Job Passion III

What does working with passion excellence and being a humble servant mean? The word passion, by definition suggests that one has a deep emotion which drives them towards a particular action. So, passion is an emotion, however it is an emotion which requires one to do something.

Unlike a deep pleasure, passion causes one to feel the need to act upon this deep feeling. In fact, the Latin word from which it is derived, "pati", is to suffer. This suggests that one who has true passion does not have only a deep desire to act on a particular course, but rather it is required in order for them to avoid suffering. This is an individual who most of us think of as driven.

Doing anything with excellence of course means doing the very best that is able to be done. At least, it suggests that one will perform to the best of their own ability. This is personal excellence. Indeed performing with excellence will require passion. Although success is never a guarantee, passion never gives birth to mediocrity. Even when the outcome of a situation is not exactly what one had planned or hoped for, there are lessons to be learned. This alone is excellent. To be slowed down by a hurtle, only to continue forward towards the goal line is indeed excellence.

Serving humbly suggests that one must be not interested in their own goals, ambitions, and success alone, but rather having a passion toward helping others to reach their own success as well. In fact, by definition a humble servant is one who willingly works towards the benefit of others, without the hope or expectation of any personal gain. One who humbly serves is indeed a special individual.

When the three of these qualities are combined, one achieves a true recipe for success. A person who possesses passion, excellence and the desire to serve will find many opportunities to advance their own life as well as the lives of others.

Sadly, some people are willing to wait for good things to come to them, as though life is a lottery. Although there are no guarantees that we will have success in every endeavour, there is indeed the guarantee that those who sit and wait, will not...

Without action, whether physical action or action of the mind, what really are we all doing, but going through the motions of life? Each individual needs to take the time to tap into their personal passion, strive for excellence, and consider that serving others is beneficial to all of mankind. Working with passion excellence and being a humble servant is indeed a recipe for success in business and in life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4581840

Matching Professional Passions with Job Choices

The solutions to career dilemmas may be uncovered by carefully examining your career passions. Career passions are aspects of work that you find exciting
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Another element of a good job fit profile is looking at what you are passionate about when it comes to work. If you are passionate about your work, it will show in your level of job satisfaction and engagement. Matching career passions with a career choice can also lead to higher compensation, promotions and other positive career advancements.

To determine what elements of your work you are passionate about, consider the answers to the following questions. You will find that these questions require some soul searching so do not rush the process. Many career breakthroughs have been made when questions of this nature are considered as more often that not, solutions to career dilemmas are contained in the subconscious.

1. During what sort of task(s) do you find that you loose track of time doing?
2. What task(s) do you look forward to doing?
3. What task(s) bring you the most pride?
4. What type of work does (or did) your friends and family say you’d be great at?
5. What work activity gives you energy?
6. What aspect of your work has received the most recognition by former bosses and coworkers (refer to past performance reviews)?
7. What would your career be if money was not a concern in your life?
8. What do you love about your professional self?
9. Think of someone who is doing work you would like to do. What are they doing?
10. Was there a time when your salary seemed really easy to earn? What were you doing?
11. What type of work did you dream of being as a child? (call your family and friends and ask them if you don’t know)
12. As an adult, what do you feel is your calling?
13. What have others you respect (former bosses, counsellors, teachers, clergy etc.) said is your calling (call them and ask)?
14. Was there a time in your life when you were discouraged from doing a career you loved?
15. What career(s) are you most afraid of admitting to yourself or most scared to pursue?
16. What's preventing you from the career of your dreams?
17. If your life was ending, what would you regret not choosing as a career path?

Read more at Suite101: Career Passion: Matching Professional Passions with Job Choices http://www.suite101.com/content/career-passion-a36282#ixzz1JDpHdJnY

Job Passion = Job Satisfaction

• Our research shows that people who are passionate about their job/career are the ones who have the greatest job satisfaction.
• The factor that stands out the most in the above list is “passion”.
• When people find passion in their career, they will automatically fulfill all of the above job satisfaction needs.
• When people find passion in their work — it's not just a job, it's a career!

Career, Hobby and Passion

• Why do people enjoy their hobby so much even without getting paid?
• It's because they found a “passion” in what they do.
• If you can find passion in your career as much as you found passion in your hobby, you will definitely achieve great job satisfaction and increase your job productivity.

How to Find Passion in Your Career?

• You have to find the right career that matches your needs, just like finding a hobby that satisfies your desire.
• You have to find stimulation in the career, just like you find stimulation in your hobby.
• You have to find it rewarding to work in your career, just like you find satisfaction in your hobby.

Job satisfaction

"Find a job you like and you add five days to every week." 
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


Signs of job satisfaction

Opportunities for Growth

Do you feel that you’ve grown professionally and personally in your job? Do you have the resources (time, money, support) to make choices to help further your professional development? An opportunity for professional growth can bring a lot of satisfaction to an ambitious person.

Exceptional Compensation Package

Compensation extends beyond salary. A compensation package includes benefits, vacation, and perks. Does your compensation package more than meet your expectations? If yes, then you are in a great spot. Not quite? Then can you work to negotiate a better compensation package?

Boss is a Mentor

Is your boss a great mentor? Do you look up to him or her and find they are a great leadership role model? Do you respect their decisions even when they may not be what you’d like? A great boss can make a tremendous difference to job satisfaction.

Company or Organization is Solid

Is your company or organization positioned well for the future? Is upper management following trends and new developments to stay cutting edge? If your company or organization is not progressive, it may not be able to compete globally.

Morale is High

Is your morale and that of your workmates high? Are you and your coworkers treated with respect and appreciation? If you are happy at work, you’ll be happy in other parts of your life.

Tools and Resources

Do you have the necessary tools and resources to do your job? A great leader knows that providing resources for their team will not only increase productivity but will increase job satisfaction. Does your supervisor get this?

Innovation

Do you feel your ideas are heard? Are you encouraged to contribute innovative ways to solve problems? Innovation is highly prized by smart companies that know it is a critical skill to develop in employees to foster progression and be able to compete globally and locally.

Corporate Values

Are your corporate values clearly stated and followed with a passion? Is your compensation and other incentives based on your demonstration of these values? And most important of all, do your values mesh with the corporate or organizational values?

Ethics and Integrity

Does the C-suite lead with ethical practices? Do they say one thing but do another? Inconsistencies of preaching and practice can lead to lack of respect and lack of clarity around corporate goals and vision.

Yes!

Do you hear yourself responding with “yes!” to the questions above? Then you are probably in a great job that you love and truly have high job satisfaction. Sure, there may be a few wrinkles here and there, but down deep, you know it is a good fit.

Job satisfaction in career depends on a number of factors:

• 
  
• Job fit / job match
• Expected accomplishments
• Reward feedback and appreciations
• Freedom to achieve (passion)
• Sense of control
• Challenges and stimulations
• Upward mobility
• Achievements
• Job performance

Career dreams are one thing; practical reality is often another. When they happily coincide, seize the opportunity and enjoy it! Luckily, when they do not, it’s good to know that it is possible to get job satisfaction from a practical choice of career. Job satisfaction doesn’t have to mean pursuing the ultra-glamorous or making money from your hobby. You can work at job satisfaction, and find it in the most unexpected places…

The heart of job satisfaction is in your attitude and expectations; it’s more about how you approach your job than the actual duties you perform. Whether you work on the farm, a production line, in the corner office or on the basketball court, the secret is to understand the key ingredients of your unique recipe for job satisfaction.

Identify your satisfaction triggers

There are three basic approaches to work: is it a job, a career, or a passion? Depending on which type of work you are in right now, the things that give you satisfaction will vary.

• If you work at a JOB, the compensation aspects of the position will probably hold more appeal than anything else, and have the greatest impact on whether you stay or go.
• If you work at a CAREER, you are looking for promotions and career development opportunities. Your overall satisfaction is typically linked with your status, power, or position.
• If you work at a PASSION, the work itself is the factor that determines your satisfaction, regardless of money, prestige, or control.

Inevitably, these are generalizations, and you will probably find that you get satisfaction from more than one approach to work. Being aware of the type of work you are doing, and the things you need for job satisfaction, will help you to identify and adjust your satisfaction expectations accordingly.

Building job satisfaction

Once you have identified the blend of status, power, or intrinsic enjoyment that need to be present in your work for you to feel satisfied, you then need to work on some of our seven 'ingredients' for a satisfying job. These ingredients are:

• Self-awareness
• Challenge
• Variety
• Positive attitude
• Knowing your options
• Balanced lifestyle
• A sense of purpose

Self-Awareness

The first step in the search for job satisfaction is to know yourself. If you're to be happy and successful, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you identify what types of profession will allow you to build on those strengths, and minimize those weaknesses. A useful framework for conducting this type of analysis is a Personal SWOT analysis. You can find a Bite-Sized Training session on how to do this here.

It is difficult to feel satisfied with something you aren’t very good at, so rather than spend time beating yourself up about it, take a long hard look at the things at which you excel, and try to find a position that uses some of those skills too.

Another important component of self-awareness is to have a good understanding of your personality traits and your preferred style of working.

By increasing your self-awareness, you can work towards the ideal blend of compensation, status, and intrinsic reward that suits you, and that you can realistically achieve. Knowing this will help you to set appropriate goals, and manage your own expectations.

The greater the match between your preferences and the requirements of the job, the more potential for job satisfaction you have. The remaining six 'ingredients' determine how much of that potential you actually achieve.A useful tool for this isSchein’s Career Anchors, which helps you understand what you value and what motivates you in your career, (and also what you do not value, and what de-motivates you).

Challenge

Some days you may deny it, but we all thrive on interesting challenges. Does this mean your job has to be the head of engineering at NASA? No, different things challenge different people at different times. You just need to figure out what you can do to make sure you don’t allow yourself to go stale at work.

Even if the job itself is not all that challenging, you can make it challenging. Some great ideas here include:

• Set performance standards for yourself – aim to beat your previous record, or set up a friendly competition among co-workers.
• Teach others your skills – nothing is more challenging, or rewarding, than passing your skills and knowledge on to others.
• Ask for new responsibilities – these will give you opportunities to stretch yourself.
• Start or take on a project that uses skills you would like to use, or want to improve.
• Commit to professional development – take courses, read books or trade magazines and attend seminars. However you do it, keep your skills fresh and current.

Variety

Closely related to the need for challenge is the need to minimize boredom. Boredom is a common culprit when it comes to job dissatisfaction. When your mind is bored you lack interest and enthusiasm and even a well-matched job becomes dissatisfying. Some common methods to alleviate boredom at work include:

• Cross train and learn new skills.
• Ask to be moved to a new assignment or department requiring the same skills.
• Ask to work a different shift.
• Volunteer to take on new tasks.
• Get involved with committee work.
• Go on an extended leave, or take a sabbatical.

Tip 1: 
If your job is inherently repetitive then add variety by changing your routine. Instead of sitting in the lunchroom for your break, go outside, or reposition your desk so you have different scenery.

Tip 2:
All jobs have elements or tasks that are boring, and if you're to do your job well, you'll need to do these tasks well (you can bet there are things even your CEO doesn't like doing!) However, make sure there's plenty of interesting work to offset the boredom.

Positive Attitude

Attitude plays a huge role in how you perceive your job and your life in general. If you are depressed, angry or frustrated, you're much less likely to be satisfied with anything. Making a change to a positive attitude is a complex process that requires a lot of work and a strong commitment. However, over time, you can turn your internal dialogues around and start to see most events in your life as positive and worthwhile. Here are some tips:

• Stop negative thoughts from entering your brain.
• Reframe your thoughts to the positive.
• Put the events of the day in the correct context.
• Don't dwell on setbacks.
• Commit to viewing obstacles as challenges.
• Accept that mistakes are simply opportunities to learn.
• Become an optimist.

To help you with your quest to become positive, MindTools has a useful article titledThought Awareness, Rational Thinking and Positive Thinking, which helps you to identify and change negative and unhappy thinking patterns

Know Your Options

When you feel trapped, you can start to get anxious. At first you wonder what else is out there for you. This progresses to the point where you become convinced that anything other than the job you're doing has got to be more satisfying. To combat this, continuously scan your environment for opportunities. When you feel you have options, you have more control. When you make a positive choice to stay with a job, that job has much more appeal than if you feel forced to stay because you feel you have no alternative.

• Keep a list of your accomplishments.
• Update your resume on a regular basis.
• Keep up to date on employment trends.
• Research other jobs that interest you.
• Adopt an 'I’m keeping my options open' approach.

Maintain a Balanced Lifestyle

You'll have heard many times that you need to keep your life and work in balance. When you focus too much on one at the expense of the other you risk putting your whole system in distress. When work takes over your life, it is easy to resent it and lose your sense of perspective: Suddenly everything about your life is clouded with negativity.

The Life Career Rainbow and The Wheel of Life are two great tools to use when seeking to attain and maintain an appropriate work life balance.

Find a Sense of Purpose

Last, but certainly not least (for many people) is the need to find a sense of purpose in the things you do. Even if you have a boring job, it helps a lot if you can see the real benefit you're providing for people.

Even the most mundane job usually has purpose if you dig deep enough. And if it doesn't, should you be wasting your life doing it?

If you're struggling to see the value in what you do (or if you want to sharpen your image of it) see our article on mission statements and vision statements:Unleashing the Power of Purpose.

Key Points

Work plays a significant role in our lives. In our quest to be happy and productive, having a strong sense of job satisfaction is important. When you are dissatisfied with your job, this tends to have an influence on your overall outlook on life. While you may not be in the career of your dreams right now, it is still your responsibility to make sure that what you are doing is satisfying to you.

By knowing the key elements that go into job satisfaction, you can choose to take control and make the changes you need to feel really satisfied and motivated by what you do. Make one small change at work today that makes you feel good or different – build on that change and create a satisfying environment for yourself.

Job passion II

Christine Maslach, a researcher in the area of burnout prevention, found that the more passionate you are about your work, the less stress you are likely to experience and the greater capacity you have for managing the stress that inevitably exists. With your self-care, well-being and career satisfaction in mind, here are a few tips for connecting with your passion at work:

Engage with genuine enthusiasm -- the teacher being interviewed, as mentioned above, spoke with such enthusiasm for her students, their potential, and her role as a kindergarten teacher. You could hear her smile as she spoke. The interviewer asked her how long she had been teaching, she said, "sixteen years." What part of your work are you extremely enthusiastic about? What gets you excited within your work? What could you get excited about?

Recognize the positive impact of your work on others -- most of you reading this are in service to others in the work that you do. In the case of this teacher, she recognized that who and how she is as a kindergarten teacher is setting a stage for lifelong learning among her young students. She clearly pays attention to the influence she is having on her students by being aware that her love for teaching and learning can become her students' love of the same in their lives. She suggested: "if you are bored as a teacher with what you are doing, your students are going to be bored by you." What impact do you have on those you work with either through who you are, what you do and/or how you do your work? What do you inspire in others? How do you inspire others? Who inspires you?

Speak positively even about the challenges within your work -- this teacher acknowledged that there are great challenges in her role, for example, she spoke of the negative implications of government funding cuts within the education system and to her students in particular. She named these challenges not from a perspective of complaining, but rather naming the challenge and urging parents to use the power of their voices to advocate for change. What challenges do you face in your work? How do you bring optimism and hope forward to address these challenges?

Exude a sense of pride -- this teacher acknowledged the wonderful school, great colleagues and terrific students that comprise her workplace. She offered gratitude and inspiration through her language, her choices regarding her focus (i.e. focused on the positive) and she exuded a genuine pride throughout this interview. What are you most proud of within your work and your work environment? How do you communicate your pride and gratitude with others? How do you draw out feelings of pride and accomplishment in others?
We all spend many of our waking hours working. Your work matters! How you feel about your work matters too. Regardless of what you do, it is important to align with what is meaningful, positive and possible in your work as this has a direct impact on your level of satisfaction and feelings of overall well-being in work and life.
David Whyte, the author of Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity (2001) offers the following definition -- n. "Work is an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the place where the self meets the world." He suggests; "Work is not a static endpoint or a mere exercise in providing, but a journey and a pilgrimage in which the core elements of our being are tested in the world."
May your work be a place of deep satisfaction for yourself, while all at once, making a difference in the lives of others.

Doubts and hesitations

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most of the time, we scare ourselves to death about an impending project or new start that we dread it so much that we stop dead in the track instead of putting most of our efforts to prepare for the work.

Little did we know that if we spend more time focusing on the task, we will get rid of the fears and work our way to success.

Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.Napoleon Hill

Do not wait as no matter what there will never be a RIGHT time. Just do it and who knows the alternative may be more pleasant and palatable than you think.