A Joyous Perspective on Passion for Your Work: Finding your greasy pole and climbing it.

Tonight at the Friday Night Thought Tale Hour with the Henderson's, I am going to follow up on a point I made in last week's post. I had more than one person comment to me regarding what I said about not being known as someone who 'hated my job.'  My admonition to make something you don't want to risk having the possibility of being said about you after death denoted a sense of urgency. But which comes first, the desire to do the job, or the need to do the job? There is often a chasm between working to live and living to get to do your work. There is a big difference between 'hating your job' and just feeling stale there. So here are some asides on finding a way to bring your passion into your work, and working on your passion. 

But first, you have to know what it is...

Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, said, “Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions.” So what happens if you put passion first and get happy first? Before you decide on a career or take a job or get into a relationship. Or move to a city or countryside. Disraeli suggests that you might just become great. Let's go to work on finding that thing that makes your heart beat a little faster. Ask yourself some these questions. Oh, and don't forget to suspend the need for financial gain for a moment or two.

1) What activities do you partake in that when you do them, you lose all sense of time? 

2) What do you want to do but are afraid to say out loud? Stop reading and say it, right now.

What was your childhood passion?

If you have no idea, remember what you loved doing as a kid. What were your favorite toys and games? What did you run off to do any chance you got? 

It's important to remember that passion is not always strong and powerful. It can be calm and profound. Don’t worry about having motivation for now. Once you feel the passion for something, the motivation comes with little effort.

So now that you know what it is, How do you begin acting from your passions?

I didn't have it long, but I too poured myself into a miserable job. It wasn't long after a tragic time in my life, and I believed it was time to "get back to work." At a young age, I was told, “Without hard work nothing grows but weeds.” I wanted to write, but I felt I needed to bring in more income while I worked on that area. I jumped at the first opportunity, and it wasn't long before I realized I had landed in a puddle of a deep mire.

I knew that I had to get out, that I had to find something more meaningful, something where I could make a difference. A dear friend of mine described me as a 'champion for the right cause'. But getting out of the job I had taken was going to be hard. Hard. And I could see a big cut in pay coming my way.

If you have to be in the mire, make it fun.

Perhaps you’re in a similar situation and wondering how you can continue going to a place of employment you hate. Day, after day after day....Not knowing when or if you’ll be able to do something more meaningful. Does it mean you quit without having an alternative? Of course not.

Accept how hard your work and life are and must be for now.

Know that sometimes life is hard. And work is hard. Responsibilities are hard. Life events and tragedies bring us down out of happiness and passion. It is necessary to have this experience so you can see the contrast of living from passion first to living from the hard work.

“Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be

happy that the thorn bush has roses.” ~German Proverb

Build meaning, however, you can.

While it may be easier for you to create meaning in some careers than others, you can always create meaning right where you are. Find the one or two things that you like about you current job situation and focus your time and energy on those.

Connect your job to other values.

If you can’t find anything meaningful about your current job, then try connecting your job to other values.

For example, if you value providing financial support to your family, then focus on how your current job allows you to fill that value. Put up photos wherever you can of your family and periodically look at those pictures and remind yourself how important it is for you to support them.

Or perhaps your job provides you with ample time off to pursue other activities that you value. Again, focus on how lucky you are to have a job that gives you that opportunity.

Focus on other parts of your life.

Finally, if nothing else works, you can always focus your energy on other parts of your life. Just accept that it will take some time to move to a more meaningful career. And that for now, your work won’t be a primary source of meaning in your life. On a personal note, I did start a regular practice of writing these 'thought tales' during my tenure at the mire pit I mentioned above. That along with some great people I met there got me through many difficult days.

But never give up the search for 

your greasy pole!

On finally achieving his long ambition, to become Britain’s Prime Minister, Disraeli declared, “I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole.” 

Don't you just love that symbolism? Fervent desire, unyielding ambition, and never letting go of the calling. Hard work meets passion.

Find your greasy pole, the one you are more than willing to scale, using passion as your inspiration and motivation to hang on until you reach that place of working at your passion. For whenever something great was accomplished in the world, it was done with passion, fortified by hard work. Remember, when you have passion about something you are more willing to take risks. Everyone can decide to work hard, but passion means something different to each person. 

Follow yours.

So tonight, we are toasting to those passions that drive our lives and our work. I found a Pinot Noir called "Cloud Nine" I thought the name was appropriate because getting to the top of that pole, feels just like being on that wonderful cloud, every day. CHEERS, FRIENDS! (and GO CARDS!)



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