Week Seven – what drives you to get out of bed every day?

This week I found myself standing in the middle of Heathrow Airport at 3 am with no one around me and I thought, “I must love my job!”

A lonely Heathrow at 3 am!

I had to leave my house very early this week (12.15 am) to catch a flight at 6 am. I’ve had to do this a few times in the past, travel to and from the destinations I visit in with my work but it had never dawned on me how early it is until this morning when somehow I seemed to be the only person at Heathrow Airport! Most of the time when you do this crazy o’clock flights in the early hours of the morning there are others around you and it doesn’t feel as bad but when you realized you are the only one then it becomes obvious that I really love what I do as I have never mind traveling at these very unsociable times.

And a colleague of mine remarked this week that I do have more energy than the average person, which I am not sure I do, but his comment was as a result of us talking about my experience at the airport and the fact that I do not mind at all doing it. However, I’d like to attribute this more to the fact that I love what I do rather than just energy, and when you love what you do then you do it with passion and 110% commitment. I reflected on this, as I was also finishing one of my daily runs this week at almost midnight and I updated my status on my run with the phrase “it’s easier to say NO but harder to say YES”

So this week’s blog I want to focus on what drive us to do things.  What do we feel passionate about and what makes us say yes!

Think about this for a moment. Take a typical day, what makes you get up and go to work? Often we work to survive and support our families, I think must people do this. It is a matter of fact, in life most people go to work to earn money. And our job drives other activities around our lives. They say we spend 80% of our lives working! That is a scary thought. And if you don’t love going to work or what you do for a job, essentially you will be spending 80% of your life hating what you do!  This surely drives our attitude and outlook in life. It must have an effect on the way we behave at home, with our friends and any other activities that we do. So when someone says “I must love my job” it’s a sign that what you do drives your attitude in life.

Ok, we cannot all have our perfect jobs, the jobs we dreamed about when we were kids, but surely we can end up doing something that brings us satisfaction every day we get up and go to work. No job is perfect, and there are always ups and downs in every profession, but if we have the right attitude, if we do something worthwhile 80% of our lives, then we had a pretty good shot at having had a great time while we were here on this planet.

Because I love what I do, I also love everything that revolves around my job. So this surge of positive energy gives me the boost to do other things with passion. Long days on the job do not stop me for going to the Gym at 11 pm and do a quick run to stay fit. The stress of the job does not stop me for taking time to go out for dinner and catch up with old friends and people I know. The frustrating moments of my job do not hinder me form smiling and solider on ready to face the next challenge. And even today as I write this blog, I have been traveling for over 24 hrs (my flight got diverted back to Vienna due to high winds in the UK!) but yet I’m looking forward to seeing my family and go and have some KFC time together! (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken!) Yes my job is not perfect but I make it perfect! I make sure that I keep a positive attitude and drive to allow me to then get on a plane and have the energy to write this blog even if I had to be divereted because of the wind!

Having said all this, you may say to your self “does this mean I am in the wrong job?” and trust me some people are, but no, I think that sometime the attitude we take to the things we do is instrumental to how we approach those things and life. I used the phrase at the beginning “I must love my job” but you can apply this to anything in your life, your relationship with someone for example. We say to someone I love you and our relationship with that person may not be perfect, no partnership ever is. But those who can claim that they have a perfect partnership, have to work hard at it and take the same positive attitude we’ve been talking about. We don’t get into a relationship without thinking this may be for life (or at least not when we are slightly more mature and we want to settle down! J) we chose a partner with the same passion and conviction we take a job! In both you commence very enthusiastically and soon you will start to find the “imperfections” of that relationship/job. But you know you love that person/job and you want to make this work. The parallels of a loved one and a job are incredibly similar in many ways and when you are successful at both you know you are fulfilling your life with passion both at home and at work. You just simply love your life!

I guess the message for me this week is simple; love what you do and do everything in your life with commitment and conviction. Nothing that is good or great is easy, if it was it would not be that great or good. It’s easier to say NO and harder to say YES. Keep that positive outlook and find that oomph that gets you out of bed every day, that oomph that gives you the energy to live your life at 100 miles per hour. It is you, the 1 person who can get that oomph in live your life and live your life at 1oomph!