the time. 

Job satisfaction usually increases with autonomy. So if you feel stifled, look for work opportunities that allow you to proceed on your own terms.