How to love your job and excel in it

If you want to know how to learn to love your job, we can help. When you become demotivated at work, it can affect every aspect of your life, from your productivity to your self-esteem, your relationships with colleagues and your future ambitions. 

Finding professional fulfilment, on the other hand, can contribute greatly to your career contentment and overall happiness. While it may seem difficult at times, feeling better about your job is within your reach.

Read our top tips on how to love your job, with proven strategies for getting more enjoyment out of your career and unlocking your full potential.

Reflect on why you started your role

If your enthusiasm for your role started strong and has since declined, you can learn how to fall in love with your job again. We can easily forget what drives us when we’re managing the everyday expectations and pressures of working life. Mounting workloads, numerous deadlines, and tricky relationships with colleagues can leave us feeling disillusioned. So it can be valuable to zoom out and remember why you work there in the first place.

Identify your passions and interests. Take the time to reflect on what truly excites you and motivates you to perform at your best, and then see how well this matches with your current occupation. When your job aligns with your values, it becomes easier to find joy in your work.

Revisit your job description

If the core duties of your job are bringing you down, it might help to review your original job specification. Has the role changed significantly? Have you moved away from the tasks you enjoyed doing when you started? Perhaps you want to ask for extra responsibility in order to feel challenged? If you’re often bored at work, taking on higher-level tasks or leading on projects might help you to feel more engaged.

Reflect on how your work contributes to the bigger picture, whether it's serving customers, making a positive impact on society, or advancing a cause you care about. Recognising the significance of your contributions can help you love what you do.

If you’re still unsure what needs to change but you like the organisation, it’s worth discussing ways of reassessing your role with your line manager. Gaining their perspective can help you to understand the purpose and impact of what you do, and find out what progression paths are possible. Knowing what you’re working towards can reignite your eagerness to support the company.

Build good relationships

Although you don’t necessarily need to have a thriving social life at work, it does help to have friends and allies if you can help it. After all, we spend a lot of our waking hours doing our job, whether remotely or within a workplace, so building positive relationships with your colleagues and superiors can significantly help your job satisfaction.

Foster a supportive and collaborative work environment by actively engaging with your team members, offering help when needed, and showing that you appreciate their contributions. Not only does it make work more enjoyable to develop a strong network within your organisation, it can stand you in good stead for the future too.

Maintain work-life balance

Achieving a healthy work-life balance is crucial for your wellbeing. Remember to allocate sufficient time for personal commitments, hobbies, and spending quality time with loved ones. Establishing boundaries between work and personal life allows you to focus on what’s important to you, retain enough energy, and approach your job with a fresh perspective.

Overworking, on the other hand, can quickly lead to overwhelm and burnout, so that you lose any sense of gratification at work, no matter how well you’re performing. Once your reach that point, it can be extremely difficult to understand how to love your job without taking some time off to recover.

Celebrate your achievements

People often begin to resent their job if they feel undervalued at work. So if you feel you aren’t getting the recognition you deserve, you can practise self-reflection and shout about your successes. Acknowledge your own accomplishments, both big and small, and celebrate them.

Recording your achievements and advocating for yourself will boost your self-confidence and inspire you to keep striving to do your best. It’s also a proactive way to build your reputation and make sure people find out about your strengths, rather than waiting for people to ask about the great work you do.

Commit to regular goal-setting

Setting goals gives you a sense of purpose and direction, so that you can continue to achieve more and enhance your skillset. Regularly review and update your goals with input from your manager, to retain a sense of clarity and shared vision.

You can pursue growth through learning too, so that you can take even more pride in your abilities and continue setting bigger goals. Look for opportunities to expand your skills, or attend relevant workshops or conferences. By investing in your professional development, you'll remain engaged and enthusiastic about your work.

Embrace a Positive Mindset

Of course, it can take more than a quick change in attitude when working on how to love your job. However, your mindset shouldn’t be underestimated. Cultivate a positive frame of mind by focusing on the aspects of your work that you appreciate. Practise gratitude by acknowledging the opportunities, challenges, and lessons your job provides. By embracing positivity, you can shift your perspective, find joy in your daily tasks, and understand how everything you do helps you to move forward in some way.

Try showing positivity towards others too, giving colleagues praise for their efforts. You never know, they could be feeling discouraged or unappreciated too. You might find that, in return, they’ll be more inclined to let you know when they admire your work. If you can’t change the company, you can at least make a difference to your team or department.

Look at the bigger picture

It can also be beneficial to look at how your role impacts the wider business. If you ever feel like you don’t make a difference, find a way to measure the results of your work and see how you’re affecting some sort of change. Use your appraisals to talk to your line manager about your objectives, in order to evaluate how you’re meeting them. This can do wonders for how you feel about your contribution.

You’re not expected to love work every single day; everyone has times when their morale takes a hit. However, if you really have a conflict of interest with your company, and aren’t in a position to change that, it’s your prerogative to decide whether the stress is worth it.

While it’s important to learn how to learn to love your job, it can be a sign that it may be time to move on when all else fails. There are always opportunities to find a job you do love and create a meaningful professional life.

What’s next?

When it comes to the workplace, one in two people are motivated by career progression according to our 2023 Talent Trends report, which breaks down our survey of 70,000 professionals globally. 

But before you can step up, you need to build your skills and experience. This does not happen by chance; developing the skills you need takes time, commitment, and often support from your employer. Here’s our advice on how to take your career development into your own hands this year. 

For more helpful advice on growing your career take a look through our extensive library of advice pieces, or submit your CV to start applying for our live roles.

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