Well, it means 3 things.
That you use your natural gifts, for a cause you really care about, and in a way that you actually enjoy.
And all 3 of these are important. Otherwise something is off.
1
If you’re not using your gifts, you’re bored. Your unique creative nature is not being engaged. You’re like a fish climbing a tree. Not in your element. You’re performing some task, rather than being engaged and excited by it.
And the illusive thing is that, although we all have these natural qualities and gifts – things we do with ease and joy – they are so natural that we dismiss them, and don’t see them as valuable, or as work.
And yet, when these gifts are being used fully, you’re so naturally yourself that you can’t believe you’re being paid to do it.
The worst jobs are where we have to be someone else, do something outside of our creative nature, with a paycheck as our motivator. And to make it worse, having to adjust to an unpleasant way of work.
2
If your motivator is the paycheck, you’re in deep trouble, because your heart is not engaged.
The second element of a cause or mission you care about is not present. It’s empty work.
Rather than meaningful work. Work you know matters to others. That you feel is important in the world, in your community etc.
And sure, all work has some impact. But the question is being an impact that you personally care about. Some people care about feeding people good food, others about making people feel heard in therapy. Others about making useful technology. While others about advancing mathematics.
What matters to us is something personal.
And you can’t borrow someone else’s cause as your own.
I’m not saying that it’s easy to find your cause. But without it, your work feels empty.
3
Lastly, this one can often be disregarded, but I think it’s a crucial one.
Whatever gifts you’re using, for whatever cause you care about, that work itself has to be done in a way that you completely enjoy.
I mean – the way you do that work, the process itself, the people you do it with, the location you do it in, all these things have to click and reflect your preferences.
It sounds idealistic maybe, but it actually is what harmony and healthy work looks like.
You enjoy all the details of it. And if you don’t, you feel able and free to adjust those details, to create a more comfortable and enjoyable experience for you.
You can indeed, and should be able to, design your work around your joy. It’s not too much to ask, or too idealistic. It’s basic harmony.
And I mean Everything can be adjusted in time to fit your joy. And, of course, with empathy and compassion for others that are involved too.
If you don’t enjoy a long commute to work, you can and should be able to work around that. If you don’t mesh well with a difficult colleague, you can and should find a way to heal or deal with that. If you don’t enjoy the paperwork, or some menial parts of your job, you can delegate them, or leave them for a time when you feel like doing them.
Ideally there shouldn’t be any friction or frustration in your work flow. And if there is, it’s because for some reason you think it’s okay, it’s inevitable, and so you still tolerate it. Why?
Working too many hours? Negotiate fewer. Don’t enjoy a task? Leave it behind. Can’t leave it? Maybe it’s part of a job itself, that you should leave all together.
It sounds radical, I realize that. But it’s trying to make a point. We have the harmony we tolerate. And we don’t really need to put up with things that don’t fully work for us.
It’s not about being selfish or unreasonable. It’s about basic harmony.
We’re talking about joy based work here.
Where all 3 of these elements come together:
1. You’re exercising your natural creative qualities, aka. gifts. Therefore you’re engaged and excited to be doing whatever you’re doing.
2. You’re doing it for a cause your care deeply about. Therefore it’s fulfilling and meaningful.
3. And in a way, context, and environment that you prefer. Therefore it’s a pleasant and enjoyable experience.
That’s joy based work.
Otherwise what’s the alternative?
- If you’re not using your natural gifts, you’re not engaged, so you’re bored.
- If you don’t care about that specific impact, it feels empty to you.
- If you don’t enjoy the process, it’s unpleasant and frustrating.
So a boring, empty and unpleasant work?
Sounds like hell to me. Yet something most of us still tolerate, at least to some extent.
Or you can have one of these 3, and miss 2 of them. Or have two ingredients, and still miss one.
Like engaging and meaningful, but frustrating. Or engaging and enjoyable, but not meaningful. Or engaging, but not meaningful and not fully pleasant.
The idea is that happy work looks like all 3. And it’s not only possible, but everything else is unhealthy and disfunctional. And we can at least consider the possibility of such healthy work, and hopefully begin moving in that direction.
Work better,
Liviu
PS. I know this all may sound overwhelming. But there is a trick to it. And that is becoming secure in your view/mindset for work, so that you have the courage to only follow your joy in your creative life.
And when you’re secure enough to only follow your joy, you’re naturally not going to do stuff that 1) don’t engage you, and 2) that you don’t care about, or 3) in ways that you don’t prefer.
And so that becomes a simple, top-line guidance system that takes care of all these 3 variables at once. Without even thinking about them.
And the key to that courage, is having a secure (rather than insecure) mindset for work. Which is the coaching work we can do together.
You can request an exploratory session by emailing me at joy@securebeing.org