You can’t hack your way to career fulfillment and building a robust team and organisation. There is no shortage of work, fluffy designations, fancy offices or exorbitant salaries. But there is a huge shortage of people who are fulfilled with the work that they’re doing.
If you came here reading the headline, it was just a bait.
Sorry, short cuts are cut for operating systems and road trips and your daily commute, not for doing work that matters and work you believe in.
Doing work you believe in, creating work you are proud of, working with people who bring out the best in you, becoming legendary, an inspiration to others, all of these don’t come with short cuts. You can’t hack your way to career fulfillment and building a robust team and organisation. There is no shortage of work, fluffy designations, fancy offices or exorbitant salaries. But there is a huge shortage of people who are fulfilled with the work that they’re doing.
We all begin our careers wide eyed and enthusiastic. We believe fulfillment comes from climbing the ladder, a better designation, a payslip with more figures in it, a fancy office and a certain level of seniority. All of these provide momentary bursts of happiness but not necessarily lasting fulfillment.
Doing work you believe in may involve some or all of these:
a) Work with people who share similar values: It’s easy to mix similar values and similar interests. Having the same interests don’t mean having the same values. If you believe in doing what’s right but you work with people who just want to do something for the sake of it, it can lead to friction and unhappiness. Sharing similar values doesn’t mean you will agree on everything but you will be on the same page when it comes to the big and critical decisions. This is a one of the critical factors when it comes to doing work you believe in — find people you believe in and who believe in you. There really is no other way.
b) Solve problems that matter to you: Do you want to help a client sell more products? Do you want to impart skills to others? Do you want to create spectacular art? This isn’t about following your passion, it’s about figuring out what energises you. Sometimes, priorities change and we find that the same thing doesn’t energize and drive us anymore. If you worked for a beer brand but then quit drinking and turned against alcohol, you will find it hard to sustain your motivation. Some people feel the same about working for someone else or just working for money. Feeling that you matter and that the work you’re doing is making a difference is an important aspect of doing work you believe in.
c) Don’t constantly feel like your work is getting in the way of life: If you see what you’re doing as just work, you will view every moment as taking away from something else you really want to be doing. Don’t get me wrong, even Roger Federer, I’m sure, misses home when he is on tour but his quest for greatness supersedes that. We may not be on the road like an international sport star or a high- flying CEO but many of us spend 8 to 10 hours at work and unless we see a reason, however small, for doing what we are doing, we will end up in a quagmire of frustration.
d) Following your passion is mostly nonsense: Let’s assume a genie came up to you and granted all of your career wishes. If you have always wanted to have your own cafe and you got exactly what you wanted — your own quaint cafe in a quiet neighbourhood, would that mean you will never be unhappy ever again? I have been working on staring my own podcast and the process is exciting. But I am also cognizant of the fact that my podcast, even if it gains traction, will seem mundane on some days.
Doing what you feel you are cut out for will definitely give you more energy and resilience to tide over the tough times but waiting endlessly for that eureka moment is not worth it. Instead, invest in relationships and skills that will always be in demand and stand you in good stead in the future.
e) Focus on the environment more than the job: Not too long back, I would regularly come home frustrated and tell my wife that I wanted to quit my job. It took me some time connect the dots between the environment and what it was doing to me. Let me explain to you better with an example.
The school that I studied in encouraged sports. Students who showed promise in a sport were allowed to miss classes to attend matches. If they were in a school that focused only on academics, it would not have been encouraging for them. When the environment puts you at ease and gives a certain degree of autonomy and respect, it automatically puts you in a better state of mind. Trouble starts when you are spending an inordinate amount of time doing what you don’t want to do, in an unsupportive environment. When you are generally in a positive frame of mind (and the environment around you plays a role in this), you will find it easier to get better ideas as you aren’t in a constant state of stress.
f) Consider moonlighting: Changing career paths or turning entrepreneur can be intimidating and not always possible. This is when you can consider moonlighting — spending a little time a day/week/month pursuing what you want to do and building a body of work. I don’t get paid for any of the pieces I write. But I write daily (well, almost) because writing really fires me up. If someone offered to pay me for all my pieces I would be happy but I am not waiting to get paid to write. Moonlighting also helps you put your day job in perspective — as a means to an end.
All of these require a certain amount of effort. They are by no means short cuts. Of course, the alternative is to crib about your situation in water-cooler conversations and Friday night drinking sessions.
The shortest way to do work you believe in is to take the long road.
