PASSION AT WORK.

Love is intrinsically connected to relationships with
friends
at home
with yourself
at work.

Love is the comfort zone and the place where you shine. Love shows up in the easy times when you feel strong. It’s the certainty you feel when you know that you have something absolutely necessary and valued to offer to a relationship. So, consider love in the arena of work. We invest so much of our time and our capacity for relationships at work. What drew you to your favorite job in the first place? What element would keep you working, even if you won the lottery? When you are humming along and everything is going just right, what strength is pouring out of you, and yet, you don’t feel drained? The answers are internal and fed by your passion.

Liz McGinlay, Vice President of Mission Services at Goodwill of Northern Arizona says, “The benefit of loving your job is the passion that comes from what you love. When you are passionate about what you love, the job is not a job, its fun, exciting, challenging. It’s not work. Confidence is exuded in your job; therefore it becomes easier, becomes part of you, and completes you. You wouldn’t want to be doing anything else or be anywhere else. From that comes loyalty as well as commitment. From loyalty and commitment come completion.”

USING YOUR STRENGTHS.

When your job matches your strengths, a perfect marriage is created. With this, you:

• Willingly give 100%. You know you can exceed the goals placed before you because there is daily evidence.

• You endure; you press on. You continue to challenge yourself because your strengths in your job breed success. Liz knows that “Success then breeds more success. It’s a beautiful cycle.”

SUPPORTING OTHERS.

For some, reward is nurturing others to love their job, while supporting their distinct strengths to blossom with challenges. Deidre Crawley, Assistant Director of the Civic Institute at Northern Arizona University shares, “I had been supervising an employee the way that I like to be supervised. I believed that I was respecting her ability by letting her run with the project. I had given her the freedom to do as she wished. However, she was frustrated and kept asking for guidelines. When I realized that what she truly needed was deadlines, guidelines and support throughout the project, she came through with shining colors. Each individual has their own preferences, strengths, skills and needs. When we show our love by understanding others unique qualities and lead from this perspective, we will have more productive teams.”

FUN.

Emily Dickinson said that “It’s easy to work when the soul is at play.” From my perspective, she has nailed it. I know that loving what you do, and working with people who love what is happening in their workplace, transforms that work environment into a playground where people are having fun and being their most productive. It’s no surprise that the slogan for WL Gore was “The objective of the Enterprise is to make money and have fun doing so.” The balance of productivity and fun provides foundational support for their incredible success. And that’s what “playing large” is all about: when you love what you do, the fun will get you through.