How to Love What You Do, Even When You Hate It

I was always one to wake up with a smile on my face, drive to work while drinking my cup of coffee, feeling cheerful as ever, and ready to conquer the day! One problem. No matter which company I worked for, they all had the same entrance. You know the one I’m talking about; that one entrance with a door designed to suck all happiness and peace of mind away from you as soon as you walk through it. Ah, yes! You do know the door I’m talking about; otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this article. Well, guess what? It’s not the door. It’s you! You can choose to love or hate what you do. It’s really that simple. No, this does not mean I gave up or that I settled. I intentionally chose to alter my mindset to a positive one, and you can do it too by implementing the following three habits.
· Live with intention
· Fix the attitude
· Raise your standards
Live with Intention
I used to let external factors dictate my life. It could have been something that was happening in my personal life, a co-worker that had said something negative, or a project that fell on my lap that I was not interested in working on. These distractions kept me on autopilot. Well, enough, was enough. If I was going to be stuck here for 9–10 hours each day, it was going to be on my terms. I stepped out of my bat cave of a cubicle, walked over to my boss’s office, and asked, “Can I have my own office?”. His reply, “Sure! Pick from any of these three that are available.” I thought to myself, “Can it really be this easy? I was ready for a lengthy discussion as to why I deserved one, but instead, I can choose from three available offices?”
Then I saw why it was so easy. All three offices operated as storage rooms, paint was peeling from the walls, and some walls had damage due to moisture. I had a choice. I could have given up and accepted my fate of being a prisoner to my cubicle or roll up my sleeves and put in some real elbow grease. I decided that I would construct an office that was going to counterbalance the energy-sucking device located at the building’s entrance. So, I picked an office, came in on Saturday and Sunday over three consecutive weekends, consolidated the junk into the other two offices, repaired the damaged walls, and slapped on a fresh coat of paint. This office was huge! I didn’t need all this space. I bought an area rug, three meditation leg-less floor chairs, a couple of yoga mats and blocks, and the front of my office transformed into a meditation/yoga corner. The following Monday, I walked into my boss’s office and asked if he’d like to join me in meditation. His reply, “Sure! Sounds great!” Today, employees walk over from other buildings regularly to meditate with me.
Fix the Attitude
I get it; maybe I got lucky with getting my own office by merely asking, and perhaps I assumed my boss was more rigid than he actually was. It almost sounds too good to be true, and so what if it was? My question to you is, have you tried asking? If luck is rarely on your side, don’t wait, start creating yours by fixing the attitude. Try this experiment for the next 30 days. Before you begin a task you think is impossible (i.e. implementing a brand new microservice architecture for all of your web applications or asking for your own office), have to work with someone that you don’t get along with, or feel that the almighty Zeus has his next lightning bolt locked-on you, fix the attitude. Believe that you are going to complete the task with flying colors because you can do anything. As far as working with the office Grinch for the next six months is concerned, focus on figuring out a solution to the task at hand with your co-worker, not on them. And remember, even if you can do anything, you can’t do everything, so you are going to have to work with the office Grinch. Finally, as your momentum continues to build, proceed to enter a staring contest with Zeus himself while screaming, “Bring it on old man! Bring. It. On!” You will be surprised at how quickly you will have become unstoppable.
Raise Your Standards
What next? I’ve got my own office, my meditation practice has made me see that the office Grinch is really a jolly Santa, and Zeus was too busy doing his own thing to care about making the universe that revolved around me, work against me. Oh, yea! I also wanted to be a badass whose voice mattered to the team and had influence over the products and services we were delivering to our clients. I find that many employees feel undervalued because they think their opinion doesn’t matter. The truth is, each of us has more influence than we give ourselves credit for. If you feel you don’t have that yet, earn that voice by raising your standards. More often than not, I worked on projects that I did not find interesting. It’s not because there was a conspiracy against me. It’s because work needed to get done, and I was task-able. I could have stopped at the minimum (refactor some backend code where no one was ever going to take notice of my contributions) or go the extra mile and also give the user-interface a facelift. Sure, that wasn’t my task, but we always have the choice of merely doing something or becoming the best at something. Strive for nothing short of excellence in everything that you do, and I promise your work will get noticed, your voice will be heard, and you might even get that bonus you’ve been wanting. Most important of all, you will be proud of your accomplishments, and your confidence will go up.
Incorporate the three habits mentioned above into your day, and I guarantee you will find the happiness and peace you have been so desperately yearning for. You might just end up falling in love with what you hate.
